Look up conway in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Conway may refer to:

Places[link]

• Conway River, New Zealand
• Conwy or Conway, Wales, UK
• Conway, Arkansas, U.S.
• Conway County, Arkansas
• Lake Conway, Arkansas
• Conway, Florida, U.S.
• Conway, Iowa, U.S.
• Conway, Kansas, U.S.
• Conway, Massachusetts, U.S.
• Conway Township, Michigan, U.S.
• Conway, Missouri, U.S.
• Conway, New Hampshire, U.S.
• Conway, North Dakota, U.S.
• Conway, North Carolina, U.S.
• Conway, Pennsylvania, U.S.
• Conway, South Carolina, U.S.
• Conway, Washington, U.S.

Ships[link]

• HMS Conway (school ship)
• HMS Conway (1832), a 26-gun sixth rate launched in 1832
• USS Conway (DD-70) or USS Craven (DD-70), a Caldwell class destroyer launched in 1918
• USS Conway (DD-507), a Fletcher-class destroyer launched in 1942

Other uses[link]

• Conway Cabal, a 1777–78 conspiracy
• Conway Maritime Press
• Conway Recording Studios, California
• Rolls-Royce Conway, the first turbofan aircraft engine to enter service
• Conway Scenic Railroad, a heritage railroad in New Hampshire

People with the surname[link]

• Alan Conway, impersonator of Stanley Kubrick
• Albert Conway (1889–1969), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals (1955-1959)
• Anne Conway, Viscountess Conway (1631–1679), English philosopher
• Arthur Conway (disambiguation)
• Curtis Conway, former NFL wide receiver
• Damian Conway, Perl guru
• David Conway (philosopher), British philosopher
• Deborah Conway, Australian singer and songwriter
• Derek Conway, British politician
• Elias Nelson Conway, American politician
• Gary Conway (born 1936), American actor
• Gerry Conway, American comic book writer
• Gerry Conway (musician), English drummer
• Henry Seymour Conway, British general and statesman
• Henry Wharton Conway, American politician
• Jack Conway (politician), Kentucky's current Attorney General
• James Conway (disambiguation)
• Jack Conway (disambiguation)
• Jill Ker Conway, Australian-American author
• Jim Conway (baseball) (1858–1912), American baseball player
• Jimmy Conway, Irish-American gangster
• John B. Conway, mathematics professor at University of Tennessee
• John Horton Conway, mathematics professor at Princeton University
• Jon Conway, American soccer player
• Kathie Conway, Member of the Missouri House of Representatives
• Kevin Conway (disambiguation)
• Lynn Conway, American computer scientist and inventor
• Martin Conway (disambiguation), multiple people with the name
• Martin F. Conway (1827–1882), American lawyer and politician
• Melvin Conway, inventor of coroutines
• Mike Conway, British racing driver
• Moncure Daniel Conway, American clergyman and author
• Robert Conway (admiral), an officer in the United States Navy
• Rob Conway, American professional wrestler
• Robert Seymour Conway, British classical scholar and philologist
• Russ Conway, pianist
• Sean Conway, Canadian professor
• Shirl Conway, Stage and television actress
• Thomas Conway, soldier in America's Revolutionary War
• Tim Conway, American comedic actor
• Tim Conway Jr., American radio talk show host
• Tom Conway, British actor
• William Conway (disambiguation)

Fictional[link]

• Hugh Conway, protagonist of James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon

People with the given name[link]

• Conway Baker (1911-1997), American National Football League player
• Conway Berners-Lee (born 1921), British mathematician and computer scientist
• Conway Hayman (born 1949) American former football player and coach
• Conway Savage (born 1960), Australian rock musician
• Conway Tearle (1878-1938), American early film actor
• Conway Twitty, country music singer

See also[link]

• Conway National Park, Australia
• Conway Reef, an outlying coral reef in Fiji
• Conway Hall, the London home since 1929 of the South Place Ethical Society, the oldest surviving free-thought association in Britain
• Conway Summit, a mountain pass in California
• Conway Lake, New Hampshire
• Conwy (disambiguation)
• Con-way, a freight transportation and logistics company based in California

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Conway Twitty (September 1, 1933 – June 5, 1993), born Harold Lloyd Jenkins, was an American country music artist. He also had success in early rock and roll, R&B and pop music. He held the record for the most number one singles of any act with 40 #1 Billboard country hits until George Strait broke the record in 2006. From 1971-76, Twitty received a string of Country Music Association awards for duets with Loretta Lynn. He was never a member of the Grand Ole Opry, but was inducted into both the Country Music and Rockabilly Halls of Fame.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Conway Twitty was born Harold Jenkins on September 1, 1933 in Friars Point, Mississippi. He was named by his great uncle, after his favorite silent movie actor, Harold Lloyd. The Jenkins family moved to Helena, Arkansas when Harold was ten years old. In Helena Harold formed his first singing group, the Phillips County Ramblers.^{[citation needed]}

Two years later, Harold had his own local radio show every Saturday morning. He also played baseball, his second passion. He received an offer to play with the Philadelphia Phillies after high school (Smiths Station High), but he was drafted into the US Army. He served in the Far East and organized a group called The Cimmerons to entertain fellow GIs.^[1]

Wayne Hause, a neighbor, suggested that Harold could make it in the music industry. Soon after hearing Elvis Presley's song "Mystery Train", Harold began writing rock and roll material. He went to the Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee and worked with Sam Phillips, the owner and founder, to get the "right" sound.^{[citation needed]}

Stage name[link]

Accounts of how Harold Jenkins acquired his stage name of Conway Twitty vary. Allegedly, in 1957, Jenkins decided that his real name wasn't marketable and sought a better show business name. In "The Billboard Book of Number One Hits" Fred Bronson states that the singer was looking at a road map when he spotted Conway, Arkansas and Twitty, Texas and chose the name Conway Twitty.

Another account says that Jenkins met a Richmond, Virginia man named W. Conway Twitty Jr. through Jenkins' manager in a New York City restaurant. The manager served in the US Army with the real Conway Twitty. Later, the manager suggested to Jenkins that he take the name as his stage name because it had a ring to it. In the mid-1960s, W. Conway Twitty subsequently recorded the song "What's in a Name but Trouble", lamenting the loss of his name to Harold Jenkins.

Pop and rock and roll success[link]

Using his new stage name, Conway Twitty's fortunes improved in 1958, while he was with MGM Records. An Ohio radio station did not play "I'll Try", an MGM single that went nowhere in terms of sales, radio play, and jukebox play; instead playing the B-side, "It's Only Make Believe", a song written between sets by Twitty and drummer Jack Nance when they were in Hamilton, Ontario playing at the Flamingo Lounge.^[2] The record took nearly one year to reach and stay at the top spot on the Billboard pop music charts in the US, as well as #1 in 21 other countries. It became the first of nine top 40 hits for Twitty. That same year, country singer Tabby West of ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee heard Twitty and he was booked to appear on the show.^[1]

For a brief period, some believed he was Elvis Presley recording under a different name. This was largely the case with "It's Only Make Believe". Twitty would go on to enjoy rock and roll success with songs including "Danny Boy" (Pop #10) and "Lonely Blue Boy" (Pop #6). "Lonely Blue Boy", originally titled "Danny", was recorded by Presley for the film King Creole but was not used in the soundtrack.^{[citation needed]}

In 1960, he appeared in three feature films: College Confidential, Sex Kittens Go to College and Platinum High School.

Country music career[link]

Twitty always wanted to record country music and, beginning in 1965, he did just that. His first few country albums were met with some country DJ's refusing to play them because he was known as a rock 'n' roll singer. However, he finally broke free with his first top five country hit, "The Image of Me", in July 1968, ensued by his first number one country song, "Next in Line", in November 1968. Few of his singles beginning in 1968 ranked below the top five.

In 1970, Twitty recorded and released his biggest hit ever, "Hello Darlin'" (which spent four weeks at the top of the country chart). In 1971 he released his first hit duet with Loretta Lynn, "After the Fire Is Gone". It was a success, and many more followed, including "Lead Me On" (1971), "Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man" (1973), "As Soon as I Hang Up the Phone" (1974), "Feelins'" (1975), "I Still Believe in Waltzes", "I Can't Love You Enough", and many others. Together, Conway and Loretta (as they were known in their act), won four consecutive Country Music Association awards for vocal duo (1972–75) and a host of other duo and duet awards from other organizations throughout the 1970s.

In 1973, Twitty released "You've Never Been This Far Before", which was not only #1 in country for three weeks that September but also reached #22 on the pop charts. Some disc jockeys refused to play the song because of its suggestive lyrics.

In 1978 he issued the single "The Grandest Lady of Them All" honoring the Grand Ole Opry, but for the first time since 1967, a single of his failed to reach top ten status as some radio stations refused to play a song honoring the property of a competitor (broadcast by WSM-AM). Nevertheless, the single reached the top 20 but it peaked well below expectations, and this set in motion the changes that were to take place in his career, including a new hairstyle, changing from the slicked-back pompadour style to the curlier style he would keep the rest of his life.

In 1985, going by all weekly music trade charts, the song "Don't Call Him a Cowboy" became the 50th single of his career to achieve a #1 ranking. He would have five more through 1990, giving him a total of 55 #1 hits. George Strait eclipsed the feat of 50 #1 hits in 2002 with his single "She'll Leave You With a Smile" and then reached #1 for the 56th time in 2007 when the single "Wrapped" hit the top on the Media Base 24/7 list.

Throughout much of his country music career his home was Decca Records, later renamed MCA. He signed with the label in late 1965 but left in 1981 when it appeared MCA was marketing and promoting newer acts, plus management at the label had changed and other factors brought on the decision. He joined Elektra/Asylum in 1982. That label merged with its parent company, Warner Bros. Records in 1983. He stayed on with Warner Bros. Records through early 1987 but then went back to MCA to finish out his career. In 1993, shortly before he died, he recorded a new album, Final Touches.

Twitty City[link]

Twitty lived for many years in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just north of Nashville, where he built a country music entertainment complex called Twitty City. The address was 1 Country Music Blvd. Its lavish displays of Christmas lights were a famous local sight. Conway Twitty and Twitty City were once featured on the TV series Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Twitty City was also seen in the Nashville episode of the BBC series Entertainment USA, presented by Jonathan King. A popular tourist stop throughout the 1980s and into the early 1990s, it was shut down in 1994 following a year-long tribute show called Final Touches, when fans and peers in the music business dropped by. The complex was auctioned off and bought by the Trinity Broadcasting Network for its religious programs.

Death[link]

Twitty became ill while performing in Branson, Missouri, and was in pain while he was on the tour bus. He died in Springfield, Missouri, at Cox South Hospital from an abdominal aortic aneurysm, two months before the release of what would be his final studio album, Final Touches, and four months before the release of George Jones's album High-Tech Redneck which featured a cover of "Hello Darlin'". He was 59 years old.

Posthumous releases[link]

Since his death, Twitty's son Michael and grandson Tre have been carrying on his musical legacy. His most recent chart appearance on the country charts was a duet with Anita Cochran, "I Want to Hear a Cheating Song" (2004), which was made possible due to the availability of the original multi-track session tapes of his version of the song, recorded in the early 1980s. As a result, Twitty's isolated vocal track was electronically lifted off the session master, transferred to a digital multi-track and digitally re-assembled into the new performance.

Similar to the electronic duets of Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, Hank Williams and Hank Williams, Jr. or Nat King Cole and Natalie Cole, Cochran added her vocal to the already-produced backing tracks along with Twitty's reconstructed vocal.

Legal issues[link]

Taxes[link]

Twitty's success in country music was a key factor in his winning a 1983 case, Harold L. Jenkins (a/k/a Howard Twitty) v. Commissioner in United States Tax Court. The Internal Revenue Service denied Twitty's attempt to deduct from his taxes, as an "ordinary and necessary" business expense, payments he had made in order to repay investors in a defunct fast-food chain called Twitty Burger. The chain went under in 1971. The general rule is that the payment of someone else's debts is not deductible. Twitty alleged that his primary motive was "protecting his personal business reputation." The court opinion contained testimony from Twitty about his bond with country music fans.

Estate[link]

Twitty married three times. His widow, Dee Henry Jenkins, and his four grown children from the previous marriages, Michael, Joni, Kathy and Jimmy Jenkins, engaged in a public dispute over the estate. Twitty's will had not been updated to account for the third marriage, but Tennessee law reserves one third of any estate to the widow. After years of probate, the four children received the rights to Twitty's music, name and image. The rest of the estate went to public auction, where much of the property and memorabilia was sold after his widow rejected the appraised value.

In 2008, controversy again erupted in his family when the four remaining children sued Sony/ATV Music Publishing over an agreement that Twitty and his family signed in 1990. The suit alleged that the terms of the agreement were not fully understood by the children, although they were all adults at the time. It sought to recover copyrights and royalty revenue that the document assigned to the company.^[3]

55 Number Ones[link]

Twitty was the only singer to have 55 #1 hits in his career until George Strait eventually eclipsed the long-held record. Conway's 55th and final #1 was "Crazy in Love" in 1990 on the Cashbox chart. His Final #1 on the country charts was "Desperado Love" in 1986. His first #1 was "It's Only Make Believe" in 1958 on the Hot 100 pop chart. He is best known for his 1970 #1 single "Hello Darlin'". At one time there were multiple weekly music charts in circulation during much of Conway's career. Those publications were Billboard, Record World, Cashbox, Gavin, Radio, and Records. Billboard is the lone surviving publication of the group. Radio and Records, emerging in 1973, was bought out by Billboard in 2006 (ending a 33 year run as an independent music survey) but the R&R brand was phased out in 2009 altogether. Conway reached #1 on Radio and Records many times; quite a few of his #1 hits in the latter years of his career reached the top of this publication while peaking in the top five in Billboard. The Gavin Report, founded in 1958, ended publication in 2002. Cashbox was in publication from 1942 through 1996. As is the case with Radio and Records, Conway reached #1 on Cashbox with most of his recordings. His 55th and final #1 hit, "Crazy in Love", reached #1 on Cashbox and #3 on Billboard in the fall of 1990. Record World started out under the name Music Vendor in 1946. The publication's name change took place in 1964. Conway often reached #1 on the Record World country charts with singles that reached the #2 or #3 position on Billboard's chart. Billboard, on the other hand, began it's publication in 1894 but it was completely different from what it appears today. It wouldn't be until the 1930's that music sales, and later, jukebox play, became a focal point of the publication. In the late 1950's, Billboard unveiled their Hot 100 chart which has more commonly become known as the Pop singles chart. Their country chart began in 1944 and is still in publication. Conway reached #1 a total of 40 times on the Billboard country chart from 1968 through 1986. His 1958 single, "It's Only Make Believe", reached #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 giving him an overall total of 41 Billboard #1 hits. The 41 Billboard #1 hits are often what historians and critics point to whenever citing his #1 total even though, technically, he reached the top fourteen additional times with other singles on the other weekly music charts.

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

Academy of Country Music

• 1971 Top Vocal Duo with Loretta Lynn
• 1974 Top Vocal Duo with Loretta Lynn
• 1975 Album of the Year with Loretta Lynn - Feelin's
• 1975 Top Male Vocalist
• 1975 Top Vocal Duo with Loretta Lynn
• 1976 Top Vocal Duo with Loretta Lynn

Country Music Association

• 1972 Vocal Duo of the Year with Loretta Lynn
• 1973 Vocal Duo of the Year with Loretta Lynn
• 1974 Vocal Duo of the Year with Loretta Lynn
• 1975 Vocal Duo of the Year with Loretta Lynn

Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

• Inducted in 1999

Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame

• Posthumous inductee

Grammy Awards

• 1971 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal with Loretta Lynn - "After the Fire is Gone"
• 1999 Hall of Fame Award - "Hello Darlin'"

Rockabilly Hall of Fame

• Posthumous inductee

Covers[link]

Twitty was known to cover songs—most notably "Slow Hand" which was a major pop hit for the Pointer Sisters, "The Rose" which was a major pop hit for Bette Midler, and "Heartache Tonight" which was a major pop hit for The Eagles; Twitty's songs have also been covered numerous times, including four notable covers, George Jones' rendition of "Hello Darlin", Blake Shelton's "Goodbye Time", The Misfits and Glen Campbell ^[4] versions of "It's Only Make Believe" and Elvis Presley's version of "There's a Honky Tonk Angel (Who'll Take Me Back In)". In addition, Ken Checker's version of "I'd Love to Lay You Down" was sung and received some airplay, mostly in the concert realm.

Some artists have had hits with songs that Twitty recorded but never released as singles. Among these are: The Oak Ridge Boys's top five hit, "I Wish You Could Have Turned My Head (And Left My Heart Alone)," originally from Conway's 1979 album Crosswinds, Steve Wariner's "I'm Already Taken" from Twitty's 1981 album Mr. T (which Wariner wrote), Lee Greenwood's "It Turns Me Inside Out" from Twitty's 1982 album Southern Comfort, John Conlee's "In My Eyes" from Twitty's 1982 album Dream Maker, John Schneider's "What's a Memory Like You (Doin' in a Love Like This?)" from Twitty's 1985 album Chasin' Rainbows, and Daryle Singletary's "The Note" and Ricky Van Shelton's "Somebody Lied" from Twitty's 1985 album Don't Call Him a Cowboy.

Popular culture[link]

Live action footage of Twitty has featured several times as a running gag on the Fox animated TV series Family Guy. In the show, one of the characters, usually Peter Griffin, needing a distraction, turns to the camera and says "Ladies and gentlemen... Mr. Conway Twitty," followed by a portion of live-action footage from one of Twitty's television performances, in which he sings "Hello Darling". When this same joke was used in the episode "The Juice Is Loose," the entirety of Twitty performing "I See the Want To in Your Eyes" was shown. In the straight to DVD release It's a Trap!, at the end of a scene in which Luke Skywalker, played by Chris, informs Leia, played by Lois, that she is his sister; Leia addresses the audience and says "Ladies and Gentlemen... Mr. Darth Twitty" and cuts to Twitty performing with a Darth Vader helmet digitally superimposed on his head.

The antagonist of the 1993 LucasArts videogame Sam & Max Hit the Road is named Conroy Bumpus, and his name, appearance and background are meant to resemble that of Twitty.

The fictional character "Conrad Birdie" in the musical and movie Bye Bye Birdie is said to be a composite of Conway Twitty and Elvis Presley. The part was originally named Conway Twitty, until the writers learned that Conway Twitty was a real popstar who was willing to sue them. ^[5]

In the 1959 LP Songs for Swinging Sellers, Peter Sellers included a character "Twit Conway", who was a rock singer.^[6]

Notes[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Cross, Wilbur; Kosser, Michael (1986). The Conway Twitty Story: an Authorized Biography. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-23198-5. 

• Oermann, Robert K. (1998). "Conway Twitty". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 553–4. lpdiscography.com.

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Official Conway Twitty Website
• Twitty news stories

• Conway Twitty at Allmusic

• Conway Twitty movies

• Conway Twitty at the Internet Movie Database

• At the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum

Carol Burnett
At the White House in 2005
Born	Carol Creighton Burnett (1933-04-26) April 26, 1933 (age 79) San Antonio, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, comedian, singer, dancer, writer
Years active	1955–present
Spouse	Don Saroyan (m. 1955–1962) «start: (1955)–end+1: (1963)»"Marriage: Don Saroyan to Carol Burnett" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Carol_Burnett) Joe Hamilton (m. 1963–1984) «start: (1963)–end+1: (1985)»"Marriage: Joe Hamilton to Carol Burnett" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Carol_Burnett) Brian Miller (m. 2001) «start: (2001)»"Marriage: Brian Miller to Carol Burnett" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Carol_Burnett)
Children	Carrie Hamilton Jody Hamilton Erin Hamilton

Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer. Burnett started her career in New York. After becoming a hit on Broadway, she made her television debut. After successful appearances on The Garry Moore Show, Burnett moved to Los Angeles and began an eleven-year run on The Carol Burnett Show which was aired on CBS television from 1967 to 1978. With roots in vaudeville, The Carol Burnett Show was a variety show which combined comedy sketches, song, and dance. The comedy sketches included film parodies and character pieces. Burnett created many characters during the show's television run.

Early life[link]

Carol and Chrissy on Person to Person, 1961.

Burnett was born in San Antonio, Texas, the daughter of Ina Louise (née Creighton), a publicity writer for movie studios, and Joseph Thomas Burnett, a movie theater manager.^[1][2] Both of her parents suffered from alcoholism, and at a young age she was left with her grandmother, Mabel Eudora White. Her parents divorced in the late 1930s, and Burnett and her grandmother moved to an apartment near her mother’s in an impoverished area of Hollywood. There, they stayed in a boarding house with her younger half-sister Chrissy.^[3]

When Burnett was in the second grade, she briefly invented an imaginary twin sister named Karen, with Shirley Temple-like dimples. Motivated to further the pretense, Burnett recalled fondly that she "fooled the other boarders in the rooming house where we lived by frantically switching clothes and dashing in and out of the house by the fire escape and the front door. Then I became exhausted and Karen mysteriously vanished."^[4]

For a while, she worked as an usherette at what is now the Hollywood Pacific Theatre (the forecourt of which is now the location of her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; see the section in the theatre's article for more information). After graduating from Hollywood High School in 1951, Burnett won a scholarship to UCLA, where she initially planned on studying journalism. During her first year of college, Burnett switched her focus to theater arts and English, with the goal of becoming a playwright. She found she had to take an acting course to enter the playwright program; "I wasn't really ready to do the acting thing, but I had no choice."^[5] She followed a sudden impulse in her first performance; "Don't ask me why, but when we were in front of the audience, I suddenly decided I was going to stretch out all my words and my first line came out 'I'm baaaaaaaack!'"^[5] The audience response moved her deeply:

They laughed and it felt great. All of a sudden, after so much coldness and emptiness in my life, I knew the sensation of all that warmth wrapping around me. I had always been a quiet, shy, sad sort of girl and then everything changed for me. You spend the rest of your life hoping you'll hear a laugh that great again.^[5]

During this time, Burnett performed in several university productions, garnering recognition for her comedic and musical abilities. Her mother disapproved of her acting ambitions:

She wanted me to be a writer. She said you can always write, no matter what you look like. When I was growing up she told me to be a little lady, and a couple of times I got a whack for crossing my eyes or making funny faces. Of course, she never, I never, dreamed I would ever perform.^[4]

The young Burnett, always insecure about her looks, described her reaction to her mother's advice of "You can always write, no matter what you look like", in her 1986 memoir One More Time: "God, that hurt!"

In 1954, during her junior year, a professor invited Burnett and some other students to perform at a black-tie party. A man and his wife approached her afterward, as she was putting cookies in her purse to take home to her grandmother.^[6] Instead of reprimanding her, the man complimented Burnett's performance and asked about her future plans. When he discovered that she wanted to go try her luck with musical comedy in New York, but did not have enough money, he offered her^[6] and her boyfriend Don Saroyan each a $1000 interest-free loan on the spot. The conditions were that it was to be paid back in five years, his name was never to be revealed, and if she became a success, she would help others attain their dreams.^[6] Burnett took him up on his offer. She and Saroyan left college and moved to New York to pursue acting careers. That same year, Burnett's father died of causes related to his alcoholism.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

After spending her first year in New York working as a hat-check girl and failing to land acting jobs, Burnett along with other girls living at The Rehearsal Club, a boarding house for women seriously pursuing an acting career, put on The Rehearsal Club Revue on March 3, 1955. They mailed invitations to agents, who showed up along with stars like Celeste Holm and Marlene Dietrich, and this opened doors for several of the girls. Burnett was cast in a minor role on The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show in 1955. She played the girlfriend of a ventriloquist’s dummy on the popular children’s program. This role led to her starring role opposite Buddy Hackett in the short-lived sitcom Stanley from 1956 to 1957.

After Stanley, Burnett found herself unemployed for a short time. She eventually bounced back a few months later as a highly popular performer on the New York circuit of cabarets and night clubs, most notably for a hit parody number called "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" (Dulles was Secretary of State at the time). In 1957, Burnett performed this number on both The Tonight Show, hosted by Jack Paar, and The Ed Sullivan Show. Burnett also worked as a regular on one of television's earliest game shows, Pantomime Quiz, during this time. In 1957, just as Burnett was achieving her first small successes, her mother died.

Burnett and Larry Blyden from The Garry Moore Show, 1960.

Burnett's first true taste of success came with her appearance on Broadway in the 1959 musical Once Upon a Mattress. The same year, she became a regular player on The Garry Moore Show, a job that lasted until 1962. She won an Emmy^[7] that year for her "Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series" on the show. Burnett portrayed a number of characters, most memorably the put-upon cleaning woman who would later become her signature alter-ego. With her success on the Moore show, Burnett finally rose to headliner status and appeared in the 1962 special Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall, co-starring her friend Julie Andrews. The show was produced by Bob Banner, directed by Joe Hamilton, and written by Mike Nichols and Ken Welch.^[8] Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Program Achievement in the Field of Music. Burnett also guest-starred on a number of shows during this time, including The Twilight Zone episode "Cavender is Coming" and a recurring role as a tough female Corporal, later Gunnery Sergeant in Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.. Burnett became good friends with the latter show's star, Jim Nabors, who would later be her first guest every season on her variety show.^[9]

In 1963, Lucille Ball became a friend and mentor to Burnett, and after having the younger performer guest star on The Lucy Show a number of times, Ball reportedly offered Burnett her own sitcom called "Here's Agnes", to be produced by Desilu Productions. Burnett declined the offer, however, deciding instead to put together a variety show. The two remained close friends until Ball's death in 1989. Ball sent flowers every year on her birthday. When Burnett awoke on the day of her 56th birthday in 1989, she discovered via the morning news that Ball had died. Later that afternoon, flowers arrived at Burnett's house with the note "Happy Birthday, Kid. Love, Lucy."^[10]

In 1964, Burnett was cast opposite Caterina Valente and Bob Newhart on the variety show The Entertainers which ran for only one season. She also starred in the Broadway musical Fade Out - Fade In, but was forced to quit after sustaining a neck injury in a taxi accident. The show’s producers sued the actress for breach of contract, but the suit was later dropped.

[edit] The Carol Burnett Show

The hour-long Carol Burnett Show, which debuted in 1967, garnered 23 Emmy Awards and won or was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards every season it was on the air. Its ensemble cast included Tim Conway (who was a guest player until the ninth season),^[11] Harvey Korman, Lyle Waggoner, and the teenaged Vicki Lawrence (who was cast partly because she looked like a younger Burnett). The network did not want her to do a variety show because they believed only men could be successful at variety, but Burnett's contract required that they give her one season of whatever kind of show she wanted to make.^[12] She chose to carry on the tradition of past variety show successes.

A true variety show, The Carol Burnett Show struck a chord with viewers. Among other things, it parodied films ("Went With the Wind" for Gone With the Wind), television ("As the Stomach Turns" for the soap opera As the World Turns) and commercials. Musical numbers were also a frequent feature. Burnett and her team struck gold with the original skit "The Family", which eventually was spun off into its own television show called Mama's Family, starring Vicki Lawrence.

Burnett opened most shows with an impromptu question and answer session with the audience, lasting a few minutes, during which she often demonstrated her ability to humorously ad lib. On numerous occasions, she obliged when asked to perform her trademark^[13] Tarzan yell.

Burnett ended each show by tugging her ear, which was a message to her grandmother who had raised her. This was done to let her know that she was doing well and that she loved her. During the show's run, Burnett's grandmother died. On an Intimate Portrait episode on Burnett, she tearfully recalled her grandmother's last moments: "She said to my husband Joe from her hospital bed 'Joe, you see that spider up there?' There was no spider, but Joe said he did anyhow. She said 'Every few minutes a big spider jumps on that little spider and they go at it like RABBITS!!' And then she died. There's laughter in everything!"^[14] Burnett continued the tradition of tugging her ear.

The Carol Burnett Show ceased production in 1978, and is generally regarded as the last successful major network prime-time variety show.^{[citation needed]} It continues to have success in syndicated reruns.

Other roles[link]

Burnett starred in a few films while her variety show was running, including Pete 'n' Tillie (1972). After the show ended, Burnett assumed a number of roles that departed from comedy. She appeared in several dramatic roles, most notably in the television movie Friendly Fire. She appeared as Beatrice O'Reilly in the film Life of The Party: The Story of Beatrice, a story about a woman fighting her alcoholism. Her other film work includes The Four Seasons, Annie, and Noises Off. She also returned to star in a different role as Queen Aggravain in the movie version of Once Upon a Mattress.

Burnett also made occasional returns to the stage: in 1974, she appeared at The Muny Theater in St. Louis, Missouri, in I Do! I Do! with Rock Hudson and eleven years later, she took the supporting role of Carlotta Campion in the 1985 concert performance of Stephen Sondheim's Follies.

Burnett made frequent appearances as a panelist on the game show Password, an association she maintained until the early 1980s. She was also the first celebrity to appear on the children's series Sesame Street, on that series' first episode on November 10, 1969.^[15]

In the 1980s and 1990s, Burnett made several attempts at starting a new variety program. She also appeared briefly on The Carol Burnett Show's "The Family" sketches spinoff, Mama's Family, as her stormy character, Eunice Higgins. She played the matriarch in the cult comedy miniseries Fresno, which parodied the primetime soap opera Falcon Crest. She returned to TV in the mid-1990s as a supporting character on the sitcom Mad About You, playing Theresa Stemple, the mother of main character Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt).

Burnett has long been a fan of the soap opera All My Children. She realized a dream when Agnes Nixon created the role of Verla Grubbs for her. Burnett suddenly found herself playing the long-lost daughter of Langley Wallingford (Louis Edmonds) and causing trouble for her stepmother Phoebe Tyler-Wallingford (Ruth Warrick). She hosted a 25th anniversary special about the show in 1995 and made a brief cameo appearance as Verla Grubbs on the January 5, 2005, episode which celebrated the show's 35th anniversary. Burnett reprised her role as Grubbs in September 2011 as part of the series' finale.

In 2008, Burnett had her second role as an animated character, in Horton Hears a Who!. Her first was in The Trumpet of the Swan. In 2009, she made a guest appearance on the Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, for which she was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. In November 2010, she guest starred on an episode of Glee as the mother of cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester.^[16]

Burnett was open to her fans, never refusing to give an autograph, and had limited patience for "Those who've made it, then complain about loss of privacy."^[4]

Personal life[link]

The first house Burnett lived in was the Beverly Hills house formerly owned by Harry James and Betty Grable. Growing up in rented rooms, an actual house was "a luxury", as "A Murphy bed was [her] idea of spacious."^[4]

She married Don Saroyan on December 15, 1955; the couple divorced in 1962. On May 4, 1963, Burnett married TV producer Joe Hamilton, a divorced father of eight, with whom she had three daughters: actress and writer Carrie Hamilton, Jody Hamilton, and singer Erin Hamilton. The marriage ended in divorce in 1984, and Joe Hamilton later died of cancer (1991). On November 24, 2001, Burnett married Brian Miller (principal drummer in and contractor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra), who is twenty-three years her junior.

In January 2002, Carrie Hamilton died of lung and brain cancer at the age of 38. She had become addicted to drugs as a teenager. Burnett and Carrie wrote a play together called Hollywood Arms, which was adapted from Burnett's bestselling memoir, One More Time. The Broadway production featured Linda Lavin as Burnett's character's beloved grandmother, and Michele Pawk as the mother, Louise. Pawk went on to receive the 2003 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play.

Since the '60s, Burnett's been best friends with Julie Andrews. Carol is the godmother of Julie's first child Emma Walton Hamilton.

Lawsuits[link]

Burnett drew attention in 1981 when she sued the tabloid newspaper National Enquirer for libel after the Enquirer described her alleged public drunkenness, purportedly with Henry Kissinger. Carol was particularly sensitive to the accusations because of her parents' own alcoholism. The case, Carol Burnett v. National Enquirer, Inc., was a landmark for libel cases involving celebrities, although the unprecedented $1.6 million verdict for Burnett was reduced to about $800,000 on appeal. She donated a portion of that award to the University of Hawaii and University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, saying she hoped the suit would teach aspiring journalists the dangers of defaming individuals in articles. The money was used to fund Law and Ethics courses at the school. Burnett said at the time that she didn't care if she just won "cab fare", and that the lawsuit was a matter of principle.

In March 2007, she sued 20th Century Fox for copyright infringement, trademark violation, statutory violation of right of privacy, and misappropriation of name and likeness over the use of an altered version of her signature closing song and the portrayal of her cleaning lady character "charwoman" in an episode of Family Guy.^[17] On May 26, 2007, the lawsuit was dismissed by a Los Angeles federal judge.^[18] The judge used Hustler Magazine v. Falwell as the general basis for the decision.^[19]

Awards and recognition[link]

Emmy Awards[link]

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6439 Hollywood Blvd. in front of the Hollywood Pacific Theatre (below), where she was once fired from a job as an usherette. At the time, it was known as the Warner Hollywood Theatre.

• 1962 – Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series, The Garry Moore Show
• 1963 – Outstanding Performance in a Variety or Musical Program or Series, Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall and An Evening with Carol Burnett
• 1969, 1970, 1971 – Nominated for Outstanding Variety or Musical Series, The Carol Burnett Show
• 1972 – Outstanding Variety Series – Musical, The Carol Burnett Show, shared with Joe Hamilton (executive producer) and Arnie Rosen (producer)
• 1972 – Nominated for Outstanding Single Program – Variety or Musical – Variety and Popular Music, Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center
• 1973 – Nominated for Outstanding Variety Musical Series, The Carol Burnett Show, with Joe Hamilton (executive producer), and Bill Angelos, Buz Kohan, and Arnie Rosen (producers)
• 1974 – Outstanding Music-Variety Series, The Carol Burnett Show, with Joe Hamilton (executive producer) and Ed Simmons (producer)
• 1974 – Nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Drama, 6 Rms Riv Vu
• 1975 – Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series, The Carol Burnett Show, with Joe Hamilton (executive producer) and Ed Simmons (producer)
• 1976, 1977, 1978 – Nominated for Outstanding Comedy-Variety or Music Series, The Carol Burnett Show, with Joe Hamilton (executive producer) and Ed Simmons (producer)
• 1977 – Nominated for Outstanding Special – Comedy-Variety or Music, Sills and Burnett at the Met, with Beverly Sills and Joe Hamilton (producer)
• 1979 – Nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or a Special, Friendly Fire
• 1983 – Nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Texaco Star Theater: Opening Night
• 1993 – Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, The Larry Sanders Show
• 1995 – Nominated for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program, Men, Movies & Carol
• 1997 – Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Mad About You
• 1998 – Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series, Mad About You
• 2002 – Nominated for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special, Carol Burnett: Show Stoppers, with John Hamilton and Rick Hawkins (executive producers), Jody Hamilton and Mary Jo Blue (producers)
• 2009 – Nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit

Golden Globe Awards[link]

• 1968 – Best TV Star – Female, The Carol Burnett Show
• 1970, 1972, 1977, 1978 – Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy, The Carol Burnett Show
• 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1979 – Nominated for Best TV Actress – Musical/Comedy, The Carol Burnett Show
• 1973 – Nominated for Best Motion Picture Actress – Musical/Comedy, Pete 'n' Tillie
• 1979 – Nominated for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role, A Wedding
• 1982 – Nominated for Best Motion Picture Actress – Comedy/Musical, The Four Seasons
• 1983 – Nominated for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical, Annie
• 1983 – Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice
• 1991 – Nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series – Comedy/Musical, Carol & Company

Other[link]

• Burnett received a Peabody Award in 1962.
• She was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award in 1980.^[20]
• In 1997, she was awarded the Women in Film Lucy Award in recognition of her excellence and innovation in her creative works that have enhanced the perception of women through the medium of television.^[21]
• She was a recipient of the 2003 Kennedy Center Honors.
• President George W. Bush awarded Burnett the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 9, 2005.^[22]
• She was named the Grand Marshal of the 109th Rose Parade and the 84th Rose Bowl Game on New Year's Day in 1998.
• She was the first honoree and presenter at second annual awards ceremony of the Back Stage West Garland Awards in 1999
• On December 1, 2009, she was inducted into the California Hall of Fame at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts.
• Burnett was presented a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6439 Hollywood Blvd., in front of the Hollywood Pacific Theatre where she worked as an usher in 1957.

Work[link]

Television[link]

• The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show (regular in 1955)
• Stanley (1956–1957)
• Omnibus (October 1956)
• The Garry Moore Show (regular from 1959–1962)
• Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall (1962)
• The Twilight Zone (played Agnes Grep in episode "Cavender Is Coming" – 1962)
• An Evening with Carol Burnett (1963)
• Calamity Jane (1963)
• Once Upon a Mattress (1964)
• The Entertainers (1964–1965)
• The Lucy Show (special guest star-4 episodes-1966)
• Carol + 2 (1967)
• Get Smart (1967) as "Ozark" Annie Jones in Season 3 episode "One Of Our Olives Is Missing"
• The Carol Burnett Show (1967–1978)
• The Carol Burnett Show in London (1970)
• Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center (1971)
• Sesame Street (1971) giving a lecture about noses
• Once Upon a Mattress (1972)
• 6 Rms Riv Vu (1974)
• Out to Lunch (1974)
• Twigs (1975)
• Cher (1975)
• Sills and Burnett at the Met (1976)
• All My Children (cast member: 1976, 1983, 1995, 2005, and 2011)
• Dolly and Carol in Nashville (1978)
• The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank (1978)
• Friendly Fire (1979)
• Carol Burnett & Company (1979)
• The Tenth Month (1979)
• The Muppet Show (1980) (Guest star Season 5, Episode 15)
• Eunice (1982) (teleplay based on the Family sketches separate from Mama's Family)
• Life of the Party: The Story of Beatrice (1982)
• Between Friends (1983)
• Mama's Family (cast member from 1983 to 1985)
• Burnett Discovers Domingo (1984)
• Magnum, P.I. (1984 and 1988 as Susan Johnson)
• The Laundromat (1985)
• Follies in Concert (1986)
• Fresno (1986) (miniseries)
• Plaza Suite (1987) (also executive producer)
• Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin (1987)
• Fame (1987) – episode Reggie and Rose (with Carrie Hamilton), broadcast April 27, 1987
• Hostage (1988)
• Julie & Carol: Together Again (1989)
• Carol & Company (1990) (canceled after one and a half seasons)
• The Carol Burnett Show (1991) (canceled after two months)
• The Larry Sanders Show (1992) - episode The Spider Episode
• The Carol Burnett Show: A Reunion (1993)
• Carol Burnett: The Special Years (1994)
• Seasons of the Heart (1994)
• Men, Movies & Carol (1994)
• Mad About You (Theresa Stemple, 1996–1999)
• Touched by an Angel (1997) – episode The Comeback (with Carrie Hamilton), broadcast November 23, 1997
• The Marriage Fool (1998)
• Putting It Together (2000)
• Carol Burnett: Show Stoppers (2001) (also executive producer)
• The Carol Burnett Show: Let's Bump Up the Lights (2004) (also executive producer)
• Once Upon a Mattress (2005) (also executive producer)
• Desperate Housewives (2006) (guest starring role as Eleanor Mason)
• American Masters Tribute to Carol Burnett (2007)
• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2009) (Emmy award-nominated guest appearance^[6])
• The Bonnie Hunt Show (2010) (Special guest)
• Glee (2010) (Special guest star)^[16]
• Conan (2012)

Filmography[link]

• Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963)
• Rowan & Martin at the Movies (1968) (short subject)
• Star Spangled Salesman (1968) (short subject)
• Pete 'n' Tillie (1972)
• The Front Page (1974)
• A Wedding (1978)
• Health (1980)
• The Four Seasons (1981)
• Chu Chu and the Philly Flash (1981)
• Annie (1982)
• Noises Off (1992)
• Moon Over Broadway (1997) (documentary)
• Get Bruce (1999) (documentary)
• The Trumpet of the Swan (2001) (voice)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2004) (documentary)
• Once Upon a Mattress (2005)
• Horton Hears a Who! (2008) (voice)
• Post Grad (2009)
• The Secret World of Arrietty (2012) (voice)

Stage[link]

• Once Upon a Mattress (1959)
• Fade Out - Fade In (1964)
• Moon Over Buffalo (1995)
• Putting It Together (1999)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Carol Burnett

• Carol Burnett at the Internet Movie Database
• Carol Burnett at AllRovi
• The Carol Burnett Show
• Interview by Terry Gross
• Carol Burnett news on Topix.net
• John Foster Dulles song
• Once Upon A Mattress debut sketch
• Carol Burnett, The Ed Sullivan Show
• Carol Burnett at Emmys.com

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. It includes attribution to IMDb, which may not be a reliable source for biographical information. Please help by adding additional, reliable sources for verification. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2010)

Tim Conway
Tim Conway, 2007
Born	Thomas Daniel Conway (1933-12-15) December 15, 1933 (age 78) Willoughby, Ohio, U.S.
Alma mater	Bowling Green State University
Occupation	Actor, writer, director, comedian
Years active	1956–present
Spouse	Mary Anne Dalton (1961–1978) Charlene Fusco (1984–present)[1]
Website
http://www.timconway.com/

Thomas Daniel "Tim" Conway (born December 15, 1933) is an Emmy award-winning American comedian and actor, who has worked in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and film. Conway is best known for his role in the popular 1960s WWII sitcom McHale's Navy as the inept Ensign Charles Parker, second in command to Lt. Commander Quinton McHale (Ernest Borgnine), and for co-starring alongside Carol Burnett on The Carol Burnett Show.

Early life[link]

Conway was born in Willoughby, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, to an Irish father and Romanian mother, and grew up in nearby Chagrin Falls.^[2] He attended Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, majoring in speech and radio, and was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. After graduating, he joined the Army, and thereafter took a job at a Cleveland radio station, at first answering mail and later as a writer in the promotional department. Conway changed his first name to "Tim" to avoid confusion with actor Tom Conway.

Career[link]

[edit] Ghoulardi

Conway moved back to Cleveland to work with Ernie Anderson on KYW-TV, an NBC affiliate, in 1958 and 1959 and later, from 1960 to 1962, on WJW TV, (then the CBS affiliate) on the weekday morning film (under the Ernie's Place banner) where he also wrote material for the comedic skits shown in between film intermissions. Conway recorded a comedy album with Anderson.

However, WJW dismissed Conway, in part because he (and Anderson) misled station management into thinking he was a director.^[3] Because of this move, which deprived Anderson of his co-host and comic foil, the station asked Anderson if he could host a B-grade (and lower) horror film show on Friday nights instead. Conway would continue to make many appearances alongside Anderson's alter ego Ghoulardi, in addition to "Big Chuck" Schodowski, a station engineer who Anderson got to assume much of Conway's sidekick status (and who would ultimately succeed Anderson as co-host of the horror film program).

After he became famous, Conway would resurface periodically on Cleveland television on the Hoolihan and Big Chuck and Big Chuck and Lil' John shows on WJW-TV in guest spots, and occasional skits. Conway has since made regular guest appearances at numerous "Ghoulardifest" functions held by WJW over the years, along with former Cleveland TV personality Bob "Hoolihan" Wells, in tribute to Anderson, who died in 1997.

[edit] The Steve Allen Show

Comedic actress Rose Marie visited WJW in 1961, as part of CBS's promotional practice of sending their major show stars directly to local affiliates: in this case, it was for The Dick Van Dyke Show. She viewed film of some of Anderson and Conway's skits and proceeded to take Conway under her wing. Following his departure from WJW, Conway moved to New York City; where, with Rose Marie's assistance, he auditioned for, and gained a spot on, ABC's The Steve Allen Show as a regular player^[4]. Conway (who by this point had officially changed his first name to Tim) continued on the show for two seasons.

[edit] McHale's Navy

Conway gained a national following from his role as the bumbling, naive Ensign Charles Parker, Executive Officer of the PT-73, in the 1960s sitcom McHale's Navy, alongside Ernest Borgnine and Joe Flynn.

Afterwards, he starred in a string of short-lived TV series, starting with 1967's Rango which starred Conway as an incompetent Texas Ranger.

[edit] Turn-On

Conway was part of one of the most infamous network TV flops ever: Turn-On, a countercultural sketch comedy show on ABC derided as a ripoff of NBC's Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. Even though he was only listed as a guest star on the pilot, which ABC broadcast on February 5, 1969, it was the only episode that ever aired.

Turn-On received such negative reaction that several ABC affiliates. TV station WEWS, in Conway's hometown Cleveland, refused to return to the program after the first commercial break, and WEWS management sent an angrily worded telegram to the network's headquarters. Many West Coast affiliates received advanced warning and refused to air it. Conway remarked that the show's premiere party he attended also marked the program's cancellation,^[5][6] but ABC did not officially cancel the program for several days.

[edit] The Tim Conway Show

Conway and Flynn in The Tim Conway Show, 1970.

In the 1970s, The Tim Conway Show paired Tim with Joe Flynn of McHale's Navy in a sitcom as owners-pilots of a one-plane (a Beechcraft 18) airline operated by the pair. Having "nowhere to run", this pressurized situation was ideal for the fast repartee of the lead actors. Tim got his own hour-long variety show, The Tim Conway Razzle Dazzle Hour, which, as his other series had, folded quickly. Typical of his self-effacing humor, he ordered his car's license plate to reflect the short duration of a Conway TV series: "13 WKS" (weeks).^[4]

Beginning in 1975 Conway was often paired with Don Knotts in family films from Disney, including The Apple Dumpling Gang and its 1979 sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again. They also starred in two independent films, a boxing comedy called The Prize Fighter in 1979, and a 1980 mystery comedy film called The Private Eyes. In 1983, he starred in another TV show, Ace Crawford, Private Eye, a parody of detective series; it only lasted five episodes.

[edit] The Carol Burnett Show

Conway then became a regular on The Carol Burnett Show starting in the 1975-76 season^[4]. Conway's work on the show earned him five Emmy Awards. Two of Conway's memorable characters on the Burnett Show were:

• "The Old Man," whose shaggy white hair, slow speech, and shuffling gait ran counter to the much needed energy levels of the various occupations he was usually found in. His comic inability to get said jobs done — usually with slapstick results to himself, and with many an ad-lib — would both frustrate and 'break up' his fellow sketch performers.
• "Mr. Tudball," a Swedish-American businessman whose intentions of running a 'ship-shape' office were usually sunk by the bored indifference of his secretary, "Mrs. Wiggins" (Burnett). Conway used a stereotypical Swedish accent (especially when frustrated); for example, his attempts to pronounce his secretary's name came out as "Mrs. Ah-huh-wiggins". He would also use this accent for other characters, such as an inept dentist.

Conway could also get results with no dialogue, as in a sketch in which he played a tired businessman seeking restful sleep in his hotel — and pestered by a housefly, created only by a sound effect and Conway's gazing after it. After much struggle, he manages to get the fly out of the room through the window; after returning to bed, he hears a persistent knock on his door, gets up to answer it, and opens the door, letting the fly (who was doing the knocking) back in.

Another well-remembered skit, also without a word from Conway, featured him playing Simba, a lion raised by humans then released to the wild (based on the lioness Elsa in the film Born Free). Conway, told of the upcoming eviction from the comfortable home, caused Burnett and Korman to break up with an interminable process of packing to leave.

A prime example of his ability to make his co-stars laugh uncontrollably involved Lyle Waggoner as a captured American airman, with Conway as a stereotypical blond-haired Gestapo agent charged with his interrogation. Stating that "the Fuhrer" had taken particular interest, Conway produces a small Hitler hand puppet. With Conway providing a falsetto voice, the puppet suggests that singing might relax Waggoner's character to the point he is willing to talk. In a long, drawn-out fashion, the Hitler puppet sings "I've Been Working on the Railroad", and with each passing verse, Waggoner loses more of his composure, finally laughing hysterically when puppet-Hitler screeches, "FEE-FI-Fiddely-I-O!"

Dorf[link]

Conway's more recent work includes a series of satirical how-to videos in which he plays a diminutive, dark-haired Scandinavian known as Dorf (a variation on "dwarf"), reprising his goofy Mr. Tudball accent. The Dorf character first appeared in the 1987 film Dorf on Golf and has since appeared in eight other films on a variety of sports from baseball to auto racing. Dorf on Golf was remastered for DVD in 2007. In 2010, all of the Dorf films were remastered on a DVD Collection featuring all eight films, a behind the scenes with Dorf, and a commentary track by Tim Conway on "The Legend of the Paddle: The Oldie Hollis Story".

Since 2009 Tim Conway's Dorf character has started "helping" Santa Claus on the website iSpotSanta,^[7] created by comedy filmmaker Pasquale Murena and Anything Goes Productions. Each year Dorf has three sketches; in 2009 he tried to give Santa his Christmas list, failing and accidentally hitting Santa with a golf ball. Then in 2010 he tried to give all of the world's letters to Santa directly using jet rockets to fly to his sleigh, cannon balls and more.

Other television[link]

Conway as an angel with Robert Morse on That's Life, 1968.

Conway has also made many guest appearances and other roles in television.

He guest-starred in ABC's Coach, for which he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series playing Kenny Montague in the 1996 episode "The Gardener".^[8] Conway won another Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his role as Bucky Bright in the 30 Rock episode "Subway Hero", which initially aired on April 17, 2008.

His other TV roles include:

• Batman: The Brave and the Bold, where in one episode he voiced the Weeper, a washed up former supervillain idolized by the Joker.
• Channing, a drama about college life in the early 1960s.
• Diagnosis: Murder, in 1997. Tim Conway and Harvey Korman appeared in a episode called "Comedy is Murder", playing former comedy partners called Tim Conrad and Harvey Huckaby. A clip of the well-known dentist sketch from The Carol Burnett Show was used to illustrate "Huckaby and Conrad"s former television partnership.
• Garfield's Fun Fest, where Conway voiced Freddy Frog and other characters.
• Hermie and Friends, Max Lucado's animated cartoon, where he provides the voice of the title character in all eight episodes so far.
• Hot in Cleveland. On July 28, 2010, Conway guest-starred in an episode of the TV Land sitcom.
• Married... with Children in several apparances portraying Ephraim Wanker, the hillbilly father of Peg Bundy.
• The New Scooby Doo Movies, where Conway appeared in animated form in a guest shot in the October 6, 1973 episode, "The Spirited Spooked Sports Show".
• On The Spot. In 2003, he returned to television on the short-lived WB Network comedy.
• SpongeBob SquarePants, where Tim voices the character "Barnacle Boy" in a recurring role on the Nickelodeon cartoon sitcom; in this role, he is once again paired up as the sidekick to his old McHale's Navy co-star, Ernest Borgnine (who voices Mermaid Man, the "mentor" of Barnacle Boy).
• Wizards of Waverly Place, playing Cragmont in the episode Justin's Back In.
• Yes Dear. Conway has guest starred occasionally on the CBS sitcom, playing Tom Warner, the father of Anthony Clark's stuffy character, Greg, with Conway's old Carol Burnett Show co-star Vicki Lawrence playing his wife, Greg's overbearing mother.

He has lent his voice to other TV shows including The Simpsons, Disney spin-off Hercules, The Wild Thornberrys, Cybill, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, The Proud Family, Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!, Caillou and What's with Andy?. He also narrated The Secret Shortcut in Reading Rainbow and hosted The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration.

During The Biography Channel's biography of Conway, Borgnine referred to Conway as "a credit to his profession" and Burnett said words to the effect that Conway's talent for comedy was only outstripped by his genuine kindness and good nature.^{[citation needed]}

On his 75th birthday, Conway was interviewed as a guest on The Bonnie Hunt Show and given a surprise cake by Bob Newhart.

Other film and video[link]

He starred in Disney films such as The World's Greatest Athlete (1973), The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975) and Gus (1976). He starred in the 1977 comedy film The Billion Dollar Hobo.

Conway and Harvey Korman created a Collector's Edition DVD of new comedy sketches, titled Together Again; sold through Conway's official website.

From 2003 through the present, Conway teamed up with good friend Don Knotts again to provide voices for the direct-to-video children's series Hermie and Friends, which would continue until Knotts' death in 2006. Conway continues to do the series.

Personal life[link]

Conway has been married twice. He was married to Mary Anne Dalton from 1961 until 1978. They had six children together. He has been married to Charlene Fusco since May 18, 1984.^[1] Among Tim Conway's children is KFI Los Angeles radio host Tim Conway, Jr.

Charitable endeavors[link]

On June 6, 7 and 8, 2010, Conway came back to his hometown of Chagrin Falls to put on a fund-raising performance at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre to help kick off their capital campaign.^[9]

He is a spokesperson for the United Leukodystrophy Foundation.^[10]

A fan of thoroughbred horse racing, and an occasional racehorse owner, Conway is a co-founder and vice-president, of the Board of Directors of the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund.^[11]

Other honors[link]

On February 1, 2010, Conway was awarded the PTC Integrity in Entertainment Award, which says that "recognizes those individuals and corporations who have demonstrated a longstanding commitment to creating, distributing and sponsoring quality entertainment that is free from graphic and gratuitous sex, violence and profanity."

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tim Conway

• Official website
• Tim Conway at the Internet Movie Database
• Interview, Archive of American Television, 20 April 2004 on Google Video
• Disney Legends profile
• Two takes on "The Elephant Story"
• Q&A with Tim Conway