Caesar, Sid, 1922–, American comedian, one of the stars of the 1950s "golden age of live television," b. Yonkers, N.Y. While performing in a World War II military show he met the producer Max Liebman who, impressed with Caesar's comic abilities, later sponsored him in club gigs and had him host the television variety show Admiral Broadway Review (1949). In Your Show of Shows (1950–54) Caesar performed skits, improvisations, satire, doubletalk rendered in dialect, and monologues, often with Imogene Coca and Carl Reiner. The show's brilliant corps of writers included Reiner, Neil Simon Simon, Neil (Marvin Neil Simon), 1927–, American playwright, b. New York City. His plays, nearly all of them popular, if not always critical successes, are comedies treating recognizable aspects of modern middle-class life.
..... Click the link for more information. , Mel Brooks, Brooks, Mel, 1927–, American film director, writer, actor, and producer, b. New York City as Melvin Kaminsky. His earliest work was in television, notably as a gag writer for Sid Caesar 's "Your Show of Shows" (1950–54).
..... Click the link for more information. Larry Gelbart, and Mel Tolkin. Coca went on to her own television show, and Caesar returned with Caesar's Hour (1955–57). After the 1950s Caesar's television career was largely reduced to guest appearances. He also performed in a number of movies, including It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), Silent Movie (1973), and Grease (1978).

Bibliography

See his memoirs, Where Have I Been? (1982) and Caesar's Hours (2003); T. Sennett, Your Show of Shows (rev. ed. 2002).

Caesar, Sid

(born Sept. 8, 1922, Yonkers, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. comedian. He began his career as a band musician but switched to comedy. Noted for his pantomime skills and his ability to mimic foreign languages at high speed, he performed comic routines in live television shows and costarred with Imogene Coca (1908–2001) and Carl Reiner in the popular comedy variety program Your Show of Shows (1950–54). He created his own Caesar's Hour (1954–57) and later appeared in television specials.

Caesar, (Sidney) Sid (1922– ) television comedian; born in Yonkers, N.Y. He began his career in show business while a teenager, playing saxophone and clarinet for the Shep Fields band. In the Coast Guard during World War II, he made his stage debut in a service show, Tars and Spars (1945), appearing in the 1946 film version. Master of pantomine, dialect, and doubletalk, he went on to star on National Broadcasting Company's Your Show of Shows (1950–54), a comedy variety series that is regarded as a high point of early television. For some years thereafter his career went into decline and he himself became an alcoholic. He starred in the Broadway musical, Little Me (1962–63), and appeared in occasional Hollywood films and television movies in the 1970s and the 1980s. He wrote his autobiography, Where Have I Been (1982).

Caesar, Sid

(1922–) pillar of zany 1950s comedy. [TV: “Your Show of Shows” in Terrace, II, 290–291]

See : Zaniness