Known affectionately as "The Great One" Jackie Gleason was a legendary actor, comedian, writer, and composer. Gleason was known for his brash and visual comedy, and the character that typified his humor was Ralph Kramden, who he played on the television series "The Honeymooners." Gleason is also known for developing "The Jackie Gleason Show" that consistently had high ratings from the mid-1950s to the 1970s. He also starred in notable films alongside Hollywood heavyweights Paul Newman in "The Hustler" and Burt Reynolds in "Smokey and The Bandit." But behind the scenes, Gleason's life was far away from the hilarious content he provided his fans. His life was filled with turmoil, substance abuse, and career rivalry.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Jackie Gleeson is remembered as one of the most iconic stars of the 20th century, but
00:05underneath his jocular, smiling public demeanor, he dealt with considerable inner turmoil.
00:10These are the tragic details about Jackie Gleeson.
00:13Jackie Gleeson was born on February 26, 1916, to parents Herbert Walter Gleeson and May
00:20Maisie Kelly, who hailed from County Cork in Ireland. Curiously enough, while Gleeson
00:25was born Herbert John Gleeson, he was baptized as John Herbert Gleeson. The nickname Jackie
00:31was given to him by his mother, and it stuck. Gleeson grew up in Bushwick, Brooklyn, which
00:36was a very impoverished area at the time.
00:38According to Gleeson's website, young Jackie knew that he wanted to be an actor from the
00:42age of six, when his father used to take him to see matinee silent films and vaudeville
00:47performances. Unfortunately, the theater visits would be the only good memory that Gleeson
00:52would have of his father. Herbert Gleeson would walk out on his family when Jackie was
00:56only nine years old. Jackie Gleeson never saw his father again.
01:00Unfortunately, Herbert Gleeson's abandonment wasn't the only tragedy that would befall
01:05the Gleeson family. Jackie Gleeson actually had an older brother named Clement, who was
01:09a frail and sickly child. This led to the boy dying of spinal meningitis when young
01:14Jackie was only three. Once Jackie's father walked out, his mother, Maisie, became even
01:19more protective of Jackie. Gleeson would later recall how his desperate mother kept
01:24him inside at all times as a child, telling an interviewer,
01:27"...I could never go out on the street and play with the other kids. I used to watch
01:31them with my face pressed against the window. I think that's how I developed my poor soul
01:36look."
01:37Between her oldest son's death and her husband's abandonment, Maisie Gleeson couldn't bear
01:41to lose her last family member. Sadly, Gleeson's mother died at the age of 50, leaving the
01:4619-year-old Gleeson alone, homeless, and with only 36 cents in his pocket.
01:52The Gleeson family had always been poor, but after his mother's death, Jackie was utterly
01:56destitute. He needed money, and he needed it soon. As noted by MeTV, Gleeson's then-girlfriend's
02:03parents did offer to take him in, but Gleeson turned them down. He managed to get a roommate
02:08in the city and started taking whatever work he could find. First, he worked some minor
02:12gigs as a carnival barker and a daredevil driver, then as an emcee in a Brooklyn club.
02:17But what really helped Gleeson's career was playing various gigs in some of the seedier
02:21nightclubs across New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. According to Entertainment Weekly,
02:27Gleeson flopped badly in stand-up. Still, he did better as a table-hopping comic, which
02:32let him interact directly with an audience.
02:34These entertainment gigs eventually attracted the attention of talent agents who could land
02:39him small movie roles and later parts in Broadway musical comedies. By the time he
02:43was 34, Gleeson had earned his own TV variety show, The Jackie Gleeson Show.
02:49Before taking the role of legendary pool player Minnesota Fats in the classic movie The Hustler,
02:54Gleeson learned to play pool in real life. As noted by film historian Dina DeMombro,
02:59when Gleeson was still a boy, he often tried to pick up odd jobs around his Brooklyn neighborhood
03:03to earn extra money to bring home to his mother. As they were living in abject poverty, they
03:08needed whatever money they could make between the two of them. The 12-year-old Jackie managed
03:12to find work in a pool hall, where his job was racking up balls for neighborhood toughs
03:17who came in to play.
03:18While working in the pool hall, Gleeson learned to play the game himself and managed to become
03:22quite the pool hustler at a very young age. When it came to filming The Hustler, Gleeson
03:27didn't need any stunt doubles to do those trick pool shots. They were all Gleeson himself,
03:32and director Robert Rawson always positioned the camera to show off Gleeson's excellent
03:37pool skills to the audience.
03:39Over his lifetime, Jackie Gleeson had three wives. The first was a dancer, Genevieve Halford,
03:45with whom Gleeson had his two daughters, Geraldine and Linda. Although Gleeson and Halford were
03:49legally married for 34 years, their relationship was extremely fraught. Halford hoped to have
03:55a normal, comfortable family life, but Gleeson was far more interested in going out with
03:59friends, drinking, and partying. The two of them separated and reconciled multiple times
04:04According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, during one of their separations, Gleeson also
04:09carried on a relationship with another dancer named Marilyn Taylor. He wanted to marry Taylor,
04:15but Halford was a devout Catholic and refused a divorce. Marilyn Taylor went on to marry
04:20someone else.
04:21Halford eventually came around and divorced Gleeson in 1970. Only 10 days after his divorce
04:26from Genevieve Halford, Gleeson married a country club secretary named Beverly McKittrick,
04:31whom he had met in 1968. However, in 1973, Gleeson learned that the widowed Marilyn Taylor
04:37had moved to Miami. He quickly filed for divorce from McKittrick and married Taylor once the
04:43divorce was finalized. Taylor and Gleeson remained married for the rest of Gleeson's
04:47life.
04:48Jackie Gleeson was an extremely heavy drinker and a hard partier in his day. In fact, Gleeson's
04:53parties could get so out of control that one of his hotels had to soundproof his suite
04:58to prevent the rest of the guests from being disturbed by Gleeson's partying. And when
05:03he had been hitting the bottle particularly hard, he wasn't noted as being a fun or affable
05:08drunk, but has been described as petty, mean-spirited, and nasty. Gleeson was also known to drink
05:13while he was at work and on set. As noted by Gleeson's biographer, William Henry III,
05:19Jackie Gleeson seldom spent much time with his family during the holidays. Apparently,
05:23he would only spend about half an hour with his wife Genevieve Halford and young daughters
05:27on Christmas before going out to celebrate the day with his drinking buddies. Gleeson's
05:32alcoholism and carousing certainly seemed to be what really threw a wrench in his first
05:36marriage, leading to several separations and reconciliations before the ultimate divorce.
05:42Gleeson was a brilliant performer, but he wasn't exactly the easiest person to work
05:46with. Gleeson always had high salary demands and outrageous prerequisites, like having
05:52the longest limousine. Apparently, Gleeson even insisted that CBS move his show to Miami
05:58so he could golf year-round. He wasn't any better when performing, either. Gleeson, an
06:03outstanding improviser, hated rehearsing, feeling that he and his co-stars would give
06:07better reactions if they didn't seem so practiced.
06:10His Honeymooners cast loathed Gleeson's methods and were forced to rehearse without him. As
06:15noted by Fame10, co-star Joyce Randolph admitted that she would, quote, break out into cold
06:20sweats right before filming. This was because Gleeson often wouldn't read the script until
06:25the day of the show, and sometimes wouldn't even give it to his co-stars until hours before
06:30they were supposed to go on.
06:32Gleeson's drinking was also a huge problem on set. He was known to show up either drunk
06:37or openly drinking while working, and the cast and crew could never be sure what his
06:41temperament might be. Gleeson's drinking caused him to have abrupt mood swings, charming and
06:46pleasant one minute and screaming and offensive the next.
06:49You're gonna do the mambo! You're gonna do the mambo, but it's gonna be in the moon!"
06:53He might have been a showbiz genius, but Gleeson probably didn't make as many memorable shows
06:58or movies as he could have just because others in the industry found him so exasperating.
07:03Jackie Gleeson and Art Carney, as Ralph Cramden and Ed Norton of The Honeymooners, are among
07:08the most iconic duos in 20th century television. However, despite their off-the-charts chemistry
07:13together on screen, the two actors didn't actually get along well in real life. One
07:18reason why the two disliked one another was the speculation that Gleeson felt threatened
07:23by Carney's comedic talents and prominent acting career. According to The Morning Call,
07:28Gleeson at one point told actor Orson Welles just how insecure he really was regarding
07:32his co-star, saying,
07:34"'It's like on my show when they laugh at my subordinate Art Carney, that dirty so-and-so.
07:38I smile on the outside, but you should see my insides.'"
07:42In return, Art Carney was said to dislike Gleeson's lack of professionalism and refusal
07:47to take the craft of acting seriously.
07:49"'Mr. Cramden!'
07:50"'Hey there!''
07:54After The Honeymooners ended in 1956, Carney and Gleeson swore they would never work together
07:59again. Ultimately, they broke that promise, but the two didn't work together until 1985
08:04for the crime comedy TV movie Izzy & Mo.
08:08The iconic cartoon show The Flintstones was obviously very heavily influenced by The Honeymooners.
08:14Nothing was blatantly stolen from The Honeymooners, but the lead characters' mannerisms and personalities
08:19were too at like to ignore. Both shows featured a heavyset, loudmouthed husband with a dim-witted
08:24best friend who regularly came up with ludicrous get-rich-quick schemes that were always squashed
08:29by their more prudent wives. Both the husband and the best friend characters were also avid
08:34bowlers and belonged to a men's club whose members wore ridiculous-looking animal hats.
08:39"'You haven't forgotten our date tonight, have you, dear?'
08:42"'But will my baby sweetheart tonight deserve a little bowling thing?''
08:47The Flintstones was so similar to The Honeymooners that Gleeson at one point considered suing
08:52Hanna-Barbera, but his publicist ultimately talked him out of it, saying,
08:56"'Do you want to go down in history as the man who killed Fred Flintstone?'
09:00Gleeson backed off. Incidentally, The Flintstones would go on to last much longer than The Honeymooners.
09:06While The Honeymooners ended after 39 episodes, The Flintstones had multiple seasons and spawned
09:11several spinoffs, TV specials, and movies. By the mid-'80s, Jackie Gleeson's health was
09:17on the decline, and he thought he was done making movies. But director Gary Marshall
09:21had other ideas. Marshall was dead-set on Gleeson starring in his latest film, Nothing
09:26in Common. Gleeson was to star alongside Tom Hanks, playing Hank's bad-tempered, self-absorbed,
09:32curmudgeonly father. Gleeson was reluctant to take on the role, fearing the strain that
09:37doing another movie might put on his health. But then Marshall reminded Gleeson that his
09:41last theatrical film credit was Smokey and the Bandit 3 in 1983, a film widely regarded
09:48as awful and with highly negative reviews. Marshall needled Gleeson, suggesting that
09:53he might want to reconsider letting that be the last movie on his record. That was enough
09:57for Gleeson. He might have been in poor health, but he said yes to appearing in Nothing in
10:02Common, which was officially his final film, released in 1986. It received mixed reviews
10:08overall, but Gleeson's performance was met with praise from critics. The movie has a
10:1257 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, certainly an improvement over Smokey and the Bandit
10:163.
10:17Jackie Gleeson died on June 24, 1987, at the premature age of 71. Gleeson had been suffering
10:24from multiple health issues for years, but kept it a secret from the public. Nevertheless,
10:29his years of hard partying, voracious alcohol consumption, and extravagant eating inevitably
10:34caught up with him.
10:36Although Gleeson had always been overweight, his lifestyle choices led to vein inflammation,
10:41diabetes, and hemorrhoids. However, the ultimate cause of Gleeson's death was colon cancer.
10:47Although he tried to keep his condition private, it became obvious to many that Gleeson was
10:51seriously ill as time went on. Even Gleeson himself couldn't ignore the fact that the
10:56end was probably coming soon.
10:58A year before his death, he privately admitted to one of his daughters, quote,
11:02"...I won't be around much longer."
11:04In an interview with Gleeson's stepson, Craig Horwich, Horwich fondly recalled his stepfather.
11:09He wanted to be at the head of the table with as many people and all the wonderful food
11:13and fun that came with it. But then he also had a great pleasure of reading and listening
11:18to music in solitude.
11:20Gleeson will be remembered as a complicated, often problematic and volatile person, but
11:24his legacy as a brilliant performer with legendary achievements will live on.