Carney, Art

Carney, (Arthur William Matthew) Art

(1918–  ) television comedian, stage/movie actor; born in Mount Vernon, N.Y. After working as "second banana" for Fred Allen, Edgar Bergen, and Bert Lahr, he served in the U.S. Army and was wounded during the Normandy landing in June 1944. He returned to act on Broadway and television, gaining his greatest success as Jackie Gleason's sewer-cleaner sidekick, Ed Norton, in The Honeymooners (1955–56). He created the role of slovenly Oscar in Broadway's The Odd Couple (1960) and after recovering from a mental breakdown, he returned to work on stage and in television and screen films, winning the best actor Academy Award for Harry and Tonto (1974).

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.