Buddy Hackett

At 78 years old, Buddy Hackett has this physical status:

Buddy Hackett (born Leonard Hacker, 1924-2003) was an American actor and comedian.

Marcellus Washburn in The Music Man (1962); Benjy Benjamin in It's a Mad, Mad Mad World (1968); and Scuttle in The Little Mermaid (1989).

Early life

Hackett was one of two children born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York. Anna (née Geller) worked in garment manufactures while his father, Philip Hacker, was a furniture upholsterer and part-time entrepreneur. Hackett grew up at Public School 103 on 54th Street and 14th Avenue in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, and was involved in the varsity football and drama club at New Utrecht High School. As a child, Hackett suffered from Bell's palsy, the lingering effects of which contributed to his distinctive slurred speech and facial expression.

Hackett, a student, spent time in the Catskills as a "tummler" (Yiddish for "tumult manufacturer") entertaining guests. As a student, he began performing stand-up comedy in the resort nightclubs as "Butch Hacker." He appeared first at the Golden Hotel in Hurleyville, New York, and later claimed he did not get one single laugh. Hackett joined the US Army and spent three years in an anti-aircraft battery after graduating from high school in 1942.

Personal life

Hackett married Sherry Cohen on June 12, 1955. In the late 1950s, they lived in Leonia, New Jersey. They purchased the house in Fort Lee, New Jersey, that had previously owned by deceased crime boss Albert Anastasia. They stayed in and lived in the 1960s after renovations and survived there for the majority of the decade. Hackett and his wife established the Singita Animal Sanctuary in the San Fernando Valley of California in 2003. Sandy Hackett's son followed his father into comedy, and his father was always on the lookout for his father before his appearances. Sandy created a one-man stage performance about his father after his death.

He was an avid firearms enthusiast and owned a substantial collection that he sold off in his later years.

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Career

Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. It was here that he changed his name from Leonard Hacker to Buddy Hackett. He appeared in Los Angeles and Las Vegas and continued to perform in the Catskills. He appeared on Broadway in Lunatics and Lovers, where Max Liebman saw him on Broadway and put him in two television specials.

Hackett's film career began in 1950 with a 10-minute "World of Sports" reel for Columbia Pictures titled King of the Pins. The film showcased championship bowling techniques, with expert Joe Wilman demonstrating the correct route and Hackett (in pantomime) exemplifying the incorrect way. Hackett was offered to join the Three Stooges from Jules White, the head of Columbia's short subject department, in 1952, according to an anecdote. Curly Howard suffered a debilitating stroke in 1946; his older brother, Shemp Howard, was supposed to replace him only on a temporary basis until he completely recovered, but Curly Howard died in January 1952. And reportedly, Hackett appeared with Moe Howard and Larry Fine for a rehearsal but ultimately turned down the opportunity because he didn't fit the act's comedic style and wanted to create his own style as a solo performer. This allegation was later dismissed as either untrue or unfounded.

Since one of his nightclub routines attracted interest, Hackett did not return to movies until 1953. Hackett's "The Chinese Waiter" lampooned the heavy dialect, indignation, and communication difficulties encountered by a rushed waiter in a Chinese restaurant, with a rubber band around his head: "We don't have sprit-pea soup... We gotta eh-roll!" says Hackett. "We gotta wonton, we've got sant-pea soup... We gotta wonton, we's Hackett made a video of it and was hired to reprise it in the Universal-International musical Walking My Baby Back Home (1953), in which he was third-billed under Donald O'Connor and Janet Leigh.

Hackett was an emergency substitute for Lou Costello, a similar building that was built in 1954. Save My Child, a half-length comedy starring Spike Jones and His City Slickers, was supposed to be released by Abbott and Costello. Several scenes had been shot with stunt doubles before Lou Costello was forced to leave due to sickness. Hugh O'Brian and Hackett were hired by Universal-International to take over Abbott and Costello roles, with Jones and his band becoming the main attraction.

Hackett made a name for himself on television in the 1950s and 1960s as a regular participant on variety talk shows hosted by Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, featuring brash, often off-color quips, and mugging at the camera. Hackett appeared on both the Jack Paar and the Johnny Carson versions of The Tonight Show. Hackett has the distinction of appearing in the most notable scenes of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, according to the board game Trivial Pursuit. During this period, he appeared on CBS-TV's What's My Line as a panelist and mystery guest. Treasure Hunt, the game show, is a video game. Between 1955 and 1961, he appeared on NBC-TV's The Perry Como Show 15 times. On the Patrice Munsel Exhibition (1957-1958), he appeared alongside Lenny Bruce, calling their comedy pair "Not Ready for Prime Time Players" 20 years before the cast of Saturday Night Live used the same term.

Hackett appeared on ABC's The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. Denver Pyle appeared in both "Bloodlines" (1959) and "The Clarence Bibs Story" (1961). In "Bloodlines," Daniel Malakie, the father of three boisterous brothers destined for prison, was portrayed as Daniel Malakie, and then as Clarence Bibs in the episode of the same name. Bibs is a handyman who mistook a firearms permit for the wrong cause, Longden (X Brands). George Tanner, Longden's former partner (Denver Pyle), arrives to town but avoids confrontation with Bibs and accepts that Wicks' death was accidental.

Hackett appeared as the title character on NBC's Stanley, a 1956–57 situation comedy that lasted for 19 weeks on Monday evenings at 8:30 p.m. ET. Carol Burnett and the voice of Paul Lynde appeared on the half-hour film as well. Max Liebman's produced program aired live before a studio audience, and it was one of the few sitcoms from New York to do so. Stanley's story revolved around the adventures of the titular character (Hackett) as the operator of a newsstand in a posh New York City hotel.

In the film version of The Music Man (1962), Hackett appeared alongside Robert Preston. Hackett appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), in which he had also made Everything's Ducky (1961), in which they played two sailors who smuggle a talking duck aboard a Navy ship, he was paired with Mickey Rooney. In Disney's The Love Bug (1968), children became familiar with him as lovable hippie auto mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz.

He appeared in I Had a Ball in 1964, during a stint on Broadway.

He appeared on the game show Hollywood Squares in the late 1960s and 1970s. Hackett, a Jewish immigrant, was asked which country had the highest percentage of doctors to population, and he replied Israel, or in his words, "the country with the most Jews." Despite the audience's booing and misunderstanding that the correct answer was Sweden, Hackett's own assertion that it was Sweden). Hackett's regular guest shots on Jack Paar's Tonight Show in the early 1960s were rewarded with a coveted spot on Paar's final Tonight Show on March 29, 1962.

Hackett appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show until Carson left the program in 1992.

In 1974, Hackett published The Naked Mind of Buddy Hackett, a collection of poetry by Hackett.

Hackett made a good comeback in 1978 as Lou Costello in Bud and Lou, opposite Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott. Abbott and Costello were the story of the film, and Korman and Korman produced a version of the team's famous "Who's on First?" It's normal.

Hackett, the voice of the groundhog "Pardon Me Pete" (1979), and the narrator of the Rankin/Bass Christmas special Jack Frost (1979), were in 1979. He appeared in the 1980 film Hey Babe! He produced a syndicated revival of the 1950-61 Groucho Marx quiz show You Bet Your Life, which lasted for one year.

Hackett appeared on television commercials for Tuscan Dairy popsicles and yogurt through the 1970s, but Lay's potato chips was his most well-known television commercial campaign ("No one can eat just one!") Hackett was the Lay's representative from 1968 to 1971, and he succeeded Bert Lahr as the Lay's spokesperson. As Lenny Hacker, a parody of his stage persona, he appeared in "To Be or Not To Be" in the Space Rangers episode. Hackett's real name was Hackett's. Mickey Beason III, a comedian who accepted an invitation to accompany his jilted passenger (Arlene Golonka) on a three-day cruise, appeared on the television series The Love Boat in 1979 (Season 3, Episode 3). Hackett appeared on Murder, She Wrote, in 1987 (Season 3, Episode 18). He also appeared in LA as a friend of Secretary Roxanne, who was assisting her in doing free TV infomercials.

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