Danny Thomas
Thomas and co-star Marjorie Lord, 1957.
Born	Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz (later Anglicized to Amos Jacobs Kairouz) (1912-01-06)January 6, 1912 Deerfield, Michigan, U.S.
Died	February 6, 1991(1991-02-06) (aged 79) Los Angeles, California, U.S.[1]
Other names	Amos Jacobs
Years active	1947–1991
Spouse	Rose Marie Mantell Thomas (m. 1936–1991) «start: (1936)–end+1: (1992)»"Marriage: Rose Marie Mantell Thomas to Danny Thomas" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Danny_Thomas)his death

Danny Thomas (born Amos Muzyad Yakhoob Kairouz; January 6, 1912 – February 6, 1991) was an American nightclub comedian and television and film actor, best known for starring in the television sitcom Make Room for Daddy (also known as The Danny Thomas Show). He was also the founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He was the father of Marlo Thomas, Terre Thomas, and Tony Thomas.^[2]

Early life[link]

Thomas was born in Deerfield, Michigan, to Charles Yakhoob Kairouz and his wife Margaret Taouk in 1912.^[3] His parents were Maronite Catholic immigrants from Lebanon.^[4] Thomas was raised in Toledo, Ohio, attending St. Francis de Sales Church (Roman Catholic), Woodward High School and finally The University of Toledo, where he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.^[5] Thomas was confirmed in the Catholic Church by the bishop of Toledo, Samuel Stritch. Stritch, a native of Tennessee, was a lifelong spiritual advisor for Thomas, and urged him to locate the St. Jude Hospital in Memphis.^[6][7] He married Rose Marie Cassaniti in 1936, a week after his 24th birthday.

In 1932, Thomas began performing on radio in Detroit at WMBC on The Happy Hour Club. Thomas first performed under his Anglicized birth name, "Amos Jacobs Kairouz." After he moved to Chicago in 1940, Thomas did not want his friends and family to know that he went back into working clubs where the salary was better, so he came up with the pseudonym "Danny Thomas" (after two of his brothers).^[8]

Career[link]

Thomas as Jerry Dingle, 1945.

Radio[link]

Thomas first reached mass audiences on network radio in the 1940s playing shifty brother-in-law Amos in The Bickersons, which began as sketches on the music-comedy show Drene Time, co-hosted by Don Ameche and Frances Langford. Thomas also portrayed himself as a scatterbrained Lothario on this show. His other network radio work included a stint as "Jerry Dingle" the postman on Fanny Brice's The Baby Snooks Show, and appearances on the popular NBC variety program, The Big Show, hosted by stage legend Tallulah Bankhead.

Films[link]

In films, he starred in The Jazz Singer, a 1952 remake of the 1927 original and played songwriter Gus Kahn opposite Doris Day in the 1951 film biography I'll See You in My Dreams.

Make Room For Daddy[link]

Thomas enjoyed a successful 13-year run (1953–1965) on Make Room for Daddy, later known as The Danny Thomas Show. On January 1, 1959, Thomas appeared with his Make Room for Daddy child stars, Angela Cartwright and Rusty Hamer, in an episode of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Danny plays house with television daughter Linda.

Cartwright played the role of Danny Williams's stepdaughter, Linda Williams, between 1957 to 1964, for 170 episodes. The on-and off-screen chemistry of Thomas and Cartwright was largely responsible for the success of the show. The show was produced at Desilu Studios, where Lucille Ball was doing I Love Lucy. The show featured several guest stars that went on to star in their own series, including Andy Griffith, Joey Bishop, and Bill Bixby.

Thomas and Cartwright

Producer[link]

Thomas became a successful television producer (with Sheldon Leonard and Aaron Spelling among his partners) of The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Mod Squad. Thomas also produced three series for Walter Brennan: The Real McCoys, The Tycoon and The Guns of Will Sonnett on ABC during the late 1950s and 1960s. Thomas often appeared in cameos on shows he produced, including his portrayal of the tuxedoed, droll alien Kolak, from the planet Twilo, in the Dick Van Dyke Show science-fiction spoof, "It May Look Like a Walnut."

Thomas, Jack Benny, and Bob Hope in a March 1968 Jack Benny special.

Thomas was responsible for Mary Tyler Moore's first "big break" in acting. In 1961, Carl Reiner cast her in The Dick Van Dyke Show after Thomas personally recommended Moore. He had remembered her as "the girl with three names" whom he had turned down earlier, but rediscovered her after a lengthy search through photos and records.

Return to television[link]

In the early seventies, Thomas reunited most of his second Daddy cast (Marjorie Lord, Rusty Hamer, and Angela Cartwright) for a short-lived update of the show, Make Room for Granddaddy. Premised around Danny and Kathy Williams caring for their grandson by daughter Terry, who was away with her husband on a long business assignment, the show lasted one season. He then starred in an NBC sitcom, The Practice for two seasons.

The last series in which Thomas was a headlining star was One Big Family, which aired in syndication during the 1986–87 season. The situation comedy's premise was set around a semi-retired comedian whose grandchildren were orphaned after their parents were killed in a car accident.^[9]

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital[link]

As a "starving actor" Thomas made a vow: If he found success, he would open a shrine dedicated to St Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes. In 1962, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, with help from Dr. Lemuel Diggs and close friend, Miami Florida auto magnate Anthony Abraham. The hospital has treated thousands of children for cancer. In 1996, Dr. Peter Doherty of St. Jude's, was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on how the immune system kills virus-infected cells.^[10]

Personal life[link]

Thomas's children are also performers, his daughter Marlo is an actress and his son Tony Thomas is a television producer, and his daughter Terre Thomas is a former actress. He was also the son-in-law of Marie "Mary" Cassaniti (1896–1972), a drummer and percussionist for "Marie's Merry Music Makers."^[11]

A devout Roman Catholic, Thomas was named a Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Paul VI in recognition of his services to the church and the community. President Ronald Reagan presented Thomas with a Congressional Gold Medal honoring him for his work with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Thomas was one of the original owners of the Miami Dolphins, along with Joe Robbie, but sold his share soon after purchase. He was an avid golfer, claimed a ten golf handicap, and competed with Sam Snead in a charity event.^[12] Two PGA Tour tournaments bore his name: the Danny Thomas-Diplomat Classic in south Florida in 1969 and the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic from 1970 to 1984. He was also the first non-Jewish member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.

Death[link]

Thomas died on February 6, 1991, of heart failure at age 79. He had filmed a commercial for St. Jude Hospital a few days before his death, which aired posthumously. He is interred in a mausoleum on the grounds of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. He was a posthumous recipient of the 2004 Bob Hope Humanitarian Award.

On February 16, 2012, the United States Postal Service issued a first class forever stamp honoring Danny Thomas. It has a portrait of Mr. Thomas in the foreground and a picture of St. Jude.

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Danny Thomas

• Danny Thomas at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny Thomas at Find a Grave
• Biography at the Museum Broadcast Communications
• "Danny Thomas Story" at St. Jude
• Lebanese lobby site
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Milton Berle
circa 1950
Born	Milton Berlinger (1908-07-12)July 12, 1908 New York, New York, U.S.
Died	March 27, 2002(2002-03-27) (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Colon Cancer
Residence	Los Angeles, California
Nationality	American
Other names	Mr. Television, Uncle Miltie
Alma mater	Professional Children's School
Occupation	Actor/Comedian
Years active	1914–2000
Influenced by	Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx
Influenced	Don Rickles, Johnny Carson, Larry the Cable Guy, Nipsey Russell
Home town	New York City, New York
Religion	Judaism and Christian Science
Spouse	Joyce Mathews (1941–1947;1949–1950) Ruth Cosgrove (1953–1989) Lorna Adams (1991–2002)
Children	3

Milton Berle (born Milton Berlinger, July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002) was an American comedian and actor. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star^[1] and was known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television" during TV's golden age.

Early life[link]

Milton Berlinger was born into a Jewish family in a five-story walkup at 68 W. 118th Street in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. He chose Milton Berle as his professional name when he was 16. His father, Moses Berlinger (1873–1938), was a paint and varnish salesman. His mother, Sarah (Sadie) Glantz Berlinger (1877–1954),^[2] eventually became stagestruck and changed her name to Sandra Berle when Milton became famous.

Child actor[link]

Berle entered show business at the age of five when he won an amateur talent contest.^[3] He appeared as a child actor in silent films, beginning with The Perils of Pauline, filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey.^[4] The director told Berle that he would portray a little boy who would be thrown from a moving train. In Milton Berle: An Autobiography, he explained, "I was scared shitless, even when he went on to tell me that Pauline would save my life. Which is exactly what happened, except that at the crucial moment they threw a bundle of rags instead of me from the train. I bet there are a lot of comedians around today who are sorry about that."

By Berle's account, he continued to play child roles in other films: Bunny's Little Brother, Tess of the Storm Country, Birthright, Love's Penalty, Divorce Coupons and Ruth of the Range. Berle recalled, "There were even trips out to Hollywood—the studios paid—where I got parts in Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, with Mary Pickford; The Mark of Zorro, with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., and Tillie's Punctured Romance, with Charlie Chaplin, Mabel Normand and Marie Dressler."

However, Berle's claims to have appeared in many of these films, particularly the 1914 Chaplin Keystone comedy Tillie's Punctured Romance, are hotly disputed by some,^{[citation needed]} who cite the lack of supporting evidence that Berle even visited the West Coast until much later. The newsboy role often claimed by Berle in Tillie was unquestionably played by resident Keystone child actor Gordon Griffith. In 1916, Berle enrolled in the Professional Children's School.

Career[link]

Vaudeville[link]

Around 1920, at age 12, Berle made his stage debut in a production of the musical comedy Florodora. After four weeks in Atlantic City, New Jersey, the show moved to Broadway. It catapulted him into a comedic career that spanned eight decades in nightclubs, Broadway shows, vaudeville, Las Vegas, films, television, and radio. By the early 1930s, he had become a successful stand-up comedian.

In the late 1940s, he canceled well-paying nightclub appearances in favor of doing a radio program.^[5] Berle would revive the structure and routines of his vaudeville shows for his debut on TV.^[6][7][8]

Rising star[link]

In 1933, he was hired by producer Jack White to star in the theatrical featurette Poppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy concerning the repealing of Prohibition. Berle also co-wrote the score for this film, which was released by Educational Pictures.

Berle continued to dabble in songwriting. With Ben Oakland and Milton Drake, Berle wrote the title song for the RKO Radio Pictures release Li'l Abner (1940), an adaptation of Al Capp's comic strip, featuring Buster Keaton as Lonesome Polecat.^[9] Berle wrote a Spike Jones B-side, "Leave the Dishes in the Sink, Ma."

Radio[link]

In 1934–36, Berle was heard regularly on The Rudy Vallee Hour, and he got much publicity as a regular on The Gillette Original Community Sing, a Sunday night comedy-variety program broadcast on CBS from September 6, 1936 to August 29, 1937. In 1939, he was the host of Stop Me If You've Heard This One with panelists spontaneously finishing jokes sent in by listeners.^[5]

Three Ring Time, a comedy-variety show sponsored by Ballantine Ale, was followed by a 1943 program sponsored by Campbell's Soups. The audience participation show Let Yourself Go (1944–1945) could best be described as slapstick radio^{[citation needed]} with studio audience members acting out long suppressed urges (often directed at host Berle). Kiss and Make Up, on CBS in 1946, featured the problems of contestants decided by a jury from the studio audience with Berle as the judge. He also made guest appearances on many comedy-variety radio programs during the 1930s and 1940s.^[5]

Scripted by Hal Block and Martin Ragaway, The Milton Berle Show brought Berle together with Arnold Stang, later a familiar face as Berle's TV sidekick. Others in the cast were announcer Frank Gallop, Pert Kelton, Mary Schipp, Jack Albertson, Arthur Q. Bryan, Ed Begley and Brazilian singer Dick Farney. Sponsored by Philip Morris, it aired on NBC from March 11, 1947 until April 13, 1948. Berle's desire to succeed on radio was strong enough to cause him to cancel well-paying nightclub appearances in favor of doing the radio program.^[5]

His last radio series was The Texaco Star Theater, which began September 22, 1948 on ABC and continued until June 15, 1949, with Berle heading the cast of Stang, Kelton and Gallop, along with Charles Irving, Kay Armen, and double-talk specialist Al Kelly. It employed top comedy writers (Nat Hiken, brothers Danny and Neil Simon, Leo Fuld, Aaron Ruben), and Berle later recalled this series as "the best radio show I ever did... a hell of a funny variety show". It served as a springboard for Berle's rise as television's first major star.^[5]

Mr. Television[link]

In 1948, NBC decided to bring Texaco Star Theater from radio to television, with Berle as one of the show's four rotating hosts. For the fall season, NBC named Berle the permanent host. His highly visual style,^{[citation needed]} characterized by vaudeville slapstick and outlandish costumes, proved ideal for the burgeoning^{[citation needed]} new medium.^[10] Berle modeled the show structure and acts directly from his vaudeville shows, and hired writer Hal Collins to revive his old successful routines.^[6][7]

Berle and Texaco owned Tuesday nights for the next several years, reaching the number one slot in the Nielsen ratings and keeping it, with as much as an 80% share of the recorded viewing audience. Berle and the show each won Emmy Awards after the first season. Fewer movie tickets were sold on Tuesdays. Some theaters, restaurants and other businesses shut down for the hour or closed for the evening so their customers would not miss Berle's antics.^[4] Berle's autobiography notes that in Detroit, "an investigation took place when the water levels took a drastic drop in the reservoirs on Tuesday nights between 9 and 9:05. It turned out that everyone waited until the end of the Texaco Star Theater before going to the bathroom".^[11][12]

Berle's 1949 television appearance^[4][13] was only experimental. Berle is credited for the huge spike in the sale of TV sets. (Other comedians turned this into a punchline: "I sold mine, my uncle sold his...") After Berle's show began, set sales more than doubled, reaching two million in 1949. His stature as the medium's first superstar earned Berle the sobriquet "Mr. Television".^[4] He also earned a slightly more familiar nickname after ending a 1949 broadcast with a brief ad-libbed remark to children watching the show: "Listen to your Uncle Miltie and go to bed."^[4]

Berle asked NBC to switch from live broadcasts to filmed shows, to make possible future reruns and residuals, and he was not happy when NBC showed little interest. NBC did consent to make a kinescope of each show — a reference copy filmed directly off a TV screen.

He also risked his newfound TV stardom at its zenith to challenge Texaco when the sponsor tried to prevent black performers from appearing. In his autobiography, Berle recalled the incident:

Berle's mother Sadie was often in the audience for his broadcasts; she had long served as a "plant" to encourage audiences for his stage shows to laugh.^[3] Her unique, "piercing, roof-shaking laugh"^[3][14] would stand out, especially when he would walk onstage in an outrageous costume. He would feign being startled by her laugh, and would pretend she was a stranger or a heckler, then come up with a response. Example: "Lady, you've got all night to make a fool of yourself. I've only got an hour!"

Berle was offered the use of a new device, the teleprompter, and 25% of the company by its inventor, Irving Kahn, if he would simply begin using the new gadget. He turned the offer down.^[15]

Francis Craig and Kermit Goell's Near You became the theme song that closed Berle's TV comedy shows.^[16]

Berle's TV decline[link]

NBC signed him to an exclusive, unprecedented 30-year television contract in 1951. The problem with Berle's 30-year deal was that NBC could not have realized the relatively short lifespan of a comedian on television, compared to radio, where some careers had thrived for two decades. In part, this was due to the more ephemeral nature of visual comedy (those who do not adapt quickly do not survive), and a single television appearance could equal years of exposure on the nightclub circuit. It has also been said that Berle had less appeal with audiences outside the Borscht Belt as television expanded from big East Coast markets to smaller cities. It is also possible that the positioning of the television set itself was a factor. When Berle's program first hit the airwaves, so few people owned the apparatus that many audiences watched it in public places such as bars, clubs and even in appliance store windows; these were perfect venues for Berle's out-sized personality. However, as more and more people acquired their own televisions, they may have adjusted their tastes to suit the privacy of home.^{[citation needed]}

Texaco pulled out of sponsorship of the show in 1953. Buick picked it up, prompting a renaming to The Buick-Berle Show, and the program's format was changed to show the backstage preparations to put on a variety show. Critics generally approved of the changes, but Berle's ratings continued to fall and Buick pulled out after two seasons.^[17] By the time the again-renamed Milton Berle Show finished its only full season, Berle was already becoming history — though his final season was host to two of Elvis Presley's earliest television appearances, April 3 and June 5, 1956.^[18] The final straw during that last season may have come from CBS scheduling The Phil Silvers Show (aka You'll Never Get Rich and Sergeant Bilko) opposite Berle. Ironically, Silvers was one of Berle's best friends in show business and had come to CBS' attention in an appearance on Berle's program. Bilko's creator-producer, Nat Hiken, had been one of Berle's radio writers.

Berle knew that NBC had already decided to cancel his show before Presley appeared.^[19] Berle later appeared in the Kraft Music Hall series from 1958 to 1959,^[20] but NBC was finding increasingly fewer showcases for its one-time superstar. By 1960, he was reduced to hosting a bowling program, Jackpot Bowling, delivering his quips between the efforts of bowling contestants.^[21]

[edit] Life after The Milton Berle Show

In Las Vegas, Berle played to packed showrooms at Caesars Palace, the Sands, the Desert Inn and other casino hotels. Berle had appeared at the El Rancho, one of the first Vegas hotels, in the late 1940s. In addition to constant club appearances, Berle performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner's The Goodbye People in 1968. He also became a commercial spokesman for the thriving Lums restaurant chain.

He appeared in numerous films, including Always Leave Them Laughing with Virginia Mayo and Bert Lahr, Let's Make Love with Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Loved One, The Oscar, Who's Minding the Mint?, Lepke, Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose and Driving Me Crazy.

Freed in part from the obligations of his NBC contract, Berle was signed in 1966 to a new, weekly variety series on ABC. The show failed to capture a large audience and was cancelled after one season. He later appeared as guest villain Louie the Lilac on ABC's Batman series. Other memorable guest appearances included stints on The Barbara Stanwyck Show, The Lucy Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, Get Smart, Laugh-In, The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, The Hollywood Palace, Ironside, F Troop, Fantasy Island, and The Jack Benny Show.

Like his contemporary Jackie Gleason, Berle proved a solid dramatic actor and was acclaimed for several such performances, most notably his lead role in "Doyle Against The House" on The Dick Powell Show in 1961, a role for which he later received an Emmy nomination. He also played the part of a blind survivor of an airplane crash in Seven in Darkness, the first in ABC's popular Movie of the Week series. (He also played it straight as an agent in The Oscar (1966), and was one of the few actors in that infamous flop to get good notices from critics.)

During this period, Berle was named to the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest number of charity performances made by a show-business performer. Unlike the high-profile shows done by Bob Hope to entertain the troops, Berle did more shows, over a period of 50 years, on a lower-profile basis. Berle received an award for entertaining at stateside military bases in World War I as a child performer, in addition to traveling to foreign bases in World War II and Vietnam. The first charity telethon (for the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation^[22]) was hosted by Berle in 1949.^[23] A permanent fixture at charity benefits in the Hollywood area, he was instrumental in raising millions for charitable causes.

Late career[link]

On April 14, 1979, Berle guest-hosted NBC's Saturday Night Live. Perhaps the comedian saw this as a chance to revisit his live-TV glories of three decades before. Whatever his intention, he seemed to spend as much time trying to upstage the show's youthful cast members as he did trying to work with or complement them. Berle's long reputation for taking control of an entire television production—whether invited to do so or not—was a cause of stress on the set. One of the show's writers, Rosie Shuster, described the rehearsals for the Berle SNL show and the telecast as "watching a comedy train accident in slow motion on a loop." Upstaging, camera mugging, inserting old comedy bits, and climaxing the show with a maudlin performance of "September Song" complete with pre-arranged standing ovation (something producer Lorne Michaels had never sanctioned), resulted in Berle being banned from the show.

As a guest star on The Muppet Show, Berle was memorably upstaged by the heckling theatre critics Statler and Waldorf.^[24] The Statler and Waldorf puppets were inspired by a character named Sidney Spritzer, played by comedian Irving Benson, who regularly heckled Berle from a box seat during episodes of the 1960s ABC series.

Berle at the 41st Primetime Emmy Awards in 1989

Another well-known incident of upstaging occurred during the 1982 Emmy Awards, when Berle and Martha Raye were the presenters of the Emmy for Outstanding Writing. Berle was reluctant to give up the microphone to the award's recipients, from Second City Television, and interrupted actor Joe Flaherty's acceptance speech several times. After Flaherty would make a joke, Berle would reply sarcastically "Oh, that's funny". However, the kindly, smiling Flaherty's response of "Go to sleep, Uncle Miltie" flustered Berle, who could only reply with a stunned "What...?" SCTV later created a parody sketch of the incident, in which Flaherty beats up a Berle look-alike, shouting, "You'll never ruin another acceptance speech, Uncle Miltie!"

One of his most popular performances in his later years was guest starring in 1992 in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air as womanizing, wise-cracking patient Max Jakey. Most of his dialogue was improvised and he shocked the studio audience by mistakenly blurting out a curse word. He also appeared in an acclaimed and Emmy-nominated turn on Beverly Hills, 90210 as an aging comedian befriended by Steve Sanders, who idolizes him but is troubled by his bouts of senility due to Alzheimer's Disease. He also appeared in 1995 as a guest star in an episode of The Nanny in the part of her lawyer and great uncle.

Berle appeared in drag in the video for "Round and Round" by the 1980s metal band Ratt (his nephew Marshall Berle was then their manager).

As "Mr. Television," Berle was one of the first seven people to be inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 1984. The following year, he appeared on NBC's Amazing Stories (created by Steven Spielberg) in an episode called "Fine Tuning". In this episode, friendly aliens from space receive TV signals from the Earth of the 1950s and travel to Hollywood in search of their idols, Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, The Three Stooges, Burns and Allen—and Milton Berle. (When he realizes the aliens are doing his old material, Uncle Miltie is thunderstruck: "Stealing from Berle? Is that even possible?") Speaking gibberish, Berle is the only person able to communicate directly with the aliens.

Berle was again on the receiving end of an onstage jibe at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards where RuPaul responded to Berle's reference of having once worn dresses himself (during his old television days) with the quip that Berle now wore diapers. A surprised Berle replied, "Oh, we're going to ad lib? I'll check my brain and we'll start even".

Uncle Miltie offstage[link]

In 1947, Milton Berle founded the Friars Club of Beverly Hills at the old Savoy Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. Other founding members included Jimmy Durante, George Jessel, Robert Taylor, and Bing Crosby. In 1961, the club moved to Beverly Hills. The club is a private show business club famous for its celebrity members and roasts, where a member is mocked by his club friends in good fun.

Unlike many of his peers, Berle's off-stage lifestyle did not include drugs or drinking, but did include cigars, a "who's who" list of beautiful women, and a lifelong addiction to gambling, primarily horse racing. Some felt his obsession with "the ponies" was responsible for Berle never amassing the wealth or business success of others in his position.

Berle was also famous within show business for the rumored size of his penis. Phil Silvers once told a story about standing next to Berle at a urinal, glancing down, and quipping, "You'd better feed that thing, or it's liable to turn on you!" In the short story 'A Beautiful Child', Truman Capote wrote Marilyn Monroe as saying: "Christ! Everybody says Milton Berle has the biggest schlong in Hollywood." Saturday Night Live writer Alan Zweibel, who had written many Friars Club jokes about Berle's penis for other comedians, described being treated to a private showing: "He just takes out this— this anaconda. He lays it on the table and I'm looking into this thing, right? I'm looking into the head of Milton Berle's dick. It was enormous. It was like a pepperoni. And he goes, 'What do you think of the boy?' And I'm looking right at it and I go, 'Oh, it's really, really nice.'" At a memorial service for Berle at the New York Friars' Club, Freddie Roman solemnly announced, "On May 1st and May 2nd, his penis will be buried."^[25] Radio shock jock Howard Stern also barraged Berle with an endless array of penis questions when the comedian appeared on Stern's morning talk show on Aug 5, 1988^[26] (Berle was also a guest on the Stern show on Oct 30, 1996^[27]). In Berle's 1988 appearance, when fielding phone calls, Stern purposely asked his producer to only air callers whose questions dealt with Berle's penis.^[28]

Berle was known to have a colorful vocabulary and few limits on when it was used. Surprisingly, however, he "worked clean" for his entire onstage career, except for the infamous Friars Club all-male, private celebrity roasts. Berle often criticized younger comedians like Lenny Bruce and George Carlin about their X-rated humor, and challenged them to be just as funny without the four-letter words.

Hundreds of younger comics, including several comedy superstars, were encouraged and guided by Berle. Despite some less than flattering stories told about Berle being difficult to work with, his son, Bill, maintains that Berle was a source of encouragement and technical assistance for many new comics. Uncle Miltie's son Bob backs up his brother's statement. He was present many times during Berle's Las Vegas shows and television guest appearances. Milton aided Fred Travalena, Ruth Buzzi, John Ritter, Marla Gibbs, Lily Tomlin, Dick Shawn and Will Smith. At a taping of a Donny & Marie, for example, Donny and Marie Osmond recited a scripted joke routine to a studio audience, to little response. The director asked for a retake, and the Osmonds repeated the act, word for word, to even less response. A third attempt, with no variation, proved dismal — until Milton Berle, off-camera, went into the audience, pantomiming funny faces and gestures. Ever the professional, Berle timed each gesture to coincide with an Osmond punchline, so the dialogue seemed to be getting the maximum laughs.

Personal life[link]

After twice marrying and divorcing Joyce Mathews, a showgirl, Berle married Ruth Cosgrove, a onetime publicist on December 9, 1953; she died in 1989.^[14][29] In 1989, Berle stated that his mother was behind the breakup of his marriage to Mathews. He also said that she managed to damage his previous relationships: "My mother never resented me going out with a girl, but if I had more than three dates with one girl, Mama found some way to break it up."^[30] He was married for a fourth time in 1992 to Lorna Adams, a fashion designer 30 years younger than he was, whom he credited for 'keeping him young'. He had two children, Victoria (adopted by Berle and Mathews) and William (adopted by Berle and Cosgrove).^[31] Berle also had two stepdaughters from his marriage to Lorna Adams—Leslie and Susan Brown, who is married to actor Richard Moll.^[32] He also had three grandsons, James and Mathew, the sons of his daughter, Vicki,^[29] and Sgt. Tyler Roe (US Army Iraq/Afghanistan wars), the son of his son, William.

In later life, Berle found solace in Christian Science and called himself a Jew and a Christian Scientist.^[33] Oscar Levant, commenting to Jack Paar about Berle's conversion, quipped, "Our loss is their loss."

Death[link]

In April 2001, Berle announced that he was suffering from a cancerous tumor in his colon, but would not undergo surgery.^[34] At the time of the announcement, Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take ten to twelve years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way. Less than one year after the announcement, Berle died on March 27, 2002 in Los Angeles, California from colon cancer.^[32][35]

Berle left detailed arrangements to be buried with his second wife, Ruth, at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Burbank. However, his last wife, Lorna Adams, altered the plan so that he was cremated and interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. In addition to his wife, Berle was survived by a daughter, Victoria, born in 1945; son, William, born in 1961; and Bob Williams, a son, born in 1951.^[36]

Other awards[link]

• On December 5, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver inducted Berle into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.^[37]

Broadway[link]

• Earl Carroll's Vanities of 1932 (1932) - revue — in the roles of "Mortimer" in the sketch "Mourning Becomes Impossible", "Joe Miller, Jr." in "What Price Jokes", "Frank" in "Two Sailors", "Paul" in "The Cabinet of Doctor X", the "Announcer" in "Studio W.M.C.A." the "Defendant" in "Trial by Jury" and "Milton" in "The Bar Relief"
• Saluta (1934) — musical, co-lyricist and performer cast in the role of "'Windy' Walker"
• See My Lawyer (1939) — play — performer cast in the role of "Arthur Lee"
• Ziegfeld Follies of 1943 (1943) — revue — performer in the role of "Cecil" in Counter Attack, "J. Pierswift Armour" in The Merchant of Venison, "Perry Johnson" in Loves-A-Poppin, "Escamillio" in Carmen in Zoot, "Charlie Grant" Mr Grant Goes To Washington, "'The Micromaniac' Singer" and "'Hold That Smile' Dancer"
• I'll Take the High Road (1943) — play — co-producer
• Seventeen (1951) — musical — co-producer
• The Goodbye People (1968) — performer cast in the role of "Max Silverman"

In popular culture[link]

In the episode titled "The One with the 'Cuffs" of the sitcom Friends, Rachel promises Chandler that she will make him "This generation's Milton Berle", hinting that he had a large penis but "not compared to (Chandler)". In the Family Guy episode "Fifteen Minutes of Shame", Lois describes her perfect man as having (among other male celebrities' features) "Milton Berle's legendary genitals".

For the initial production of Robert Sherwood's Idiot's Delight starring Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in 1936, Lunt went to see Berle perform many times and took lessons from him in joke delivery and soft shoe for his characterization of tenth rate vaudeville performer Harry Van. After Lunt had seen Berle perform numerous times and went backstage to meet him, before any introductions could be made, Berle snapped, "Now look here, nobody steals from me. That's my line of work!" After finding out that his fan was none other than the American stage's most gifted and prestigious actor, Berle was flattered and showed Lunt everything he knew. - From Design for Living, Margot Peters' biography of the Lunts.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)

Further reading[link]

• Berle, Milton with Haskel Frankel. Milton Berle, an Autobiography. New York: Dell, 1975. ISBN 0-440-15626-2
• Dunning, John. On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-19-507678-8
• McNeil, Alex. Total Television. New York: Penguin Books, 1996. ISBN 0-14-004911-8
• Shales, Tom and James Andrew Miller. Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live. New York: Little, Brown, 2002. ISBN 0-316-78146-0
• Berle, William and Lewis, Brad. "My Father, Uncle Miltie". New York: Barricade Books, 1999. ISBN 1-56980-149-5

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Milton Berle

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Milton Berle

• Milton Berle at the Internet Movie Database
• Milton Berle Interview at Archive of American Television
• Milton Berle at AllRovi
• Comedy Central's 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time
• Milton Berle Internet archive Several entries for free stream or download including Texaco Star Theater and Buick Berle Show.
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: Milton Berle
• Museum of Broadcast Communications: The Milton Berle Show
• Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation
• Milton 'Berlinger' Berle's birth certificate
• Milton Berle at Find a Grave
• Lum's TV Commercial with Milton Berle
• Literature on Milton Berle

Listen to[link]

• Free OTR: Milton Berle Show (two episodes)
• Episodes of the 'Milton Berle Show' on Radio at Internet Archive

Macaulay Culkin
Culkin at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2010
Born	Macaulay Carson Culkin (1980-08-26) August 26, 1980 (age 31) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1985–1994, 2000, 2003–present
Spouse	Rachel Miner (1998–2002)
Partner	Mila Kunis (2002–2010)

Macaulay Carson Culkin (born August 26, 1980) is an American actor. He became widely known for his portrayal of Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also known for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl, The Pagemaster, and Party Monster, as well as Michael Jackson's music video Black or White. At the height of his fame, he was regarded as the most successful child actor since Shirley Temple.^[1]

Culkin was ranked No. 2 in VH1 and E!'s respective lists, the "100 Greatest Kid-Stars" and "50 Greatest Child Stars".^[2]

Early life[link]

Culkin was born in Manhattan, New York City,^[3] and raised in Yorkville. He is the son of Patricia Brentrup and Kit Culkin, a former stage actor known for his productions on Broadway.^[4] Culkin was raised Roman Catholic;^[5] he attended a Catholic school (St. Joseph's School of Yorkville) for 5 years^[6] before moving on to Professional Children's School. Culkin also studied ballet at the School of American Ballet.^[7] Culkin was the third of seven children, five boys and two girls: Shane (born 1976), Dakota (1978–2008),^[8] Kieran (born 1982), Quinn (born 1984), Christian (born 1987), and Rory (born 1989). Culkin is the nephew of actress Bonnie Bedelia, his father's sister. During Culkin's early childhood, the family lived in a small apartment; his mother was a telephone operator and his father worked as a sacristan at a local Catholic church.^[9]

Career[link]

Macaulay Culkin at the Governor's Ball after the Emmy Awards on August 25, 1991.

Culkin began acting at the age of four. Early roles saw him appearing in a stage production of Bach Babies at the New York Philharmonic. He continued appearing in roles on stage, television, and in films throughout the 1980s. Notable parts in this period included an episode of the popular action series The Equalizer in which he played the victim of a kidnapping, and also in the TV movie The Midnight Hour. In 1989, he starred in Uncle Buck with John Candy.^[10]

Culkin rose to international fame with his lead role as Kevin McCallister in the blockbuster film Home Alone (1990), where he was reunited with Uncle Buck writer and director John Hughes and Uncle Buck co-star John Candy.^[11] He reprised the role of Kevin in the 1992 sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

Culkin also starred in a Saturday morning cartoon entitled Wish Kid, and hosted Saturday Night Live in late 1991.

By then, Culkin was in high demand and was paid a reported $750,000 by the World Wrestling Federation to serve as the ring bearer in Macho Man Randy Savage's wedding to Miss Elizabeth at SummerSlam in 1991.

Despite the huge success of Uncle Buck, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and My Girl, other films Culkin acted in, such as The Good Son, only did reasonably well (although he was nominated for MTV Movie Award in the category for Best Villain for his performance in the film). Getting Even with Dad, Richie Rich, and The Pagemaster, all released in 1994, were only mildly successful at the box office. He also appeared in a filmed version of The Nutcracker as the title role in 1993, which was staged by Peter Martins from the 1954 George Balanchine New York City Ballet version of the ballet. He appeared in the 1998 music video for the song "Sunday" by the rock band Sonic Youth.

After several years of inactivity, Culkin returned to acting in 2000 with a role in the play Madame Melville, which was staged in London's West End.^[12] In the spring of 2003, he made a guest appearance on the NBC sitcom Will & Grace.^[13] His role as Karen Walker's deceptively immature divorce lawyer won him favorable reviews. Culkin headed back into motion pictures in 2003 with Party Monster, in which he played a role very different from those he was known for, that of party promoter Michael Alig, a drug user and murderer. He quickly followed that with a supporting part in Saved!, as a cynical wheelchair-bound, non-Christian student in a conservative Christian high school. Though Saved! only had modest success at the box office, Culkin received positive reviews for his role in the film and its implications for a career as an adult actor.^[14][15][16]

Culkin began doing voice-over work, with his appearances on Seth Green's Robot Chicken. In 2006, he published an experimental, semi-autobiographical novel, Junior, which featured details into Culkin's stardom and his shaky relationship with his father. Culkin starred in Sex and Breakfast, a dark comedy written and directed by Miles Brandman.^[17] Alexis Dziena, Kuno Becker and Eliza Dushku also star in this story of a couple whose therapist recommends group sex to them. Shooting for the film, Culkin's first since Saved!, took place in September 2006. The film opened in Los Angeles on November 30, 2007, and was released on DVD on January 22, 2008 by First Look Pictures. Culkin's next project was a role in the thirteen-episode NBC television series Kings as Andrew Cross.^[18]

In 2009, Culkin appeared in a UK-based commercial for Aviva Insurance (formerly Norwich Union) to help promote their company's rebranding. Culkin stared into the camera citing the phrase "Remember me."

On August 17, 2009, Culkin made a brief cameo appearance on WWE Raw at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri, following a "falls count anywhere" match between Hornswoggle and Chavo Guerrero, in which Guerrero was defeated by the classic Home Alone gag of rigging a swinging paint can to hit him upon opening a door. Culkin appeared in the doorway and said, "That's not funny."

In February 2010 Culkin appeared in an episode of Poppy de Villeneuve's online series for the New York Times The Park.

On March 7 of the same year, he appeared alongside actors Matthew Broderick, Molly Ringwald, Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall and Jon Cryer in a tribute to the late John Hughes.

In April 2011, Culkin featured in musician Adam Green's experimental film The Wrong Ferrari which was entirely shot on an iPhone. In the same month he also appeared in the music video for Stamp Your Name On It performed by Green's former bandmate Jack Dishel/Only Son.

Personal life[link]

Culkin stated in a May 27, 2004 interview on Larry King Live, he tends to refrain from disclosing aspects of his personal life, though he discussed his life as a child actor, the conflict in his family life (including his estrangement from his father), and how he retired from acting at 14.^[19] Culkin married actress Rachel Miner in 1998,^[20] but the couple separated in 2000^[21] and divorced in 2002.^[22] Culkin began dating actress Mila Kunis in May 2002.^[22] By 2006, Culkin was residing in New York, and Kunis was in Los Angeles.^[23] On January 3, 2011, Kunis's publicist confirmed reports that Culkin and Kunis had ended their relationship several months previously, saying "The split was amicable, and they remain close friends."^[24]

On September 17, 2004, Culkin was arrested in Oklahoma City for the possession of 17.3 grams (0.61 oz) of marijuana and two controlled substances, 16.5 milligrams (0.25 grains) of Alprazolam and 32 milligrams (0.5 gr) of Clonazepam,^[25] for which Culkin was briefly jailed but soon released on a $4,000 bond.^[26][27] After being arraigned in court for misdemeanor drug offenses, he pleaded not guilty at the trial (October 15, 2004 to June 9, 2005), then later reversed the plea to guilty. His lawyers reached a plea bargain with the state of Oklahoma and Culkin received three one-year suspended prison terms, forced enrollment into a probationary drug treatment program and a $540 fine. Culkin currently resides in Queens, New York.

Around the time of the first Home Alone movie, Culkin became close friends with pop singer Michael Jackson, making an appearance in Jackson's "Black or White" music video.

At Jackson's trial, Culkin reported he had slept in Jackson's bedroom on countless occasions, but stated that Jackson's bedroom was two stories, and that Jackson never sexually molested him or touched him in improper ways, and referred to the allegations as "absolutely ridiculous."^[28] Culkin attended Jackson's burial on September 3, 2009.^[29]

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Macaulay Culkin

• Macaulay Culkin at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC News report on drug charges
• Oklahoma Court case file report
• Oklahoma police report file at thesmokinggun.com

v t e Home Alone Home Alone (1990) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone 3 (1997) Home Alone 4 (2002) Characters Kevin McCallister People Macaulay Culkin Joe Pesci Daniel Stern Catherine O'Hara Chris Columbus John Hughes Alex D. Linz Mike Weinberg Soundtrack albums Home Alone Home Alone 2: Lost in New York Home Alone 3 Video games Home Alone (1991) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992) Home Alone (2006) Category