George Burns

George Burns

George Burns was an American comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He and his wife, Gracie Allen, appeared on radio, television, and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film ‘The Sunshine Boys,’ for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor.

About George Burns in brief

Summary George BurnsGeorge Burns was an American comedian, actor, singer, and writer. He and his wife, Gracie Allen, appeared on radio, television, and film as the comedy duo Burns and Allen. At age 79, Burns had a sudden career revival as an amiable, beloved, and unusually active comedy elder statesman in the 1975 film The Sunshine Boys. Burns, who became a centenarian in 1996, continued to work until just weeks before his death of cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills. He was one of the few entertainers whose career successfully spanned vaudeville, radio, film, and television. His arched eyebrow and cigar-smoke punctuation became familiar trademarks for over three-quarters of a century. He claimed in a few interviews that the idea of the name originated from the fact that two star major league players were playing major league baseball at the time. He normally partnered with a girl, sometimes in an adagio dance routine, sometimes comic patter. His first wife was Hannah Siegel, one of his partners in The Big Broadcast of 1937, which only occurred because her family would not let them go on the tour unless they married. They divorced at the end of the tour and were together for 20 years before his second wife died in a car accident in 1959. He is survived by his daughter, two sons, three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

He died of a heart attack at his Beverly Hills home in 1996 at the age of 100. He leaves behind a wife and a daughter. He also leaves behind two step-children, a son and a step-granddaughter, and a son-in-law, all of whom are still alive. He had a son, George Jr., who was born on January 20, 1896 in New York City, the ninth of 12 children born to Hadassah and Eliezer Birnbaum. His father was a substitute cantor at the local synagogue but usually worked as a coat presser. Burns was a member of the First Roumanian-American Congregation. He took the name Burns from his brother Izzy, and the Burns from the Burns Brothers Coal Company. : 33. Burns also was reported to have taken the name “George’s” from the brother Izzy, who was a co-worker at a coal mining company in the late 1800s and early 1900s. His daughter, Mary Burns, is also a comedian and appeared in several films with her husband, including “The Big Broadcast” and “A Distress in a Distress of a Kind of A Distress,” in which they danced with Fred Astair and Fred Astaire. Burns’ son, David Burns, was a radio personality and appeared on “Larry King Live’ in the 1950s and 1960s. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film ‘The Sunshine Boys,’ for which he won the Oscar for Best Actor.