Known for:	To Be or Not to Be, Broadway Melody of 1936, The Horn Blows at Midnight
Birth name:	Benjamin Kubelsky
Birthday:	14 February 1894, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Height:	5' 8" (1.73 m)

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Free Image Hosting - Upload your favorite celebrity pictures. Interred at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California, USA. He once appeared on the TV quiz show "The $64,000 Question" (1955). After answering the first question correctly he quit and took home $1.00. His category was violins. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to appear in The Sunshine Boys (1975). After he died, the role was taken over by his friend, George Burns. Pictured on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy; Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. When he appeared as a celebrity guest on the game show "Password" (1961), he got the word "miser" and gave his first clue as, "Me!" thus bringing down the house. Star of "The Canada Dry Program" on NBC Radio (1932) and CBS Radio (1932-1933). 1933-34: Star of NBC Radio's "The Chevrolet Show". 1942-44: Star of NBC Radio's "The Grape Nuts Flakes Program". He sometimes referred cryptically to "my book" in interviews over the years; the manuscript for his autobiography, "Sunday Nights at Seven," wasn't discovered until years after his death. A lifelong lover of classical music, he counted the great violinist Isaac Stern among his closest friends and legendary composer/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff among his greatest fans. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 42-44. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 7/25/55: His first grandchild, Michael, was born to his daughter Joan and Seth Baker. January 1949: A personal friend of Harry S. Truman, he served as Master of Ceremonies for Truman's Inaugural Ball. When he arrived at the White House for the event, a guard pointed to his violin case and asked, "Mr. Benny, what do you have in there?" As a joke, Jack whispered back, "It's a Thompson sub-machine gun." The guard replied, "Oh, that's a relief. I was afraid it was your violin". One of Benny's best-known schticks as a radio star was his long-standing feud with fellow radio comedian Fred Allen. The two often appeared on each other's radio programs to trade barbs. Sadly, other than an appearance on "The Jack Benny Program" (1950), in which Allen tries to steal Jack's sponsor, this did not carry over into television, as Allen died shortly after beginning his own TV show. In real life, of course, Benny and Allen were great friends, and Benny even took time on his radio program to eulogize Allen after his death. At his funeral George Burns began the eulogy but broke down. Bob Hope rose to the podium in a shaky voice and honored the comedian by reading, "for a man who was the undisputed master of comedy timing, you'd have to say that this was the only time when Jack Benny's timing was all wrong. He left us much too soon." Was good friends with actress Giselle Mckenzie (I)--who also played the violin--and often referred to her as "Doll". According to Phyllis Diller's autobiography "Like a Lampshade in a Whorehouse", in the late 1960s Broadway producer David Merrick approached Benny with the idea of him playing Dolly Levi in drag in "Hello, Dolly!" opposite George Burns as Horace Vandergelder. The intention was to turn Broadway on its ear and revive flagging interest in the show, which had been running since 1964, originally with Carol Channing as Dolly Levi. This idea never came to fruition. (Diller did appear in the show for 3 months in 1970.). He was awarded 3 Stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Motion Pictures at 6650 Hollywood Boulevard, for Radio at 1505 Vine Street, and for Television at 6370 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.