This rotund yet physically expressive actor and comic became an American legend with his signature character of Ralph Kramden, the bus driver who dreamed of getting rich, on "The Honeymooners". Jackie Gleason could be crabby; he could zing. He could be poignant, as in his portrayal of 'The Poor Soul', or he could be satirical, as with the phony aristocrat Reginald Van Gleason III. Gleason could play straight man, as he often did to both Frank Fontaine and to Art Carney, and he could also put over the occasional song. His audience knew that he was no saint. Each week on his variety show, he opened with his monologue and next him was a table with a coffee cup, from which he sipped and say in his patented delivery, "How sweet it is!" Only the most naive in the audience did not know that there was liquor in the cup--or at least, Gleason wanted the audience to believe that. When he introduced the June Taylor Dancers and said, "And away we go!", it was time for a rousing Saturday night frolic.

Herbert John Gleason was born in poverty in Brooklyn, NY. His father abandoned the family when he was eight years old and his mother went to work selling subway tokens. When she died in 1932, Gleason had already begun his performing career, first in pool halls, then in church gatherings and school plays. He won an amateur night prize at a Brooklyn theater and began working carnivals as a barker and playing in resorts and others clubs, sometimes for as little as $3 per night. By the late 30s, he had made it to Broadway in the vaudeville-burlesque redux "Hellzapoppin'" and became a frequent presence at various Manhattan niteries. Spotted by Jack L Warner while performing at one of these nightclubs, Gleason was put under contract to Warner Bros. in 1940. While under contract, he never made more than $200 per week and he remained there for only two years. The studio seemingly did not know how best to utilize his talents, relegating him to gangster roles, in part because of his girth which made him unsuitable as a leading man. He debuted as a character named 'Tubby' opposite Jack Oakie and Ann Sheridan in "Navy Blues" (1941), In "Larceny Inc." (1942), he menaced Edward G Robinson and that same year had had small roles in "Lady Gangster" and "Escape From Crime".

When his contract was not renewed, Gleason returned to NYC and the stage, appearing in "Artists and Models" (1943), "Follow the Girls" (1944), in which he appeared in drag, and "Along Fifth Avenue" (1949), in which he introduced the playboy persona that later evolved into Reginald Van Gleason III. With the advent of television, Gleason was one of the first to take a chance on the new medium. He was signed to star in "The Life of Riley" (NBC, 1949), playing a husband and father put-upon by daily events. The show was headquartered in Los Angeles and Gleason was unhappy there. After a year, he left the series (replaced by William Bendix) and returned to NYC where he assumed hosting and performing duties in the variety show "Cavalcade of Stars" (DuMont, 1950-52). During his tenure on "Cavalcade", Gleason first worked with Art Carney and June Taylor and six chorus girls dubbed the June Taylor Dancers. One sketch featured Carney as a nervous photographer and Gleason as the wealthy Reggie Van Gleason. Another bit introduced a couple who lived in a Brooklyn tenement and were the forerunners of Ralph and Alice Kramden. By 1952, Gleason had been signed to a two-year, multi-million dollar contract by CBS for his own variety show. Among the skits was an ongoing one which focused on bus driver Ralph Kramden, his wife Alice (Audrey Meadows) and their neighbors Ed and Trixie Norton (Carney and Joyce Randolph). "The Honeymooners" segments would offer marital discord and get rich schemes but always ended with Ralph assuring Alice, that he loved her. The skits were popular with audiences (and resurfaced and were packaged for Showtime and for video in the 80s). In 1955, Gleason tired of the hour-long format and spent one season concentrating on "The Honeymooners" exclusively as a sitcom. While only 39 episodes were produced before the network persuaded Gleason to return to the hour-long variety format, they have become TV classics and a staple of syndication. Like "I Love Lucy", they were filmed before an audience and Gleason eschewed rehearsals, preferring to have a dress rehearsal and then the taping.

After ending his show in 1959, Gleason returned to Broadway where he triumphed in the gentle musical "Take Me Along", based on Eugene O'Neill's "Ah, Wilderness!". Heading a cast that also included Walter Pidgeon, Robert Morse and Eileen Herlie, he received the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical. Gleason returned to the small screen and CBS in 1961 as host of the game show "You're in the Picture". The show was such a disaster--it has celebrities sticking their heads through holes in life-size pictures and trying to guess what they were--that it lasted one episode. Gleason would return to the variety format in the mid-60s, but attitudes were changing and his humor seemed somehow dated. Once again, he revived "The Honeymooners" with Carney returning as Norton, but this time with Sheila MacRae as Alice and Jane Kean as Trixie. When CBS canceled the show in 1971, Gleason more or less was finished with television, except for an occasional special or TV-movie.

Instead, Gleason, now based in Florida, concentrated on his film career. In the early 1960s, at the height of his popularity, he attempted to make the cross-over to the big screen. He earned a well-deserved Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Minnesota Fats in "The Hustler" (1961). The following year, he had what he felt was his best screen role (in part because he co-wrote the script), as a deaf-mute janitor in "Gigot". Also in 1962, he earned critical praise for his turn as the corrupt manager in "Requiem for a Heavyweight". Gleason went on to make occasional film appearance like the reluctant tourist in the Woody Allen-scripted "Don't Drink the Water" (1968). He won millions of new fans as Burt Reynolds' nemesis, Sheriff Bufford T Justice, in "Smokey and the Bandit" (1977) and its two sequels. Gleason played a wealthy father who hires Richard Pryor as his son's playmate in "The Toy" (1982) and offered a poignant turn as Tom Hanks irascible father in his last film, "Nothing in Common" (1986). On the small screen, Gleason fulfilled a long-held dream of working with Laurence Olivier in "Mr. Halpern and Mr. Johnson" (HBO, 1983), playing the latter, a man who had loved Olivier's wife for many years before she died. He and Carney reteamed one last time for "Izzy and Moe" (CBS, 1984), the based-on-fact tale of vaudevillians-turned-government agents, but the pair were too old for their roles.

While he remained a corpulent fellow, in his later years, Gleason had sideburns and dressed far better than any of his common TV characters, save Reginald Van Gleason. When seen in occasional interviews, Gleason would have a cigarette between his fingers and a drink in one hand, with his pinky ring visible. However much he craved love, attention, food, booze, even women in his lifetime, he never lost his audience.