Jack Benny

Jack Benny

Jack Benny was an American entertainer who transitioned from modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny often portrayed his character as a miser, who obliviously played his violin badly, and ridiculously claimed to be 39 years of age, regardless of his actual age.

About Jack Benny in brief

Summary Jack BennyJack Benny was an American entertainer, who transitioned from modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to a highly popular comedic career in radio, television, and film. His radio and television programs, popular from 1932 until his death in 1974, were a major influence on the sitcom genre. Benny often portrayed his character as a miser, who obliviously played his violin badly, and ridiculously claimed to be 39 years of age, regardless of his actual age. Benny began studying violin, an instrument that became his trademark, at the age of 6, his parents hoping for him to become a professional violinist. Benny left show business briefly in 1917 to join the United States Navy during World War I, and often entertained the sailors with his violin playing. He later adopted a daughter, Joan Babe, who would be a target for his most targetting routine, Adopting the Livingstone name for her younger sister, Sadie Marks. Benny was introduced to Sadie by Gracie Allen. In 1922, Benny accompanied Zeppo Marx to a Passover meeting where he met 17-year-old Sadie Seder. They instantly fell in love and married the following year. They later had a son, Jack Benny, who died in a car accident in 1974. Benny and Sadie collaborated with Mary Livingstone, his adopted daughter, throughout his career, and later adopted her older sister, Babe, to fill in for the “dumb girl” part in a Benny routine in a movie.

Benny died in 1974 and was buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. He was buried next to his wife, Mary Livingston, in a plot of land that was once owned by the family of his first wife, the late Mary Adoptee. He is survived by his three children, three grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. Benny is buried at Mount Sinai Cemetery in New York City, where he is buried with his wife and their three great-great-granddaughters. He also leaves behind a wife and two step-daughters, who he met in his early days of show business. He died of complications from a heart attack in 1986, aged 82. He had been married for more than 50 years and had three children. Benny’s last name was Kubelsky, but he changed it to Benny after legal pressure from Ben Bernie, a patter-and-fiddle performer, regarding his name, so he adopted the sailor’s nickname of Jack. Benny had some romantic encounters, including one with dancer Mary Kelly, whose devoutly Catholic family forced her to turn down his proposal because he was Jewish. In 1921, the low-key comedy took over, and Benny was more of a prop, and theLow-key Comedy took over. Benny met his wife in 1922, when he tried to meet her in Vancouver at the residence of the May Company. He did not go to Canada for the first time until he was 30–31 years old.