The George Burns reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004
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George Burns

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George Burns

George Burns (January 20, 1896 - March 9, 1996) was a legendary American vaudeville comedian who went on to work in movies, radio, and early television. He was born as Nathan Birnbaum to Louis and Dorothy Birnbaum, the ninth of twelve children, in New York City, New York.

Burns teamed with his second wife Gracie Allen as "Burns & Allen"; they built their routines and their television sitcom around situations where she said (and did) ditsy things and he made wry comments as asides to the audience, often while brandishing a cigar or golf club. After her death in 1964, he continued to perform and in 1975, after an almost forty year abscence from the screen, he co-starred with Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's hit comedy The Sunshine Boys. In an amazing accomplishment, Burns won a best supporting actor Oscar. He and Jessica Tandy are still the two oldest people to win Academy Awards. Burns is probably best remembered for playing the title role in the 1977 film Oh, God and its sequels (1980 and 1984).

Burns remained deeply devoted to Allen after she passed away. He never re-married, and though he developed a running joke of being a sexy senior citizen (he was often seen in the company of beautiful young women), he was never crude and his devotion to his wife was unquestioned up until his death. On his relationships, he said, "I'd go out with women my age, but there are no women my age."

Table of contents
1 Filmography
2 External links

Filmography

Radio series

In their debut series, George and Gracie shared the bill with Guy Lombardo and his Orchestra. The pair launched themselves into national stardom with their first major publicity stunt, Gracie's ongoing search for her missing brother. This series featured another wildly successful publicity stunt which had Gracie running for President of the United States. Advertising a brand new product called "Spam". . . this show featured musical numbers by jazz great Artie Shaw. This series featured a radical format change, in that George and Gracie played themselves as a married couple for the first time, and the show became a full-fledged domestic situation comedy. This was George's response to a marked drop in ratings under the old "Flirtation Act" format.

TV series

Broadcast live every other week for the first two seasons, 26 episodes per year. Starting in the third season, all episodes were filmed and broadcast weekly, 40 episodes per year. There were 292 episodes created in all. An unsuccessful attempt to continue the format of the The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show without Gracie, the rest of the cast intact. George plays narrator in this short-lived series, just as he had in The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, but with far less on-screen time, as the focus is on a young couple played by Connie Stevens and Ron Harper. Connie Stevens is, essentially, playing a version of Gracie's character. Another short-lived series, this time a weekly comedy anthology program whose only connecting thread was George's presence as host. He does not appear in any of the actual storylines. He was 89 years old when the series was filmed.

External links

George Burns (1893-1978) was an early 20th century American baseball player. See George Henry Burns.