Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor, author, television host, and artist. He started performing as a stand up comedian before transitioning his career to acting in film and television. Winters received numerous accolades including two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the American Academy of Achievement in 1973, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.

Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label including '' The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters'' (1960). He also had records released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 Grammy nominations, including eight for Best Comedy Album, during his career. From these nominations, he won the Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for his contribution to an adaptation of '' The Little Prince'' in 1975 and the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for ''Crank(y) Calls'' in 1996.

With a career spanning more than six decades, Winters also appeared in hundreds of television shows and films, including eccentric characters on '' The Steve Allen Show'', '' The Garry Moore Show'', ''The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters'' (1972–74), ''Mork & Mindy'', and '' Hee Haw''. For his role in the 1963 comedy film '' It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'', he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1991, Winters won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Gunny Davis in the short-lived sitcom '' Davis Rules''. In 2002, he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance as Q.T. Marlens on '' Life with Bonnie''. Winters was presented with a Pioneer TV Land Award by Robin Williams in 2008.

He also voiced Grandpa Smurf on ''The Smurfs'' TV series from 1986 to the show's conclusion in 1989. Over twenty years later, Winters was introduced to a new generation through voicing Papa Smurf in ''The Smurfs'' (2011) and '' The Smurfs 2'' (2013). Winters died nine days after recording his dialogue for ''The Smurfs 2''; the film was dedicated to his memory. Winters also spent time painting and presenting his artwork, including silkscreens and sketches, in many gallery shows. He authored several books including his book of short stories entitled '' Winters' Tales'' (1988).

Early life

Winters was born in Dayton, Ohio, to Alice Kilgore Rodgers and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an insurance agent who later became an investment broker. He was a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio. Of English and Scottish-Irish ancestry, Winters had described his father as an alcoholic who had trouble holding a job. His grandfather, a frustrated comedian, owned the Winters National Bank, which failed as the family's fortunes collapsed during the Great Depression.

When he was seven, his parents separated. Winters' mother took him to Springfield, Ohio, to live with his maternal grandmother. "Mother and dad didn't understand me; I didn't understand them," Winters told Jim Lehrer on '' The News Hour with Jim Lehrer'' in 1999. "So consequently it was a strange kind of arrangement." Alone in his room, he created characters and interviewed himself. A poor student, Winters continued talking to himself and developed a repertoire of strange sound effects. He often entertained his high school friends by imitating a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

In another television interview, Winters described how deeply he was hurt by his parents' divorce. He fought youthful tormentors who ridiculed him for not having a father in his life. When the tormentors were not around, he would go to a building or tree and weep in despair. Winters said that he learned to laugh at his situation but admitted that his adult life had been a response to sorrow.

During his senior year at Springfield High School, Winters quit school, joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of seventeen and served years in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Upon his return, he attended Kenyon College. He later studied cartooning at Dayton Art Institute, where he met Eileen Schauder, whom he married on September 11, 1948. He was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Lambda chapter).

Early career

Winters's career started from a lost wristwatch about six or seven months after his marriage to Eileen in 1948. The newlyweds couldn't afford to buy another one; then Eileen read about a talent contest in which the first prize was a wristwatch and encouraged Jonathan to "go down and win it." She was certain he could, and he did. His performance led to a disc jockey job, where he was supposed to introduce songs and announce the temperature. Gradually his ad libs, personae, and antics took over the show. He began acting along with developing comedy routines while studying at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. He was also a local radio personality on WING (mornings, 6 to 8) in Dayton, Ohio, and at WIZE in Springfield, Ohio. He performed as "Johnny Winters" on WBNS-TV in Columbus, Ohio, for years. Jerome R. "Ted" Reeves, then program director for WBNS-TV, arranged for his first audition with CBS in New York City.

After promising his wife that he would return to Dayton if he did not make it in a year, and with $56.46 in his pocket, he moved to New York City, staying with friends in Greenwich Village. After obtaining Martin Goodman as his agent, he began stand-up routines in various New York nightclubs. His earliest network television appearance was in 1954 on '' Chance of a Lifetime'', hosted by Dennis James on the DuMont Television Network, where Winters again appeared as "Johnny Winters".

Winters made television history in 1956 when RCA broadcast the first public demonstration of color videotape on ''The Jonathan Winters Show''. Author David Hajdu wrote in ''The New York Times'' (2006), "He soon used video technology 'to appear as two characters,' bantering back and forth, seemingly in the studio at the same time. You could say he invented the video stunt."

His big break occurred (with the revised name of Jonathan) when he worked for Alistair Cooke on the CBS Television Sunday morning show '' Omnibus''.Archived a
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In 1957 he performed in the first color television show, a 15-minute routine sponsored by Tums.

From 1959 to 1964, his voice was heard in a series of popular television commercials for Utica Club beer. In the ads, he provided the voices of talking beer steins named Shultz and Dooley. Later, he became a spokesman for Hefty brand trash bags, for whom he appeared as a dapper garbageman known for collecting "gahr-bahj," as well as "Maude Frickert" and other characters. Winters also appeared in commercials as a spokesman for other brands such as Good Humor ice cream and the California Egg Commission.

Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label, starting in 1960. Probably the best known of his characters from this period is "Maude Frickert", the seemingly sweet old lady with the barbed tongue (reportedly named for comedic actress Maudie Prickett). He was a favorite of Jack Paar, who hosted ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962, and appeared frequently on his television programs, even going so far as to impersonate then U.S. president John F. Kennedy over the telephone as a prank on Paar.

Winters had a dramatic role in ''The Twilight Zone'' episode " A Game of Pool" (episode 3.5 aired on October 13, 1961). He also recorded Ogden Nash's ''The Carnival of the Animals'' poems to Camille Saint-Saëns's classical opus.

On ''The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'' (1962–92), Winters usually performed in the guise of some character. Carson often did not know what Winters had planned and usually had to tease out the character's backstory during a comedic interview. Carson invented a character called "Aunt Blabby", who was similar to and possibly inspired by "Maude Frickert".

Winters appeared in more than 50 movies and many television shows, including particularly notable roles in the film '' It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' and in the dual roles of Henry Glenworthy and his dark, scheming brother, the Rev. Wilbur Glenworthy, in the film adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel ''The Loved One.'' Fellow comedians who starred with him in ''Mad World,'' such as Arnold Stang

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