Jackie Gleason (born Herbert John Gleason, February 26, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York (in the neighborhood of Bushwick); d. June 24, 1987 in Inverrary, Florida), a rotund comedian and actor, became one of America's most beloved television entertainers in the medium's coming-of-age years.
Nicknamed "The Great One" , there is debate to this day as to who gave him the nickname; some biographers claim Orson Welles, others claim Gleason hung it upon himself, as he may well have done. Gleason is best remembered for his brashly versatile comedy and swift ad-libbing, particularly in that immortal comic portrait of his Chauncey Street neighbourhood in The Honeymooners, as Ralph Kramden.
Gleason repeatedly proved himself to be as fine a dramatic actor as he was a comedian in films like Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), Soldier in the Rain (1963) with Steve McQueen, and his Oscar-nominated performance opposite Paul Newman in The Hustler (1961), but he never fully understood how much his comedy really meant, how utterly singular it was, and how enduring the absolute best of it has proven to be.
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
