Jackie Gleason

Jackie Gleason was born on 26^th February, 1916 in Brooklyn, New York Click to look into! >> Read More... . He was an actor, musician as well as comedian. He was very famous for his comedy and over-bearded look. He also got the syndication license, as a result of which he built his popularity with new audiences. He also developed the show named “The Jackie Gleason” which got second highest rating country wide. Some of his memorable award winning roles includes “Minnesota Fats” in the drama “The Hustler” in 1961 and “Justice” in the series “Smokey and the Bandit” in 1977. His original name was “Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.” but later he got the nick name as “John Herbert Gleason”. His father was “Herbert Walton Herb Gleason”, who was an insurance auditor at Irish-America. His mother was Maise, who was from Cork of Ireland. He had one brother who died when he was 14 years of age, due to Meningitis. He knew his father for having the beautiful hand writing. He used to see him writing policies during evenings in the kitchen. On 14^th December, 1925, he just took his hat, coat and paycheck and after then left his family and that insurance company and never returned back. When Mae confirmed that he is not going to come back again, he started to work as an attendant of subway in the Corporation of “Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit”. When his father left, Gleason started hanging outside in the street with some of his friends.

In Brooklyn, he went on to attend elementary school and attended his high school in Queens named “John Adams” and another high school in Brooklyn “Bushwick”. He once took participation in class play and after that became interested in acting. After leaving the school he joined for the post of “Master of Ceremonies” in a theatre and received $4 for each night. His other jobs includes- stunt driver and carnival barker. After that, in the theatre named “Folly” he joined for the same post to work for the period of two nights in a week. When his father left, his mother took care of him. But when he was 19, his mother died due to sepsis. Then he was left with nothing, just only 36 cents in his hand. HIs first girlfriend’s family wanted to take him to their family but he was a very strong-minded person and did not go. Then one of his friends ‘Sammy Brich’ made arrangement for room in a hotel and he shared that room with the other comedian. Later, His friend told him about a job of reading which was paying $19, which was more than his expectation. The booking agent gave him fare rather instead of salary. It was his first job as the professional comedian and after that he opted to work in small clubs. In 1949, he got his first break in the radio comedy named “The Life of Riley”. Although people gave positive reviews for the show but still there were modest raring for it and in the next year the show was cancelled.

In 1950, he did “The Life of Riley” and it was a big hit. During 1954-55, his show “The Jackie Gleason Show” became the second highest rated show. ‘Ray Bloch’ was the first film director of Jackie and after that ‘Sammy Spear’, who stayed with him during the 1960’s. During 1950-1960, he enjoyed his music career of secondary level. His belief was that there was a huge market for romantic instrumental music. He was married to Genevieve Halford while working in Vaudeville and they started to date. Genevieve was interested in marrying him but Jackie was not interested to marry at that time even after her warning of being getting into relation with someone else. After that when he saw her dating someone else in the club Miami, he went on to the table and proposed her in front of her date. Then they got married on 20^th September, 1936. But after that, Jackie started spending nights out. As a result, the couple broke up in 1941 but again got reconciled in 1948. They gave birth to two daughters but his wife got separated in an informal way again in 1951. In 1954, Gleason suffered from a broken leg and Halford visited him but after finding another girl ‘Marilyn Taylor’, a dancer there, they got divorced in 1970. Before getting divorced in 1968, he met another girl “Beverly”, who was a secretary there, and the couple was together till 1975. In the year 1974, Jackie again encountered Marilyn and they married on 16^th December, 1975. This marriage was lasted as long as in 1987 till his death. He has a daughter ‘Linda Halfrod’ with her first wife, who is also an actress.