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
The Fabulous Fifties (1960): $50,000
Springtime in the Rockies (1942): $250/week
Orchestra Wives (1942): $250/week
Larceny, Inc. (1942): $250/week
Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1942): $250/week
All Through the Night (1941): $250/week
Navy Blues (1941): $250/week

He designed his own fantastic round house that was built in Peekskill, New York, 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. 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! Grandfather of actor Jason Patric. Had an interest in the occult as well as an extensive collection of books on the paranormal. Father of actress Linda Miller. 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 Dalí. 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. There were plans to reunite him with Art Carney for Steven Spielberg's 1941 (1979). They were to play two men who would be stationed on top of a Ferris Wheel. However, Gleason's representatives informed the producers that he would not perform with Carney. Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, 1986. 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 . The Miami Beach Auditorium was re-named the Jackie Gleason Theater and is located on 17th Street and Washington Avenue on South Beach. Was a mentor and frequent drinking buddy of Frank Sinatra. It was Gleason who first introduced Sinatra to Jack Daniels whiskey, which became Sinatra's signature drink. In the 1930s, before he ever really made it even in smalltime venues, he was a bartender at a bar in Newark, New Jersey, called the Blue Mirror. He wore his apron high on the chest just like he did as his "Joe the Bartender" character 30 years later on his television show, and he entertained the patrons with his antics, just like "Joe the Bartender." Eventually, he got such a following that the owner gave him a chance at the microphone on stage. The rest, as they say, is history. This was also a time when he actually lived and slept in the back room with the empty bottles, etc. And, of course, it was across the street from a pool hall that he patronized in the afternoons after he was finished cleaning up the Blue Mirror. Has a street named after him in Iowa City, Iowa. Appears as Ralph Kramden, with Art Carney as Ed Norton, on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring "The Honeymooners" (1955). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.