Jackie Gleason

At 71 years old, Jackie Gleason physical status not available right now. We will update Jackie Gleason's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

John Herbert Gleason (February 26, 1916 – June 24, 1987) was an American comedian, writer, composer, and conductor.

He was known for his brash visual and verbal comedy as exemplified by his bus driver Ralph Kramden's character in the television series The Honeymooners, and he was known for his brash physical and verbal comedy.

He also created The Jackie Gleason Show, which attracted raves from the mid-1950s to 1970.

After starting in New York City, filming in Miami Beach, Florida, in 1964, when Gleason took up permanent residence there. Among his notable film appearances were Minnesota Fats in 1961's The Hustler (co-starring Paul Newman) and Buford T. Justice in the Smokey and the Bandit series from 1977 to 1980 (co-starring Burt Reynolds). Gleason enjoyed a burgeoning secondary music career, releasing a number of best-selling "mood music" albums during the 1950s and 1960s.

Music for Lovers Only's first album, released in 153 weeks, has a record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums, Music for Lovers Only, have sold over a million copies each.

His output includes 20-plus singles, nearly 60 long-playing record albums, and more than 40 CDs.

Early life

Gleason was born in 1926 on Chauncey Street, now Bedford-Stuyvesant) section of Brooklyn. At birth, Herbert Walton Gleason Jr. was born and lived at 328 Chauncey Street, Apartment 1A (an address he later used for Ralph and Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners). Herbert Herbert "Herb" Gleason (1883-1939), born in New York City, and Mae Agnes "Maisie" (née Kelly, 1886-1935). According to the majority, his mother was from Farranee, County Cork, Ireland. Gleason was the younger of two children; his older brother, Clement, died of meningitis at the age of 14 in 1919.

"Beautiful handwriting," Gleason recalls of Clement and his father. He used to sit at the family's table, writing insurance policies in the evenings. The father of Gleason's father died of any family pictures in which he appeared on the night of December 14, 1925; right after noon on December 15, he collected his hat, jacket, and paycheck, and briefly left his family and work at the insurance company. Mae began working as a subway attendant for the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation as it became apparent that he was not returning to work (BMT).

Young Gleason began hanging around with a local gang, hustling the muddy pool after his father left the family. He went to P.S.A. 73 Elementary School in Brooklyn, John Adams High School in Queens, and Bushwick High School in Brooklyn. After being part of a class play, Gleason began attending school and went into a career that paid $4 per night (equivalent to $84 in 2021) as the master of ceremonies at a theater. He held other occupations at the time, such as a pool hall employee, stuntman, and carnival barker. Gleason and his family made the rounds of the local theaters; he arranged an act with one of his acquaintances; and the pair performed on amateur night at the Halsey Theater, where Gleason replaced his friend Sammy Birch as master of ceremonies. He did the same duties at the Folly Theater twice a week.

When his mother died in 1935 of sepsis from a massive neck carbuncle that young Jackie had to endure, she was 19 years old. He had nowhere to go and had thirty-six cents to his name. Julie Dennehy, his first cousin, offered to take him in; Gleason, on the other hand, was stubborn and insistent that he was heading to the city's heart. In the hotel room he shared with another comedian, Birch made room for him. Birch also told him about a week in Reading, Pennsylvania, which would cost $19—more than Gleason could imagine (equivalent to $376 in 2021). The booking agent arranged his bus fare for the journey against his salary, granting Gleason his first job as a professional comedian. Following this, he'd still have regular employment in small clubs.

Personal life

For many years, Gleason would travel only by train; his apprehension of flying arose from an incident in his early film career. The Gleason family will fly back and forth to Los Angeles for very little film work. The comedian boarded a plane for New York after finishing one film. The pilot was forced to make an emergency landing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, when two of the plane's engines fell out in the middle of the flight.

Although another plane was destined for the passengers, Gleason had enough space to fly. He stepped into a hardware store and begged him $200 to travel to New York. When asked Gleason why he thinks anyone would lend so much money to a stranger. Gleason introduced himself and detailed his predicament. In his new film, the store owner said he would lend the money if the local theater had a photograph of Gleason. However, the publicity shots featured just the principal actors. Gleason suggested that you buy two tickets to the theater and then approach the store's owner, so he will be able to see the actor in action. Before Gleason's appearance on film, the two men watched the movie for an hour. The owner lent Gleason the loan and he took the train to New York. He borrowed $200 to compensate his benefactor.

Gleason was extremely interested in the paranormal, reading many books on the subject, as well as books on psychiatry and UFOs. He appeared on a semi-regular on a national overnight radio show hosted by John Nebel in the 1950s and wrote the introduction to Donald Bain's biography of Nebel. His extensive book collection was donated to the University of Miami's library following his death. LibraryThing has published a complete list of the library holdings of Gleason's library.

According to writer Larry Holcombe, Gleason's apparent interest in UFOs prompted President Richard Nixon to share some details with him and reveal some UFO information publicly.

Genevieve Halford, a dancer who was working in vain devilleville, met Gleason when they first met, and they're now up to date. Halford wanted to marry but Gleason was unable to settle. If they did not marry, she said she would see other men. Halford was onstage at the Club Miami in Newark, New Jersey, one evening as he went onstage. At the end of his performance, Gleason went to the table and told Halford in front of her date. They were married on September 20, 1936.

Halford wanted a quiet home life, but Gleason fell back to spending his nights out. Geraldine (b. ), the couple's first daughter who was separated for the first time in 1941 and remarried in 1948, had two daughters. Linda (b. 1940) and Linda (b. 1942. In 1951, Gleason and his wife were officially divorced. Gleason's secretary Honey Merrill, who was Miss Hollywood 1956 and a showgirl at The Tropicana, was in love with him during this period. Merrill met and then married Dick Roman, but their relationship came to an end years later.

During his television show in early 1954, Gleason suffered a broken leg and ankle. For several weeks, his injuries kept him sidelined. Halford was hospitalized in Gleason, finding dancer Marilyn Taylor from his television show there. In April 1954, Halford requested a legal separation. Halford, a devout Catholic, did not give Gleason a divorce until 1970.

Beverly McKittrick, Gleason's second wife, was born at a country club in 1968, where she served as a secretary. Gleason and McKittrick were married in Ashford, England, ten days after his divorce from Halford was final.

Marilyn Taylor returned to Gleason in 1974 to be near her sister June, whose dancers had appeared on Gleason's shows for many years. She had been out of show business for almost 20 years. In September 1974, Gleason filed for divorce from McKittrick (who refused, calling for a reconciliation). On November 19, 1975, a divorce was granted. Marilyn Taylor, a widow with a young son, married Gleason on December 16, 1975; the marriage continued until his death in 1987.

Linda Miller, the daughter of Gleason, became an actress and married actor-playwright Jason Miller. Jason Patric, the son of Gleason's grandson, is among their sons.

Gleason used to smoke six packs of cigarettes a day on Saturday night for CBS, but he never smoked on The Honeymooners as early as 1952.

When touring in Larry Gelbart's lead role in Sly Fox's play Sly Fox, he developed chest pains; this led him to leave the Chicago theater and head to the hospital. He was medically cured and released, but he recovered and underwent triple-bypass surgery the next week.

In the Tom Hanks comedy-drama Nothing in Common (1986), Gleason played an infirm, acerbic, and a little Archie Bunker-like character. This was Gleason's last film role. It was discovered that he was suffering from terminal colon cancer, which had metastasised to his liver during production. Phebetic and diabetes affected Gleason. After a day of filming, he told his daughter at dinner one evening, "I won't be around much longer." Although there were rumors that he was seriously ill, Gleason died in his Florida home at age 71.

Gleason was embroiled in a sarcophagus in a private outdoor mausoleum at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery in Miami after a funeral Mass at the Cathedral of Saint Mary. June Taylor of the June Taylor Dancers, Gleason's sister-in-law, is buried in the mausoleum to the left, next to her husband.

Source

Career

Gleason grew to a position at Club 18, where insulting its customers was the order of the day. Sonja Henie, a noted skater, was welcomed by Gleason, who handed her an ice cube and then said, "Okay, now do something." Jack L. Warner first saw Gleason at a film festival for $250 a week.

Gleason was in films by age 24; first for Warner Brothers (as Jackie C. Gleason) (1941), with Ann Sheridan and Martha Raye, Tramp, Tramp; and later for Twentieth Century-Fox, where Gleason appeared in Orchestra Wives (1942). In the 1942 Betty Grable–Harry James musical Springtime in the Rockies, he appeared as a soda shop clerk in Larceny, Inc. (1942), with Edward G. Robinson and a small part as an actor's agent.

Since he was a father of two during World War II, Gleason was initially refused military service. However, in 1943, the US started drafting men with children. Doctors learned that his injured left arm had healed (the area between his thumb and forefinger was nerveless and numb), that a pilonidal cyst had appeared at the end of his coccyx, and that he was 100 pounds overweight when Gleason arrived at his induction. Gleason's service was therefore classified 4-F and refused for military service.

At first, Gleason did not make a good impression on Hollywood; at the time, he produced a nightclub act that featured comedy and music. In the road show revival of Olsen and Johnson's New 1943 Hellzapoppin's, a large cast of entertainers led by Gleason and Lew Parker. He began hosting all-night parties in his hotel suite, and the hotel soundproofed his suite to accommodate its other guests. "Anyone who knew Jackie Gleason in the 1940s," CBS analyst Robert Metz wrote, "The Fat Man would never make it." Lindy's pals watched him consume money as quickly as he soaked up the alcohol." Rodney Dangerfield said he had seen Gleason purchasing marijuana in the 1940s.

When he appeared in the hit film Follow the Girls (1944), Gleason's first major success as an entertainer came on Broadway. Gleason worked at former boxer Maxie Rosenbloom's nightclub (Slapsy Maxie's on Wilshire Boulevard) while filming in California.

In 1949, Gleason made his first television version of the radio comedy The Life of Riley starring blunt but compassionate aircraft worker Chester A. Riley. (William Bendix had originated the role on radio but was initially unable to attend the television role due to film commitments.) Despite promising reviews, the show received weak ratings and was cancelled after one year. Bendix reenacted in 1953 for a five-year run. During the mid-to-late 1950s, Riley's Life became a television hit for Bendix. However, long before this, Gleason's nightclub performance had piqued the interest of New York City's inner circle and the fledgling DuMont Television Network. He was employed at Slapsy Maxie's in 1950 to host DuMont's Cavalcade of Stars variety hour, having been recommended by comedian Harry Crane, who grew up in New York as a stand-up comedian. At first, rotating hosts were used; Gleason was the first to be offered two weeks at $750 per week. The train ride to New York was extended to four weeks, although he replied that it wasn't worth it. For the show, Gleason returned to New York. He framed the performances with big dance numbers, created sketch characters, and that in the meanwhile, there was enough of a presence that CBS wooed him to its network in 1952.

During the 1954-55 season, The Jackie Gleason Show became the country's second-most rated television show. With even more vivid opening dance numbers influenced by Busby Berkeley's screen dance routines and starring the precision-choreographed June Taylor Dancers, Gleason boosted the show. He'll do an opening monologue after the dance performance. He'll shuffle toward the wings, accompanied by "a little travelin' music" ("That's a Plenty," a Dixieland classic from 1914), clapping his hands and yelling, "And awaay we go." The word became one of his trademarks, as well as "How sweet it is." (which he used in reaction to nearly every other thing). Theona Bryant, a former Powers Girl, became Gleason's "And awaay we go" girl. Ray Bloch was Gleason's first music director, followed by Sammy Spear, who remained with Gleason into the 1960s; Gleason's first music director often kidded both men during his opening monologues. He continued to develop comedic characters, including:: "John Lennon" and "The Lion King."

In a 1985 interview, Gleason related some of his characters to his youth in Brooklyn. Mr. Dennehy, who Joe the Bartender welcomes, is a nodulation to Gleason's first love, Julie Dennehy. The character of The Poor Soul was derived from an assistant manager of an outdoor theater where he performed.

Glebson loared rehearsing. With a photographic memory, he read the script once, watched a rehearsal with his co-stars and stand-in, and shot the film later that day. He often blamed the cue cards for his mistakes.

Ralph Kramden, the blustery bus driver, was by far the most popular character in Gleason. These sketches, mainly drawn from Gleason's arduous Brooklyn childhood, became known as The Honeymooners. Ralph's many get-rich-quick schemes; his aspiration; his classmates and neighbor; and feuds with his stubborn wife, Alice, who often pulled Ralph's head down from the clouds.

right in the kisser" and "Bang!

Zoom!

To the moon Alice, to the moon!"

The Honeymooners came from a sketch Gleason was creating with his show's writers. He had a vision to enlarge: a skit starring a resourceful, quiet wife and her loud husband. He went on to say that although the couple had their fights, underneath they loved each other. Before someone came up with The Honeymoons, titles for the sketch were tossed around.

On October 5, 1951, the Honeymooners made their first appearance as a cop on Cavalcade of Stars, with Carney as a cop (Norton did not appear until a few episodes later) and character actor Pert Kelton playing Alice. The sketches, which were darker and more aggressive than the earlier versions with Audrey Meadows as Alice, became extremely popular among critics and viewers. In harrowingly realistic arguments, Gleason played a frustrated bus driver with a battleaxe of a wife; after Kelton was barred, Meadows (who was 15 years younger than Kelton) took over the role.

Kelton was left behind when Gleason went to CBS; her name had been revealed in Red Channels, a book that listed and described reputed communists (and comunist sympathizers) in television and radio, and the network did not want to hire her. With a cover story for the media that she had "heart pain," Gleason reluctantly allowed her to leave the role. He arrived at Meadows in the first round as Kelton's replacement. Meadows confessed that she slipped back to audition once more and nearly collapsed in her memoir, threatening to inform Gleason that she could carry out the role of a jumbled (but loving) working-class wife. Joyce Randolph played Trixie, Ed Norton's wife, rounding out the cast. In the first sketch, Elaine Stritch had appeared as a tall and beautiful blonde but Randolph had to be replaced quickly. Leonard Stern, a comedy writer, always thought The Honeymooners was more than sketch content, and begged Gleason to make it into a full hour.

In 1955, Gleason gambled on making it a separate franchise entirely. These are the "Classic 39" episodes that finished 19th in the ratings for their first season. They were shot using a new DuMont process, Electronicam. It preserved a live performance on film, unlike kinescopes (which were screenshots), the film was of a higher resolution and comparable to a motion picture, as kinescopes. That was Gleason's most prescient move. He aired the half-hour Honeymooners in syndicated reruns that started to build a loyal and loyal following, making the program a television icon. Its fame was so that a life-sized statue of Jackie Gleason, dressed as bus driver Ralph Kramden, was unveiled outside the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City in 2000.

With short and long versions, as well as hour-long musicals, Gleason returned to the live format for 1956-1957. These musical performances were revived ten years later, in full color, with Sheila MacRae and Jane Keane as Alice and Trixie.

Audrey Meadows returned for a black-and-white remake of the '50s sketch "The Adoption" telecast on January 8, 1966. Jane Kean, a ten-year absence, returned to Gleason and Carney for several television specials (one special from 1973 was shelved).

In June 1957, the Jackie Gleason Exhibition came to an end. Jackie Johnson speculated at the possibility of returning The Honeymoons to new episodes in 1959. In late 1960, Kramden-Norton sketch on a CBS variety show in late 1960 and two more sketches on his new hour-long CBS show The American Scene Magazine in 1962 was partially realized.

Gleason's career spanned the 1950s and 1960s produced a series of best-selling "mood music" albums with jazz overtones for Capitol Records. Gleason believed that there was a huge demand for romantic artists. His aim was to produce "musical wallpaper that should never be bothering but favorive." Clark Gable used to film love scenes; in his words, the romance was "magnified a thousand percent" by background music. "If Gable needs music, a guy in Brooklyn must be homeless," Gleason explained.

Music for Lovers Only, Gleason's first album, holds the record for the longest stay on the Billboard Top Ten Charts (153 weeks), and his first ten albums have sold more than a million copies each. At one point, Gleason held the most top-one albums on the Billboard 200 without charting any hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Gleason could not read or write music; he was said to have designed melodies in his head and compared them verbally to assistants who transcribed them into musical terms. These included the well-remembered themes of both The Jackie Gleason Exhibition ("Melancholy Serenade") and The Honeymoons ("You're My Greatest Love")) (Melancholy Serenade) and The Honeymooners ("You're My Greatest Love"). Despite time accounts establishing his direct involvement in musical production, conflicting viewpoints have arisen over the years as to how much money Gleason should have received for the finished products. In his 1992 book The Great One: Jackie Gleason's Life and Legend, William A. Henry said that far beyond the song melody's possible conceptualization, Gleason's life and legend had no involvement (such as directing) in making the recordings. Red Nichols, a jazz legend who had fallen on bad times and supervised one of the band's demos, was not compensated as session leader. Bobby Hackett, a cork and trumpeter, appeared on several of Gleason's albums and was the narrator on seven of them. Hackett told Gleason, "He brought the checks," when asked late in life by musician-journalist Harry Currie in Toronto.

Hackett had adored writer James Bacon years ago: Nevertheless, Hackett had ravingly told writer James Bacon:

George Williams, a composer and arranger, has been cited in several biographies as having served as a ghostwriter for the majority of arrangements on several of Gleason's albums from the 1950s and 1960s. Williams did not receive recognition for his work before the early 1960s, but only in small print on the backs of album covers.

Nearly all of Gleason's albums have been reissued on compact disc.

Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, Gleason's lead role in the musical 'Take Me Along (1959-60) earned him the Tony Award for Outstanding Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical.

Gleason revived his original variety hour (including The Honeymooners) in 1956, winning a Peabody Award. When his season's ratings came in at No. 1, he resigned from the program in 1957. He needed a break at 29 and the network "suggest" that he needed one. Buddy Hackett appeared on a half-hour show in 1958, which did not catch on.

CBS paid for Peekskill, New York,'s mansion "Round Rock Hill" in addition to his salary and royalties. The architecturally significant complex, which was situated on six acres, featured a round main home, a guest house, and a storage building. The house, which was completed in 1959, took two years to build. When Gleason relocating to Miami, he sold the house.

On a TV special in October 1960, Gleason and Carney briefly returned to Honeymooners for a brief period. You're in the Picture, the game show, was cancelled following a disappointingly received premiere episode, but it was followed next week by a broadcast of Gleason's amusing half-hour apology, which was much appreciated. The game show was canceled for the remainder of its scheduled run by a talk show named The Jackie Gleason Show.

In 1962, Gleason revived his variety show with more vibrancy and a new hook: the American Scene Magazine, a fictional general-interest magazine in which Gleason trotted out his old characters in new scenarios, including two new Honeymooners sketches. "How sweet it is!" He added to the American vernacular, the first uttered in the 1963 film Papa's Delicate Condition. The Jackie Gleason Exhibition: The American Scene Magazine was a hit for four seasons. Each show began with Gleason delivering a monologue and commenting on band leader Sammy Spear's attention-getting outfits. From Hollywood gossip (reported by comedian Barbara Heller) to news flashes (played for laughs with a stock company of second bananas, chorus girls, and dwarfs), then the "magazine" features would be trotted out. Alice Ghostley was occasionally seen on her front porch and conversing with boorish boyfriend Gleason for several minutes. "I'm the luckiest girl in the world" after the boyfriend's departure. Johnny Morgan, Sid Fields, and Hank Laddd, veteran comedians, were occasionally seen in comedy sketches opposite Gleason. Helen Curtis performed alongside him as a singer and actress, delighting audiences with her 'Madame Plumpadore' sketches with 'Reginald Van Gleason.'

Joe sang "My Gal Sal" and greeted his regular client, the unseen Mr. Dennehy (the television audience), as Gleason spoke to the camera in this segment), but the final sketch was still set in Joe the Bartender's saloon. Joe would sketch Dennehy about an essay he had read in the fictional American Scene magazine, having a copy of the newspaper across the bar. Two front pages were published: one on the New York skyline and the other palm trees (after the show was moved to Florida). Joe will bring out Frank Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheim, who will regale Joe with the latest adventures of his neighborhood pals and occasionally show Joe his latest Top Cat comic book. Crazy used to sing—almost always a sentimental ballad in his delectable, lilting baritone.

The Honeymoons were revived by Gleason, first with Alice and Patricia Wilson as Trixie for two episodes of The American Scene Magazine, then with Sheila MacRae as Alice and Jane Kean for the 1966 series. According to reports, Gleason had shifted from New York to Miami Beach, Florida, because he wanted year-round access to the golf course at Lauderhill's nearby Inverrary Country Club (where he built his final home). "As always, the Miami Beach audience is the best audience in the world," the speaker's closing line went. He discarded the American Scene Magazine style in 1966 and turned the program into a traditional variety hour with guest performers.

New, color episodes of The Honeymooners kicked off the 1966-1967 season. Carney as Ed Norton has returned to life, with MacRae as Alice and Kean as Trixie. The sketches were based on 1957 world-tour episodes, in which Kramden and Norton win a slogan competition and take their wives to international destinations. Each of the nine episodes was a full-scale musical comedy with Gleason and company performing original songs by Lyn Duddy and Jerry Bresler. Occasionally, Gleason would dedicate a show to musicals with a single theme, such as college comedy or political satire, with the actors abandoning their Honeymooners roles for different character roles. This was the show's appearance before its cancellation in 1970. The exception was the 1968-1969 season, which had no hour-long Honeymooners episodes; during that season, The Honeymooners were only displayed in short sketches.) The musicals boosted Gleason to the top of the charts, but audiences soon began to decline. By the end of the season, Gleason's show was no longer in the top 50. Ralph is interviewed by CBS ("Operation Protest") on February 28, 1970, the late 1960s youth rebellion, a sign of rapidly evolving times in both television and culture.

Gleason (who had agreed to a 20-year contract for 20 years) wanted The Honeymooners to be just a part of his show, but CBS wanted another season of only the Honeymooners. The network had cancelled a mainstay variety show hosted by Red Skelton and decided against canceling The Ed Sullivan Show in 1971 because they were too expensive to produce and attracted, in the executives' opinion, too old an audience. When his deal came to an end, Gleason simply stopped doing the show in 1970 and left CBS.

After giving up his regular television show in the 1970s, including Honeymooners segments and a Reginald Van Gleason III sketch in which the gregarious millionaire was depicted as a vainitive drunk, Gleason produced two Jackie Gleason Show specials for CBS, the gregarious millionaire was portrayed as a comedic drunk. When the CBS contract came to an end, Gleason joined NBC. He later produced a series of Honeymooners specials for ABC. During the mid-1970s, Gleason hosted four ABC specials. Izzy and Moe (1985), Gleason and Carney's latest film about an unusual pair of pioneering federal prohibition agents in New York City who made an unbeatable arrest record with innovative tactics, including impersonation and ridicule, which aired on CBS in 1985.

In a television special with Julie Andrews, Gleason revived several of his classic characters (including Ralph Kramden, Joe the Bartender, and Reginald Van Gleason III). The two performed "Take Me Along" from Gleason's Broadway musical "Gleason's Broadway musical in a song-and-dance routine.

Gleason said he had meticulously preserved kinescopes of his live 1950s scripts in a vault for future use (including Honeymooners sketches with Pert Kelton as Alice). These "lost episodes" (as they were introduced) were first shown at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City, and later were added to the Honeymooners syndication service. Several of them include earlier versions of plot lines that were later used in the 'classic 39' episodes.' Both Gleason's best-known characters (Ralph Kramden, the Poor Soul, Rudy the Repairman, Reginald Van Gleason, and Joe the Bartender) were present inside and outside of the Kramden apartment, with one being repeated several years later with Meadows as Alice. Reginald Van Gleason's holiday party at Joe the Bartender's house was entangled in the storyline.

He did not limit his acting to comedic roles. In "The Laugh Maker" (1953) on CBS' Studio One and William Saroyan's "The Time of Your Life" (1958), which was released as an episode of the anthology series Playhouse 90, he had also received acclaim for live television drama performances.

In The Hustler (1961), starring Paul Newman, he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of pool shark Minnesota Fats. Gleason shot all his own trick pool shots. Gleason told Johnny Carson that he had played pool regularly since childhood and drew from his experiences in The Hustler in 1985. In Rod Serling's Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962), he was greatly regarded as a beleaguered boxing boss. In Soldier in the Rain (1963), Gleason was the world's longest-wearing army sergeant, receiving top billing over Steve McQueen.

In Gigot (1962), Gleason wrote, produced, and appeared as a poor, mute janitor who befriended and saved a prostitute and her tiny daughter. It was a box office flop. However, the film's script was adapted and distributed as the television film The Wool Cap (2004), starring William H. Macy in the role of the mute janitor; the television film received moderately positive feedback.

In the Otto Preminger-directed Skidoo (1968), considered an all-star failure, Gleason was leading. In 1969, William Friedkin wanted to portray Gleason as "Popeye" Doyle in The French Connection (1971), but the studio refused to give Gleason the lead; he wanted it. Rather, Gleason appeared in How to Commit Marriage (1969) with Bob Hope, as well as Woody Allen's film Don't Drink the Water (1969). Both were unsuccessful.

It was eight years ago before Gleason had another hit film. In the films Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3 (1983), sheriff T. Justice. Jerry Reed, the Bandit's love interest), and Jerry Reed as Cledus "Snowman" Snow, the Bandit's vehicle's driving companion, co-starred Burt Reynolds as the Bandit, Sally Field as Carrie. Junior Justice, Mike Henry, a former NFL linebacker, starred in his dimwitted son. "I'm gonna grill the ass in molasses," Gleason's sarcastic and ill-tempered demeanor and words such as "I'm gonna barbecue yo' ass in molasses." The first Bandit film to be a hit.

Reynolds said he agreed to film only if the production cast recruited Jackie Gleason to play Sheriff Buford T. Justice (the name of a real Florida highway patrolman who knew Reynolds' father). Reynolds said that producer Hal Needham gave Gleason free rein to a good deal of his dialogue and make film plans; he was inspired by Gleason's scene on "Choke and Puke." Reynolds and Needham knew that Gleason's comedy would make the film a hit, and Gleason's portrayal of Sheriff Justice deepened the film's appeal to blue-collar audiences.

In the HBO dramatic two-man special, Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson (1983), Gleason received rave reviews during his time in the 1980s. In the comedy The Toy (1982) opposite Richard Pryor, he gave a touching appearance as wealthy businessman U.S. Bates. Despite the fact that the film was critically criticized, Gleason and Pryor's performances were lauded. His last film appearance was opposite Tom Hanks in the Garry Marshall-directed Nothing in Common (1986), a huge success both technically and financially.

Source