(November 9, 1886 - June 19, 1966)
Ed Wynn was a great character actor famous for his silly and clownish, but clean and family-friendly, humor, and his cartoon-like voice to match. Born in 1886 in Philadelphia as Isaiah Edwin Leopold, young Wynn frequented vaudeville shows and made his stage debut at age sixteen. 1 In New York, he worked as an onstage assistant to W.C. Fields; once, when Fields caught him mugging for the audience during one a sketch, he and knocked Wynn unconscious with a pool cue. 2 Wynn became a headliner in vaudeville in the 1910s, and was the star of the Ziegfeld Follies in 1914. 3 By the 1920s, Wynn was starring in vaudeville, theatre, radio, television, and film, and before long he even had his own comedic television revue, The Ed Wynn Show, which was popular on CBS throughout the 1920s and 1930s. 4 He was billed as "the Perfect Fool" and also known for his role as "The Fire Chief" and his work on The Colgate Comedy Hour. Later in his life, encouraged by his son, the actor Keenan Wynn, Ed Wynn tried his hand at "serious" acting and was rewarded with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his dramatic performance of Mr. Albert Dussell in the 1959 film The Diary of Anne Frank. 5 He also appeared as the Fairy Godfather in Cinderfella with Jerry Lewis and numerous Disney films, including The Absent-Minded Professor, The Gnome Mobile, and Mary Poppins, as the ever-laughing Uncle Albert. Ed Wynn died of Parkinson's disease in June 1966. 6
1. Great Character Actors.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Wynn
3. http://www.what-a-character.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=982797031
4. http://www.what-a-character.com/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=982797031
5. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052738/
6. Great Character Actors.
Resources
Great Character Actors. Ed. Doug Macaulay. 2007. http://www.dougmacaulay.com/kingspud/sel_by_actor_index_2.php?actor_first= Ed&actor_last=Wynn.
This site provides good biographies on selected character actors.
Who's Who in the Theatre. London: Gale Research, 1912-1966.
A great source of information on when and where actors performed some of their most famous roles in theatres and film in America and England.
Young, William. Famous Actors and Actresses on the American Stage. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1975.
Good information about some of the more well-known character actors of early American stage and screen.