Ed Wynn Overview:

Character actor, Ed Wynn, was born Isaiah Edwin Leopold on Nov 9, 1886 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wynn died at the age of 79 on Jun 19, 1966 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and was laid to rest in Forest Lawn (Glendale) Cemetery in Glendale, CA.

Ed Wynn was a dark-haired, inimitably Jewish (although he married a Catholic), bespectacled American comedian, known in his wildly successful, baggy-panted vaudeville days as "The Perfect Fool". His early film sound comedies were not successful, but he returned to Hollywood in his seventies with his gurgling voice intact and found himself in demand playing eccentric old gentlemen, especially in Walt Disney productions. He was the father of actor Keenan Wynn. He died from cancer.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Illustrated Dictionary of Film Character Actors).

HONORS and AWARDS:

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Although Wynn was nominated for one Oscar, he never won a competitive Academy Award.

Academy Awards

YearAwardFilm nameRoleResult
1959Best Supporting ActorThe Diary of Anne Frank (1959)Mr. DussellNominated
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He was honored with three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the categories of Motion Pictures, Radio and Television.

BlogHub Articles:

TV Tuesday: Hattie McDaniel on The Show

By KC on Feb 9, 2010 From Classic Movies

Here's Hattie McDaniel in a 1949 appearance on The Show as Beulah, her character from her popular radio (and eventually television) show. My favorite part of this sketch is when McDaniel breaks into a rendition of Some of These Days (though she didn't sing much on the big screen, ... Read full article


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Ed Wynn Quotes:

Mad Hatter: Oh yes mustard! That'll do... Mustard? Don't let's be silly. Now lemon, that's different...


Fairy Godfather: [Fella has fainted] Jack and Jill! Fetch a pail of water!
[Jack and Jill magically appear and dump water on Fella]


March Hare: Why don't you start at the begining?
Mad Hatter: Yes and when you reach the end... Stop.


read more quotes from Ed Wynn...



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Best Supporting Actor Oscar 1959






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Ed Wynn on the
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Ed Wynn Facts
Organized an actors' strike in 1919, and was boycotted by the Shuberts as a result. He got around the boycott by writing and producing his own musical shows, which were both critical and popular successes.

Some of his more famous on-stage props: an 11-foot pole for people he wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole; a windshield wiper to be served with grapefruit; a typewriter carriage for eating corn on the cob; a cash drawer that closed before you could open it; a non-wrinkling nightgown; and a cuckoo-clock fiddle.

Worked as an on-stage assistant to W.C. Fields as a youth. The story has it that Fields caught Wynn "mugging" for the audience during his "Pool Room" routine and knocked him unconscious with his pool cue. In later years he and Fields, both Ziegfeld stars at the time, sparked a well-publicized feud but eventually made up.

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