JACK BENNY BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudeville performer, Radio and TV, movie, and film actor. In the 20th century, this man was regarded as one of the country’s most popular entertainers, and still today many comedy performances find great influence in Benny’s work. He was born as Benjamin Kubelsky on February 14, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois. The performer grew up in Waukegan, Illinois, were he developed a prodigious talent for the violin. His parents encouraged his musical growth, supplying him with a small instrument and expensive lessons. It seemed to pay off, for when he reached fifteen years of age, he was offered a job to play in an orchestra at a local theater. Shortly after getting expelled from high school, Benny joined the vaudeville circuit.
During World War I he joined the Navy, and he often entertained the troops by playing violin or telling jokes. It was while serving that he gained a reputation as both a musician and a comedian. After protecting the shores around Lake Michigan, Benny returned to the stage with a comedy act. Throughout the twenties, the performer got a chance to perfect his comic skills, stage presence, and theatrical personality. The result was a style all his own. Slowly he built up his popularity, and eventually topped out as one of the headliners.
In 1929 Irving Thalberg signed the comic up for a five year contract at MGM. In his first film, “The Hollywood Revue” (1929), Benny played the Master of Ceremonies, and helped the movie receive a nomination for the Best Picture Academy Award. In his subsequent feature, the musical comedy “Chasing Rainbows” (1930), he portrayed a theater director. The new film actor got his first starring role in “The Medicine Man” (1930) shortly following. However, his pictures were poorly received, and in 1932 he found his real calling: radio.
While on air he gained a large fan following – they loved his haughty and miserly persona, who promised to always be only thirty nine years old and could not play the violin. His timing was also magnificent. Benny knew just when to switch to silence – leaving the crowd hysterically laughing at every second that ticked by without dialogue. “The Jack Benny Program” was so popular that it lasted an astonishing twenty three years on the radio.
In the meantime, he would not give up on motion pictures, and continued to appear in films until 1967. He played somewhat funny romantic leads in “It’s in the Air” (1935), “Artists and Models” (1936), and “Artists and Models Abroad” (1936). Benny’s most notable pictures came in the forties, though, “Charley’s Aunt” (1941), “To Be or Not to Be” (1942), and “George Washington Slept Here” (1942). Most of his efforts, however, proved to be rather unsuccessful because of the casting he was given; he quite often played his conceited penny-pinching character onscreen, an act which proved to fare much better over the airwaves. Some of the pictures employing his on-air persona actually did find a bit of esteem – like “Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round” (1934), “Man About Town” (1939), and “Buck Benny Rides Again” (1940). But the actor found also horrible failures alongside these moderate successes, including “Love Thy Neighbor” (1940) and “The Horn Blows at Midnight” (1945).
In 1949 the performer produced his first feature, the Dorothy Lamour vehicle “The Lucky Stiff”. He produced only two more projects after: four episodes of the variety show “The Gisele MacKenzie Show” (1957) and one episode of his own series, “The Jack Benny Program” (1965).
During the fifties he added another medium to his ever expanding repertoire of performing feats: television. Benny made a great number of appearance on a number of various TV series, not limited to “G.E. True Theater” (1953-57), “Shower of Stars” (1955-58), “The Lucy Show” (1964-67), and his very own extremely successful “The Jack Benny Program” (1950-65), which ran for an astounding fifteen years. Television proved to also be much more lucrative for the actor than film. He did act in one additional feature after his series ended, “A Guide for the Married Man” (1967). Benny also performed on a few more television series and movies, his final onscreen role being a cameo appearance for the TV movie “The Man” (1972).
The actor was planning on starring in Neil Simon’s film “The Sunshine Boys” (1975), when his health began to deteriorate. He passed away before the filming could be started, on December 26, 1974, from recently discovered, inoperable pancreatic cancer. For all of his hard work and dedication to an assortment of artistic efforts, he won a Golden Globe, a couple of Emmys, and three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame – one for radio, one for television, and one for motion pictures.
Filmography
1972 The Man
1971 The Bob Hope Show
1971 Kraft Music Hall Presents: The Des O'Connor Show
1970 Swing Out, Sweet Land
1970 The Kraft Music Hall
1967 A Guide for the Married Man
1967 All About People
1965 The Jack Benny Program
1964 The Lucy Show
1963 It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
1962 Checkmate
1960 The Slowest Gun in the West
1960 Who Was That Lady?
1959 The Mouse That Jack Built
1958 The George Burns Show
1958 Bachelor Father
1957 The Danny Thomas Show
1957 The Gisele MacKenzie Show
1955 Shower of Stars
1955 The Jackie Gleason Show
1955 Four Star Playhouse
1953 G.E. True Theater
1953 Omnibus
1952 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
1950 The Jack Benny Program
1949 The Lucky Stiff
1945 The Horn Blows at Midnight
1944 Hollywood Canteen
1943 The Meanest Man in the World
1942 George Washington Slept Here
1942 To Be or Not to Be
1941 Charley's Aunt
1940 Love Thy Neighbor
1940 Buck Benny Rides Again
1939 Man About Town
1938 Artists and Models Abroad
1937 Artists & Models
1936 College Holiday
1936 The Big Broadcast of 1937
1935 It's in the Air
1935 Broadway Melody of 1936
1934 Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round
1931 Taxi Tangle
1931 Cab Waiting
1931 A Broadway Romeo
1930 The Medicine Man
1930 Lord Byron of Broadway
1930 The Rounder
1930 Chasing Rainbows
1929 The Hollywood Revue
