'Jack Gilford' (
July 25,
1908 –
June 2,
1990) was an
American actor on
Broadway,
films and
television.
Biography
Early life
Gilford was born 'Jacob Aaron Gellman' on the lower East Side of Manhattan in
New York City, and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. His parents were
Romanian-born Jewish immigrants Sophie ("Susksa") Jackness, who owned a restaurant and was also a
bootlegger, and Aaron Gellman, a
furrier.
[1] Gilford was the second of three sons, with an older brother Murray ("Moisha") and a younger brother Nathaniel ("Natie").
Gilford was discovered working in a pharmacy by his mentor
Milton Berle. While working in amateur theater, he competed with other talented youngsters, including a young
Jackie Gleason. He started doing imitations and impersonations. His first appearance on film was a short entitled ''Midnight Melodies'' where he did his imitations of
George Jessel,
Rudy Vallee and
Harry Langdon. He developed some unique impressions that became his trademarks — most notably, one of "split pea soup coming to a furious boil" using only his face. Other unusual impressions he created were a fluorescent light going on in a dark room,
John D. Rockefeller Sr. imitating
Jimmy Durante, and impressions of animals.
Career
In 1938, Gilford worked as the MC in the first downtown New York integrated nightclub, "Cafe Society". He created original spoofs on movies — in one of them, he coined the now-common phrase "The butler did it". He was a unique blend of the earlier style of the Yiddish theater, Vaudeville and Burlesque and started the tradition of Monology such as later comedians
Lenny Bruce and
Woody Allen used.
One of Gilford's specialties was pantomime, and this talent was put to good use by director
George Abbott when he cast Gilford as the silent King Sextimus in ''Once upon a Mattress'' (
Off-Broadway,
1959). Gilford shared the stage with a young
Carol Burnett in this production, and reprised his performance with her in two separate televised versions of the show, in
1964 and in
1972.
His talent for pantomime was also employed to a great extent in the ten years Gilford was the face of the
Cracker Jack TV commercials. The most memorable of these commercials featured Gilford walking through the sleeping car of a train when he discovers two passengers passing a box of Cracker Jack back and forth between their sleeping compartments and decides to surreptitiously intercept.
Gilford won many awards. He was nominated for several Tony awards for best supporting actor as Hysterium in ''
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (
1963), and for his role as Herr Schultz in ''
Cabaret'' (
1966). He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in (
1972) for his role as Phil Green in ''
Save the Tiger'' (his co-star
Jack Lemmon won for Best Actor).
Gilford's career was derailed for a time. He believed deeply in social change in the United States, integration and Unions. He was quite active both socially and politically. He had to pay a price for this as many who were ruined by the 1950s political "witch hunt" of
Joseph McCarthy and the
House Un-American Activities Committee along with the
Hollywood blacklist. But he managed to become successful mostly through roles on the Broadway stage, such as ''Drink To Me Only'', ''Romanoff and Juliet'', and ''The Diary of Anne Frank''.
Some of Gilford's most memorable work was done for series television, where he made numerous guest appearances. Some notable examples:
★ ''
Get Smart'' (
1969), playing Simon the Likeable
★ ''
Soap'' (
1979), recurring role as Saul, a 4000-year-old man abducted by aliens
★ ''
Taxi'', (
1979,
1981), two appearances as "Joe Reiger", the cold, uncaring father to
Judd Hirsch's sensitive and caring "Alex Reiger" character. In one of these episodes, Gilford reprised his old "pea soup coming to a furious boil" impression
★ ''
The Golden Girls'', (
1988,
1990), playing "Max Weinstock"
★ Other series: ''
The Defenders'', ''
All in the Family'', ''
The Duck Factory'', ''
Rhoda'', ''
Night Court'', ''
Car 54, Where Are You?''.
Gilford and his wife, Madeline Lee, created a Jack Gilford Special in 1981 for Canadian cable CBS. At this time after forty years of night club performing, Gilford started to perform his one man shows in the 1980s. This included appearances at the Paramount Theater in
Denver, as well as Town Hall NYC. He went on to became a highly recognizable and loved comedic, serious and character actor.
One of his last performances was on the
ABC TV series ''
thirtysomething''.
Personal life
Gilford met actress (and later producer) Madeline Lee at political meetings in 1947. They were married and were partners for forty years. He and Lee raised three children: Lisa Gilford (from Madeline's previous marriage), now a producer; Joseph Edward Gilford, a screenwriter, playwright and director; and Sam Max Gilford, an artist and archivist.
At the age of 81, after a three-year battle with
stomach cancer, he died peacefully in his
Greenwich Village home in Manhattan in 1990.
Broadway stage appearances
★ ''Meet the People'' (1940–1941, musical revue)
★ ''They Should Have Stood in Bed'' (1942, play)
★ ''
Alive and Kicking'' (1950, musical revue)
★ ''The Live Wire'' (1950, play)
★ ''The World of Sholem Aleichem'' (1953, play,
Off-Broadway)
★ ''
The Diary of Anne Frank'' (1955–1957, play)
★ ''
Romanoff and Juliet'' (1957–1958, play)
★ ''Drink to Me Only'' (1958, play)
★ ''Look After Lulu'' (1959, play)
★ ''
Once Upon a Mattress'' (1959, musical) — Gilford initially played the role of King Sextimus
Off-Broadway. When the show moved to
Broadway, the role was played by
Will Lee instead. Gilford, though, reprised his Sextimus performance for two
television productions of the musical.
★ ''The Tenth Man'' (1959–1961, play)
★ ''
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' (1962–1964, musical)
★ ''
Cabaret'' (1966–1968, musical)
★ ''Three Men on a Horse'' (1969–1970, play, revival)
★ ''
No, No, Nanette'' (1971, revival, musical)
★ ''
The Sunshine Boys'' (1973–1974, play, replacement for
Jack Albertson)
★ ''
Sly Fox'' (1976–1978, play)
★ ''The Supporting Cast'' (1981, play)
★ ''The World of Sholem Aleichem'' (1982, play, revival)
Filmography
References
1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/23/Jack-Gilford.html
External links
★
★
Jack Gilford's Gravesite
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