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.
Smokey and the Bandit II (1980): $1,200,000
The Jackie Gleason Show (1966): $50,000/week
Cavalcade of Stars (1949): $750/week
All Through the Night (1942): $500/week

He designed his own fantastic round house that was built in Peekskill, NY in the 1950s and remains a modern marvel. The precious wood interior took special crafting by Swedish carpenters who were brought to the U.S. for a year to work on the house. It contained a basement disco and one of the very first in-home video projection systems. Despite the enormous cost, the Gleason dream house long suffered from a leaky wooden roof. He was legendary for his dislike of rehearsal, even in the early days of live TV. Yet he was equally renowned for his total mastery and control over each production detail and insisted on the show credit: "Entire Production Supervised by Jackie Gleason." Prone to excess with wine, women, song and work, a lifestyle which often led to exhaustion. In such cases, he would check into a hospital for some needed rest. But one famous story has it, when Gleason really felt "sick", he checked himself OUT of the hospital, and went home to be taken care of! Despite his iconic stature as a TV-comedy giant, Gleason never won an EMMY. Grandfather of actor Jason Patric. Eponym of the Jackie Gleason (formerly 5th Avenue) Bus Depot in Brooklyn, New York. Had an interest in the occult as well as an extensive collection of books on the paranormal. Buried in Miami. His grave site is all that one would expect. Engraved in the "riser" of the second step from the top is the classic, "AND AWAY WE GO". Father of actress Linda Miller. On January 20, 1960, a game show he co-developed, "You're In the Picture", premiered on the CBS network. The premise was to have celebrity guests place their heads into a cut out scene and ask the host questions as to guess what picture or historical scene they were in. The show's concept was ill-conceived, especially for co-creator and host Jackie Gleason, who on the next week's broadcast apologized to the viewers, saying "Honesty is the best policy. We had a show last week that laid the biggest bomb! I've seen bombs in my day, but this one made the H-bomb look like a two-inch salute." The time-slot was filled with a variety program; The Jackie Gleason Show. Recorded a number of albums featuring instrumental "mood music" (what is now known today as "lounge music"). Gleason served as producer, band-leader, and (on occasion) vibraphone player, despite the fact that he couldn't read sheet music. Several of the albums included original compositions by Gleason. One album, "Lonesome Echo", topped the charts in 1955, and featured an album cover with original art by 'Salvador Dali' . Once said that Orson Welles bestowed his "The Great One" nickname upon him. The set of _"The Honeymooners" (1955)_ show was based on Jackie's childhood home on Chauncey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (originally Bushwick) area of Brooklyn, New York. The apartment building is still there and looks very much the same as in Jackie's time. On August 2000, cable television station TvLand unveiled a 8 foot bronze statue of Jackie Gleason depicting Ralph Kramden. The statue was placed in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City. There were plans to reunite him with Art Carney for Steven Spielberg's 1941. They were to play two men who would be stationed on top of a Ferris Wheel. Gleason's representatives informed the producers that he would not perform with Art Carney. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 180-183. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387 Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, 1986. Did not like working with young children. Won Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Take Me Along" over his two also-nominated co-stars, Walter Pidgeon and Robert Morse . He was not only a boxer and carnival barker in his early years, but also a pool hustler. Interestingly, he went on to play Minnesota Fats in The Hustler with Paul Newman. Is portrayed by Brad Garrett in Gleason and by Sean Cullen in Martin and Lewis The Miami Beach Auditorium was re-named the Jackie Gleason Theater and is located on 17th Street and Washington Avenue on South Beach. The Jackie Gleason Show helped propel the tourist industry in Miami Beach in the early & mid 1960s. Was a mentor and frequent drinking buddy of Frank Sinatra. It was Gleason who first introduced Frank Sinatra to Jack Daniel's whiskey, which became Frank Sinatra's signature drink. His family background was, according to most accounts, almost Dickensian. It was marked by severe illness and grinding poverty, in any event. His father, Herb Gleason, was a henpecked insurance clerk who took his myriad disappointments in life out in drink. He deserted the family when Jackie was nine and died sometime in the late 1940s. His mother, the former Mae Kelly, was a superstitious, quarrelsome woman, overprotective of her younger son, who died when Jackie was in his teens. An older brother, Clemence, was a wan, sickly lad who died, probably of tuberculosis, at the age of fourteen, when Jackie was three.