Remembering Jonathan Winters and Maria Tallchief

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• published: 10 May 2013
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Two Geniuses THE GREATEST IMPROVISATIONAL COMEDIAN AND THE PRIMA BALLERINA As a comedian, Jonathan Winters could do more with less than anyone. Give him a stick and he could improvise funny characters for five minutes on the spot. He was so good, no one could keep a straight face while being onstage with him. He did movies and television, and won the 1999 Mark Twin Humor Award but he was at his best on a moment's notice. Maria Tallchief came out of the Osage country of Oklahoma to become one of America's greatest ballerinas. Along with her onetime husband George Balanchine, she helped open the New York City Ballet and she was a fixture on the Chicago ballet scene for years. Her performances of The Firebird and Dying Swan are among the most memorable in American ballet. onathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 -- April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author and artist. Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also had records released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 nominations for Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album during his career and winning a Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for his contribution to an adaptation of The Little Prince in 1976 and the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Crank(y) Calls in 1996. With a career spanning more than six decades, Winters appeared in hundreds of television show episodes/series and films combined, including eccentric characters on The Steve Allen Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters (1972--74), Mork & Mindy, Hee Haw and in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. After voicing Grandpa Smurf on The Smurfs (1986--89) and Papa Smurf in The Smurfs (2011 film), Winters's final feature film was The Smurfs 2 in 2013, which will be dedicated in his memory. A pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy with a gift for mimicry, impersonations, various personalities and a seemingly bottomless reservoir of creative energy, Winters was one of the first celebrities to go public with a personal mental illness issue and felt stigmatized as a result.[3] According to Jack Paar, "If you were to ask me the funniest 25 people I've ever known, I'd say, 'Here they are — Jonathan Winters'." He also said of Winters, "Pound for pound, the funniest man alive".[3] In 1991, Winters earned an Emmy Award for his supporting role in Davis Rules. In 1999, Winters was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2002, he earned an Emmy nomination as a guest star in a comedy series for Life With Bonnie. In 2008, Winters was presented with a Pioneer TV Land Award by Robin Williams. Winters also spent time painting and presenting his artwork, including silkscreens and sketches, in many gallery shows. Additionally, he authored several books. His book of short stories, titled Winters' Tales (1988), made the bestseller lists. Winters' career started as a result of a lost wristwatch, about six or seven months after his marriage to Eileen in 1948. The newlyweds couldn't afford to buy another one. Then Eileen read about a talent contest in which the first prize was a wristwatch, and encouraged Jonathan to "go down and win it". She was certain he could, and he did.[6][13] His performance led to a disc jockey job, where he was supposed to introduce songs and announce the temperature.[6] Gradually his ad libs, personas, and antics took over the show.[14] Winters had made television history in 1956, when RCA broadcast the first public demonstration of color videotape on The Jonathan Winters Show. Author David Hajdu wrote in The New York Times (2006), "He soon used video technology 'to appear as two characters', bantering back-and-forth, seemingly in the studio at the same time. You could say he invented the video stunt."[8] His big break occurred (with the revised name of Jonathan) when he worked for Alistair Cooke on the CBS Television Sunday morning show Omnibus.[15] In 1957, he performed in the first color television show, a 15-minute routine sponsored by Tums.[16] Winters performing a routine on The NBC Comedy Hour (1956) Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label (12), starting in 1960. Probably the best-known of his characters from this period is "Maude Frickert", the seemingly sweet old lady with the barbed tongue. He was a favorite of Jack Paar, who hosted The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962, and appeared frequently on his television programs, even going so far as to impersonate then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy over the telephone as a prank on Paar. However, Winters had a dramatic role in the The Twilight Zone episode "A Game of Pool" (episode 3.5 on October 13, 1961)