George Burns


Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Wikipedia.
Related to George Burns: Jack Benny
George Burns
Nathan Birnbaum
Birthday
BirthplaceNew York City, New York, USA
Died
NationalityAmerican
Occupation
Actor, comedian, writer

Burns, George,

1896–1996, b. New York City as Nathan Birnbaum, and his wife Gracie Allen, 1906–64, b. San Francisco, American comedy team (1923–58). In vaudeville in the 1920s, on radio (1932–50) and television (1950–58) and in films, they played an endlessly patient husband and scatterbrained wife. Although he continued to perform after his wife's retirement, his solo career did not flourish until he won an Academy Award for The Sunshine Boys (1975). Subsequently, Burns enjoyed great success as a cigar-puffing nightclub entertainer and as a film actor, becoming particularly well-known for his role as God in three motion pictures.

Bibliography

See his Gracie: A Love Story (1988) and All My Best Friends (1989); biography by M. Gottfried (1996).

Mentioned in ?
References in periodicals archive ?
PLAYING A STRAIGHT BAT Visually impaired cricketer George Burns, from Washington, at Belmont yesterday.
CRICKET LOVER GEORGE REFUSES TO BE BOWLED OUT BY HIS LOSS OF SIGHT
In 1978, he earned a Writers Guild Award for his work on "The George Burns One Man Show," shared with co-writers Elon Packard and Fox.
Seaman Jacobs
But Ebihara carved out a seven-shot adavantage over the Scot with a sparkling 65 and leads American George Burns by three.
Golf: IT'S THE PITTS FOR BRITS
at downtown Hoboken, once hosted George Burns and Gracie Allen, but was demolished 50 years ago and subsequently used as a parking lot.
Spec building in Hoboken
Brian Murray's Man and Marian Seldes's Woman are the same figures "after the fall," now in the guise of George Burns and Gracie Allen, the gruff-voiced wise-cracker and his ditsy female sidekick.
The Play About the Baby
Film star Eleanor Powell was the Grand Trouper throughout the late 1930s and early 1940s and contributed a chatty monthly column discussing her films and supplying anecdotes about other stars such as Joan Crawford, George Burns, Fred Astaire, Red Skelton, Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, and Mickey Rooney.
The Young Dancer: 70 years of the Young Dancer section
VETERAN American comed-ian George Burns is fighting to cling on to life - just six days away from his 100th birthday.
Will George make 100?; Fading comic clings to life
What is 93-year-old George Burns doing in a fitness tape?
George Burns: His Wit and Wisdom
But that should come as no surprise to those who know and love George Burns.
George Burns: an American treasure
It is a joy, therefore, to report on a book written by that breed with wit, clarity, and insight; one that quotes with equal reverence the words of Yogi Berra, George Burns, Mary Poppins, and Calvin Coolidge.
The search for government efficiency; from hubris to helplessness
Although June quarter equipment sales were up nearly 60 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago, we anticipate a more rapid deceleration to single-digit sales growth by mid-2007," said George Burns, SMA president.
EquipmentFutures(TM) Report Sees Robust Semiconductor Equipment Sales Decelerating More Rapidly than Previously Forecast; Quarterly Equipment Sales Projected to Slow to Single-Digit Cumulative Growth Rate by Mid-2007
BORN BUZZ Aldrin, astronaut, 1930, above GEORGE Burns, US actor, 1896 DAVID Lynch, US director, 1946 DIED AUDREY Hepburn, film actress, 1993, above ETTA James US soul singer, 2012 BARBARA Stanwyck, film actress, 1990
ON THIS DAY

Encyclopedia browser ?
Full browser ?