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Ed Wynn

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Ed Wynn (November 9, 1886 - June 19, 1966) was a popular American entertainer, born Isaiah Edwin Leopold in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wynn ran away from home in his teens and eventually split his middle name to save his family the embarrassment of having a low comedian as a relative. In his teens, he worked as an onstage assistant to W. C. Fields. Fields caught him “mugging,” for the audience during his Pool Room routine and knocked him unconscious with his cue. He became a headliner in vaudeville in the early-1910s, and was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies starting in 1914.

He was best known as a comedian, billed as The Perfect Fool (and starring in a musical revue of that name on Broadway in 1921). Wynn also wrote, directed, and produced many shows. He was famous for his silly costumes and props. He always worked "clean," and his shows were suitable for the entire family.

He hosted a popular radio show for most of the 1930s, heard in North America on Tuesday nights, sponsored by Texaco gasoline. He was often seen wearing a fireman's helmet, as the "Texaco Fire Chief".

Wynn founded his own short-lived radio network, the Amalgamated Broadcasting System, which lasted only five weeks in 1933.

In the late-1940s and early-1950s, he hosted a television show, and won an Emmy Award in 1949.

After the end of his television show, Wynn reluctantly began a career as a dramatic actor in television and movies. His son, actor Keenan Wynn, had encouraged him to make the career change rather than retire. The two appeared in the 1957 Playhouse 90 broadcast of Rod Serling's play Requiem for a Heavyweight. Ed was terrified of “straight” acting and kept goofing his lines in rehearsal. When the producers wanted to fire him, star Jack Palance said he would quit if they fired old Ed. On live broadcast night, he was almost perfect and skillfully covered his mistakes with adlibs that established him as serious dramatic actor who could easily hold his own with the best. His role in The Diary of Anne Frank won him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor in 1959.

Also in 1959, Wynn appeared on Serling's TV series The Twilight Zone in "One for the Angels". Serling, a longtime admirer, had written that and another episode especially for him, and Wynn later starred in the episode "Ninety Years Without Slumbering". For the rest of his life, Ed skillfully moved between comic and dramatic roles. He appeared in feature films and anthology television and endeared himself to new generations of fans.

Wynn also provided the voice of the Mad Hatter in Walt Disney's film, Alice in Wonderland. One of his best-known performances in his later years was as "Uncle Albert" in Mary Poppins.

Ed Wynn died June 19, 1966 in Beverly Hills, California of throat cancer.

The distinctive giggly wavering voice which Wynn created for his "Perfect Fool" character remains much imitated, especially by voice actors of animated cartoons. Hanna-Barbera's Wally Gator's voice is probably the nearest to an exact impersonation of the Perfect Fool.

Quotations

Complete work for Broadway

External links

 

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