Jonathan Winters

 

Jonathan Harshman Winters III (November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013) was an American comedian, actor and artist.

Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also had comedy albums released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nominations during his career, and winning the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Crank(y) Calls in 1996.

Winters has also appeared in hundreds of television show episodes/series and films combined, including eccentric characters on The Steve Allen Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters (1972–74), Mork & Mindy, Hee Haw and in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

After voicing Grandpa Smurf on The Smurfs (1986–89) and Papa Smurf in The Smurfs (2011 film), Winters's final feature film was The Smurfs 2 in 2013, which will be dedicated in his memory.

A pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy with a gift for mimicry, various personalities and a seemingly bottomless reservoir of creative energy, Winters was one of the first celebrities to go public with a personal mental illness issue and felt stigmatized as a result. According to Jack Paar, “If you were to ask me the funniest 25 people I’ve ever known, I’d say, ‘Here they are — Jonathan Winters’." He also said of Winters, “Pound for pound, the funniest man alive”.

In 1991, Winters earned an Emmy Award for his supporting role in Davis Rules. In 2002, he earned an Emmy nomination as a guest star in a comedy series for Life With Bonnie. In 1999, Winters was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2008, Winters was presented with a Pioneer TV Land Award by Robin Williams.

Winters also spent time painting and presenting his art in many gallery shows.

 

Early life

Winters was born in Dayton, Ohio, the son of Alice Kilgore (née Rodgers), a radio personality, and Jonathan Harshman Winters II, an investment broker. He was a descendant of Valentine Winters, founder of the Winters National Bank in Dayton, Ohio (now part of JPMorgan Chase). Of English and Scots-Irish ancestry, Winters had described his father as an alcoholic who had trouble holding a job. When he was seven, his parents separated, and Winters' mother took him to Springfield, Ohio to live with his maternal grandmother.

During his senior year of high school, Winters quit and joined the United States Marine Corps and served two and a half 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 in 1948. He was a brother of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Lambda chapter).

 

 

Early career

Winters' career started as a result of 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, personas, and antics took over the show.

He began comedy routines and acting 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 two and a half years, quitting the station in 1953 when they refused him a $5.00 raise.

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 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".

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

Winters performing a routine onThe NBC Comedy Hour (1956)

From 1959 to 1964, Winters' voice could be 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 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. 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.

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

On The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962-1992), Winters would usually perform in the guise of some character. Johnny Carson often did not know what Winters had planned and usually had to tease out the character's back story during a pretend interview. Carson invented a character called "Aunt Blabby" that was an impression of "Maude Frickert".

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World(1963)

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 The Loved One. Fellow comedians who starred with him in Mad World, such as Arnold Stang, claimed that in the long periods while they waited between scenes, Winters would entertain them for hours in their trailer by becoming any character that they would suggest to him.

He later participated on ABC's The American Sportsman, hosted by Grits Gresham, who took celebrities on hunting, fishing, and shooting trips to exotic places around the world.

Winters made memorable appearances on both The Dean Martin Show and The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, and performed regularly as a panelist on The Hollywood Squares. He also acted in The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming in 1966, had a nightly CBSshow from 1967 to 1969, and appeared in Viva Max! in 1970. He was a regular (along with Woody Allen and Jo Anne Worley) on the Saturday morning children's television program Hot Dog in the early 1970s. He also had his own show, The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters, between 1972 and 1974.

 

1980s and 1990s career

Jonathan Winters was a guest star on The Muppet Show in 1980. That same year, he also appeared in I Go Pogo (aka Pogo for President). In 1981, he was a guest on the short-lived comedy series Aloha Paradise.

In the fourth and final season of the sci-fi-styled TV comedy Mork & Mindy, Jonathan Winters (one of Robin Williams' idols) was brought in as Mork & Mindy's child, Mearth. Due to the different Orkan physiology, Mork laid an egg, which grew and hatched into the much older Winters. It had been previously explained that Orkans aged "backwards", thus explaining Mearth's appearance and that of his teacher, Miss Geezba (portrayed by then-11-year-old actress Louanne Sirota). Mork's infant son Mearth in Mork & Mindy was created in hopes of improving ratings and as an attempt to capitalize on Williams' comedic talents. Winters had previously guest-starred in Season 3, Episode 18 as Dave McConnell, Mindy's uncle. However, after multiple scheduling and cast changes, Mork & Mindy's 4th season was already quite low in the ratings and ended up being the show's last season.

Winters performing at a USO show in 1986

Winters became a regular on Hee Haw during the 1983–84 season. He was later the voice of Grandpa Smurf from 1986–90 on the television series The Smurfs. Additionally, he did the voice of Bigelow in the 1985 TV film Pound Puppies, and voice-acted on Yogi's Treasure Hunt in 1985, among other voice roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1987, Winters was featured in NFL Films' The NFL TV Follies. That same year he published Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual.

In 1991 and 1992, he was on Davis Rules, a sitcom that lasted two seasons (25 episodes). He played Gunny Davis, an eccentric grandfather who was helping raise his grandchildren after his son lost his wife. In addition to his live action roles, he was also a guest star on The New Scooby-Doo Movies (in an episode in which the Scooby Gang was looking forward to his promised performance as Maude Frickert) and the narrator in Frosty Returns. Winters also provided the voice for the thief in Arabian Knight.

In 1994, Winters appeared in a cameo as a fired factory worker in The Flintstones. In an interesting role reversal, he was the serious-minded secular police chief and uncle of the character Lamont Cranston (played by Alec Baldwin) in The Shadow. That same year he voice-acted onAnimaniacs.

Winters received 11 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nominations during his career, and won the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Crank(y) Calls in 1996.

In 1996, Winters played himself in a children's TV series on PBS, Bloopy's Buddies, designed to teach children about health and nutrition and to encourage them to exercise.

In 1999, Winters was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.

 

Later years

Winters had various roles and appeared in numerous television features throughout the early-to-mid 2000s. In 2000, Winters appeared in The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. In 2003, he appeared in the film Swing.

In 2005 and 2006, Winters appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.

In 2008, Winters was presented with a Pioneer TV Land Award by Robin Williams. That same year, PBS aired Pioneers of Television, and Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America in 2009, both featuring Winters.

Winters provided the voice of Papa Smurf in the live-action Smurfs movie, released in 2011, and reprised the role in the 2013 release of The Smurfs 2 (his final voice acting project).

 

Personal life

In his interview with the Archive of American Television, Winters reported that he spent eight months in a private psychiatric hospital in 1959 and again in 1961. Although he was not given a diagnosis while in the hospital, the comic was later diagnosed with manic depression. With an unprecedented frenetic energy, Winters made obscure references to his illness and hospitalization during his stand-up routines, most famously on his 1960 comedy album The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters. During his classic "flying saucer" routine, Winters casually mentions that if he wasn't careful, the authorities might put him back in the "zoo", referring to the institution.

Winters lived near Santa Barbara, California and was often seen browsing or "hamming" for the crowd at the antique show on the Ventura County fairgrounds. He often entertained the tellers and other workers whenever he visited his local bank to make a deposit or withdrawal. Additionally, he spent his time painting and attended many gallery showings, even presenting his art in one-man shows.

On January 11, 2009, Winters's wife of more than 60 years, Eileen, died at the age of 84 after a 20-year battle with breast cancer.

 

Death

Winters died on April 11, 2013, in Montecito, California, of natural causes.

 

 

Discography

• Down to Earth (1960)
• The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters (1960; reissued in 2003)
• Here's Jonathan (1961)
• Another Day, Another World (1962)
• Humor Seen through the Eyes of Jonathan Winters (1962)
• Jonathan Winters' Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, compilation album in conjunction with the film (1963)
• Whistle Stopping with Jonathan Winters (1964)
• Movies Are Better Than Ever (1966)
• Jonathan Winters… Wings it! (1969)
• Stuff 'n Nonsense (1969)
• Jonathan Winters and Friends Laugh ... Live (1973)
• Answers Your Telephone (1988)
• Finally Captured (1988)
• Into the '90s (1990)
• Jonathan Winters is Terminator 3 (1992)
• Crank(y) Calls (1995)
• The Thief and the Cobbler (voice) The Thief (1995)
• Outpatients (2000)
• Paul Bunyan (2001)
• Old Folks (2006)
• The Underground Tapes (2007)
• Final Approach (2011)
• The Smurfs (voice) Papa Smurf (2011)

 

 

Television, film & features

• Alakazam the Great (1960) (voice in English dubbed version)
• "A Game of Pool" (1961) episode of The Twilight Zone
• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
• The Loved One (1965)
• The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966)
• Penelope (1966)
• Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feeling So Sad (1967)
• Eight on the Lam (1967)
• Now You See It, Now You Don't (1968 television movie)
• Viva Max! (1969)
• The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972)
• The Fish that Saved Pittsburgh (1979)
• Pogo for President: I Go Pogo (1980) (voice)
• Mork & Mindy (1981)
• E. Nick: A Legend in His Own Mind (1984)
• The Little Troll Prince (1985)
• Alice in Wonderland (two-part TV film in 1985 as Humpty Dumpty)
• The Longshot (1986)
• Say Yes (1986)
• On The Ledge (1987)
• Moon over Parador (1988)
• Frosty Returns [Narrator] (1992)
• Davis Rules (1992)
• The Flintstones (1994)
• The Shadow (1994)
• Arabian Knight (Miramax 1995)
• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000)
• Swing (2003)
• Comic Book: The Movie (2004)
• Tell Them Who You Are (2004) (documentary)
• National Lampoon's Cattle Call (2006)
• Certifiably Jonathan (2011)[21]
• The Smurfs (2011)[22]
• The Smurfs 2 (2013)
• Big Finish (2014) (pre-production)

 

Short subjects

• Sonic Boom (1974)
• Edwurd Fudwupper Fibbed Big (2000) (voice)
• Santa vs. the Snowman 3D (2002) (voice)