GEORGE BURNS was an Academy Award-winning actor, comedian, dancer, singer and best-selling author who began his career around the turn of one century and ended it around the turn of the next.
He started performing in a barbershop quartet, then moved on to vaudeville, one-reel shorts and feature films. He went on to a top-rated radio show for 17 years, a top-rated television show for another eight years, and finally, over the last 30 years of his life, played Las Vegas. Meanwhile he cut record albums, appeared in top-grossing movies (winning an Oscar for The Sunshine Boys) and television specials. And he still enjoyed a good cigar, a habit he picked up when he was a teenager.
Nathan Birnbaum (his real name) was born in New York City on January 20, 1896, a time when sound recording was a new medium and records consisted of wax cylinders played on wind-up gramophones. When Nattie was about three months old, Thomas Edison publicly unveiled his first projected film program, launching a great industry that would grow to shape the history of the 20th century and George's career.
In 1922, he had been working in an act with Billy Lorraine as Burns and Lorraine. After about a year, Lorraine decided to move on, leaving George without a partner. Enter Gracie Allen. This pairing was to last, not just onstage, but off- as well, for the next 42 years. They worked their way up as George continued to perfect his writing skills; George played the straight man to Gracie's dizzy character with her illogical logic. It may seem surprising, but in the beginning of their partnership, George's and Gracie's roles were actually reversed: Gracie played the straight character and George was the dizzy one!
By the mid-1930s, the energetic young couple was ready to start a family, so they adopted a baby girl, Sandy, and a baby boy, Ronnie. At about this time, the family moved into a permanent home in Beverly Hills, where the children grew up and where George resided until his death.
"The Burns and Allen Show" remained one of the top radio programs during its nearly 20-year run, with 45 million listeners tuning in each week. By 1950, George felt they were ready for the new medium of television. The show transferred well, and for the next eight years on CBS, Burns and Allen entertained audiences with plot lines revolving around home life, neighbors, and even vaudeville routines
George lost his wife and partner to heart disease in 1964. But at the age of 68, the second half of his show business career was only just beginning. To take away some of the pain of losing his beloved Gracie, George threw himself into his work. He decided to move into production and, among other projects, he developed the enormously popular "Mr. Ed" television series and "No Time For Sergeants." George continued to play the nightclub circuit, make guest appearances on TV, and speak at colleges.
Then, in 1975 at age 79 and less than a year after having triple bypass surgery, George rekindled another career: 36 years after his last appearance in a feature film, George took over (for his friend Jack Benny) the co-starring role in the film version of Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. He was perfect for the part, and deservedly won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It was certainly true that, as George quipped at the podium during his acceptance speech, if you stay in the business long enough and get to be old enough, you get to be new again!
Over the course of the next two decades, George appeared in eight more films, including perhaps his most popular role as the title character in the top-grossing Oh, God! (1977). George's busy schedule continued until he was 98, when he had a serious fall in his bathtub. George kept telling everyone, however, that he planned to stay in show business "until I'm the only one left!"
On January 20, 1996, George Burns celebrated his 100th birthday. Less than two months later, on March 9, he quietly passed into entertainment history.
