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George Burns
Nathan Birnbaum
January 20, 1896 – March 9, 1996
Birthplace: New York, New York
"I can't understand why I flunked American history. When I was a kid there was so little of it."
-George Burns
At the time of his Oscar win, he was the oldest recipient of an Oscar. He was 80 when he won the 1976 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for The Sunshine Boys (1975). This record was surpassed by Jessica Tandy in 1990. However, as of 2007 he still is the oldest recipient of an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
After several unsuccessful attempts at a vaudeville career, Burns's luck changed in 1923, when he formed the Burns and Allen duo with young comic Gracie Allen (he would marry her in 1926). Gracie at first played the "straight man", but her wacky descriptions of her large family managed to garner all the laughs and the team wisely reversed roles. Having become vaudeville stars, the team appeared in several short films, made their feature debut with "The Big Broadcast" (1932) and played in several, mostly forgettable, movies during the 1930s and 40s.
With their low-keyed comic banter, Burns and Allen became a successful radio team and then starred in their own TV series from 1950 until Allen's retirement in 1958 (she died six years later).
Burns continued his career as a solo comedian and made an outstanding film comeback in 1975 with his award-winning performance as a cantankerous old vaudevillian in "The Sunshine Boys". He subsequently appeared in several features, notably as the omniscient title character of Carl Reiner's "Oh, God!" (1977), and continued to smoke his trademark cigars, talk-sing his charming vaudeville-based patter songs, and wryly joke about his ageless virility and various other ups and downs about growing old. As he had promised for years, Burns did indeed make it to age 100 and his centennial birthday was celebrated nationally. Seven weeks later, Burns died in his sleep of natural causes on March 9, 1996.
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Best friends with fellow comedian Jack Benny, who also served as best man at his and Gracie's wedding. George loved playing jokes on Benny--almost as much as watching him laugh (and pound the floor) afterwards.
Actually wore a hairpiece for most of his performing career; appears briefly without it in The Sunshine Boys (1975).
George and Gracie continued to play single, even years after they were married; declining ratings prompted George to "update" the act on-air. He said later, "We were the only couple on radio who got married because we had to."
Took the name "Burns" from the Burns Brothers Coal Company, whose trucks he'd stolen lumps from growing up, to help heat the family home. "George" was a sobriquet his brother occasionally used.
His first marriage was in name only.In the early 1920s, George was doing a ballroom dancing act with Hannah Siegal, and they were offered a 36-week contract to go out on the road. When her dad objected to her traveling with a young man outside the bonds of matrimony, George and Hannah got married so as not to turn down the offer. When they returned from their three-month engagement, they divorced.
In the early 1940s, during the height of their popularity, George Burns had a brief extra-marital affair. He apologized to Gracie by giving her a new coffee table, and nothing more was said about it. However, years later, when Gracie was serving coffee to a friend in their living room, George overheard her say, "You know, I wish George would have another affair. I really need a new coffee table."
Interviewed around the time of the death of his wife Gracie, in the summer of 1964, Burns described Gracie as being his "next breath.".
George Burns worked as a trick roller-skater, a dance teacher and vaudeville performer from age 14
"Actually, it only takes one drink to get me loaded. Trouble is, I can't remember if it's the thirteenth or fourteenth."
-George Burns
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"Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples." - George Burns
"This is the sixth book I've written,
which isn't bad for a guy whos only read two." -George Burns
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