Jackie Gleason Net Worth

Jackie Gleason's Quotes

• Drinking removes warts and pimples. Not from me. But from those I look at.
• [trademark line] How sweet it is!"
• I'm no alcoholic. I'm a drunkard. There's a difference. A drunkard doesn't like to go to meetings.
• The worst thing you can do with money is save it.
• [on what inspired him to became a "mood music" legend, via a series of successful albums] Every time I ever watched Clark Gable do a love scene in the movies, I'd hear this really pretty music, real romantic, come up behind him and help set the mood. So I'm figuring that if Gable needs that kinda help, then a guy in Canarsie has gotta be dyin' for something like this.

Interesting Facts about Jackie Gleason

1. 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.
2. 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."
3. Prone to excess with wine, women, song and work, a lifestyle that often led to exhaustion. In such cases he would check into a hospital for some needed rest. One famous story has it that when Gleason really felt "sick", he checked himself OUT of the hospital, and went home to be taken care of.
4. Despite his iconic stature as a TV-comedy giant, he never won an Emmy.
5. Grandfather of Jason Patric.
6. The Jackie Gleason (formerly 5th Avenue) Bus Depot in Brooklyn, NY, is named after him.
7. Had an interest in the occult as well as an extensive collection of books on the paranormal.
8. Buried in Miami, FL. His gravesite is all that one would expect. Engraved in the "riser" of the second step from the top is the classic, "AND AWAY WE GO".
9. Father of Linda Miller.
10. On January 20, 1961, a game show he co-developed, The Jackie Gleason Show (1961), premiered on CBS. The premise was to have celebrity guests place their heads into a cutout scene and ask the host questions to guess what picture or historical scene they were in. The show's concept was ill-conceived, especially for co-creator and host Gleason, and was blasted by critics and viewers alike. On the next week's broadcast, Gleason 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.
11. Recorded a number of albums featuring instrumental "mood music" (what is now known today as "lounge music"). Gleason served as producer, bandleader 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 a cover with original art by Salvador Dalí.
12. Once said that Orson Welles bestowed his "The Great One" nickname upon him.
13. The set of The Honeymooners (1955) show was based on his childhood home on Chauncey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (originally Bushwick) area of Brooklyn, NY. The apartment building is still there and looks very much the same as in Jackie's time.
14. In August 2000 cable television station TvLand unveiled an eight-foot bronze statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden. The statue was placed in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.
15. 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. In 1985, though, just two years before he died, he was reunited with Carney in Izzy & Moe (1985). They even shared over-the-credits billing, with Carney first, but lower left, and Gleason second, but upper right.
16. Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 180-183. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
17. In 1986 he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.
18. Did not like working with young children.
19. 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 .
20. 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 (1961) with Paul Newman.