Jackie Gleason

Cast · Writer · Director

Born

February 26, 1916 · Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Died

June 24, 1987

Birth name

Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.

Comedian, actor, composer and conductor, educated in New York public schools. He was a master of ceremonies in amateur shows, a carnival barker, daredevil driver and a disc jockey, and later a comedian in night clubs. By the mid-1950s he had turned to writing original music and recording a series of popular and best-selling albums with his orchestra for Capitol Records. Joining ASCAP in 1953, his instrumental compositions include "Melancholy Serenade", "Glamour", "Lover's Rhapsody", "On the Beach" and "To a Sleeping Beauty", among numerous others.