''Gleason'' is a 2002 television film directed by

Howard Deutch Howard Roy Deutch (born September 14, 1950) is an American film and television director who worked with filmmaker John Hughes, directing two of Hughes's best-known screenplays, '' Pretty in Pink'' and '' Some Kind of Wonderful''. Since 2011, he h ...

and starring

Brad Garrett Brad H. Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Garrett was initially successful as a stand-up comedian in the early 1980s. Taking advantage of that success in the la ...

Jackie Gleason Herbert John Gleason (born Herbert Walton Gleason Jr.; February 26, 1916June 24, 1987), known as Jackie Gleason, was an American comedian, actor, writer, and composer also known as "The Great One". He developed a style and characters from growin ...

. The film premiered on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

on October 13, 2002.

Plot

Cast

Saul Rubinek Saul Hersh Rubinek (born July 2, 1948) is a Canadian actor, director, producer, and playwright. He is widely known for his television roles, notably Artie Nielsen on '' Warehouse 13,'' Donny Douglas on '' Frasier'', Lon Cohen on '' A Nero Wolf ...

as George "Bullets" Durgom *

Gretchen Egolf Gretchen Egolf (born ) is an American theater, film and television actress. Early years Egolf is a native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her parents are Paula and Gary Egolf. She graduated from Hempfield High School in 1991 and from Juilliard Schoo ...

as Genevieve Halford * Kristen Dalton as

Audrey Meadows Audrey Meadows (born Audrey Cotter; February 8, 1922 – February 3, 1996) was an American actress who portrayed the deadpan housewife Alice Kramden on the 1950s American television comedy ''The Honeymooners''. She was the younger sister of H ...

*Michael Chieffo as

Art Carney Arthur William Matthew Carney (November 4, 1918 – November 9, 2003) was an American actor and comedian. A recipient of an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Award, and six Primetime Emmy Awards, he was best kn ...

Danny Wells Jack Westelman (April 7, 1941 – November 28, 2013), professionally known as Danny Wells, was a Canadian actor. He was best known for his role as Charlie, the bartender on ''The Jeffersons'', as well as his role as Luigi in the live-action/ani ...

Jack L. Warner Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's ca ...

* Mark Camacho as Sammy Birch * Jason Blicker as Sol Friedman *

Vlasta Vrána Vlasta Vrána (born 1950) is a Czech-Canadian actor of stage, film, and television. He has appeared in over 285 films, television, and theatre productions, including voice roles, narration, and advertisements. Early life Vrána was born in Norw ...

Toots Shor Bernard "Toots" Shor (May 6, 1903 – January 23, 1977) was the proprietor of the saloon and restaurant Toots Shor's Restaurant, in Manhattan. He ran three establishments under that name, but his first was located at 51 West 51st Street. He ...

*Shawn Lawrence as

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...

* Kevin Dunn as Jack Philbin * Terry Farrell as Marilyn Taylor *Johanna Nutter as Joyce Randolph * Lisa Bronwyn Moore as

Pert Kelton Pert L. Kelton (October 14, 1907 – October 30, 1968) was an American stage, movie, radio, and television actress. She was the original The Honeymooners#Alice Kramden, Alice Kramden in ''The Honeymooners'' with Jackie Gleason. During the ...

Production

Back in 1997, Garrett was set to portray Gleason in a television biopic for

, with the script written by ''

Everybody Loves Raymond ''Everybody Loves Raymond'' is an American television sitcom created by Philip Rosenthal that aired on CBS from September 13, 1996, to May 16, 2005, with a total of 210 episodes spanning nine seasons. It was produced by Where's Lunch and Wor ...

'' creator Philip Rosenthal, but it never came to fruition. When he learned that CBS acquired the rights to Gleason's life story, Garrett personally lobbied to the network to portray the role. Initially, CBS offered the part of Gleason to

Mark Addy Mark Ian Addy is an English actor best known for his roles as DC Gary Boyle in the sitcom '' The Thin Blue Line'' (1995–96), Andy Richmond in '' Trollied'' (2011–13), King Robert Baratheon in the first season of ''Game of Thrones'' (2011) ...

. However, Addy dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, thus Garrett was officially cast as Gleason. Garrett reportedly disapproved of the script written by Rick Podell and Michael Preminger. With assistance from Deutch, Garrett and his writer friend Dave Boone wrote an uncredited rewrite of the script. Garrett and Deutch paid Greg Cannom with their own money for him to apply for the makeup needed for Garrett to look like Gleason. It took Garrett three hours to put on the makeup and an hour and a half to take it off. Unlike Gleason, who was 5 feet 11 in real life, Garrett was 6 feet 8 at the time of filming; in order for Garrett to appear as if he were 5 feet 11, the other cast members wore boots with seven-inch lifts and the doorways on the set were built at 8 feet rather than the usual 6 feet 9. The film was shot in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Accolades

For his performance, Garrett was nominated for both the

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie is an award presented annually by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS). It is given in honor of an actor who has delivered an outstanding pe ...

and the

Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie The Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series is an award given by the Screen Actors Guild to honor the finest acting achievements in Miniseries or Television Movie. In this cat ...

. Deutch was nominated for the

Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film The Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Limited Series is one of the annual Directors Guild of America Awards given by the Directors Guild of America The Directors Guild of A ...

References

External links

* {{Howard Deutch 2002 television films 2002 films 2000s English-language films Films shot in Montreal Films directed by Howard Deutch CBS films American biographical films Films set in the 20th century 2000s biographical films Canadian drama television films English-language Canadian films American drama television films 2000s American films 2000s Canadian films English-language biographical films