Jackie Gleason

Comedian, actor, composer and conductor, educated in New York public schools. He was a master of ceremonies in amateur shows, a carnival barker, daredevil driver and a disc jockey, and later a comedian in night clubs. By the mid-1950s he had turned to writing original music and recording a series of popular and best-selling albums with his orchestra for Capitol Records. Joining ASCAP in 1953, his instrumental compositions include "Melancholy Serenade", "Glamour", "Lover's Rhapsody", "On the Beach" and "To a Sleeping Beauty", among numerous others.Jackie Gleason's paternal grandfather, William Walton Gleason, was an Irish immigrant, and his paternal grandmother, who was U.S.-born, had English and Dutch ancestry. His mother was also an Irish immigrant, from Farranree, Cork. His father, Herb Gleason (1884-1964), was a henpecked insurance clerk who took his myriad disappointments in life out in drink. He deserted the family when Jackie was nine. His mother (d. 1935), the former Mae Kell... [Details Intro]