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: Clean cup, clean cup. Move down.


Bert: It reminds me of me brother. He got a nice cushy job at a watch factory.
Uncle Albert: At a watch factory? What does he do?
Bert: He stands about all day... and makes faces!
Uncle Albert: [laughing hysterically] He makes faces in a watch factory!


[Uncle Albert had been asked if there is a way to get down from being up in the air]
Uncle Albert: There is a way. And frankly, I don't like to think of it, because you have to think of something sad.
Mary Poppins: Then do get on with it, please.
Uncle Albert: Let me see... I have the very thing: Yesterday, when the lady next door answered the door, there was a man there, and the man said to the lady, "I'm terribly sorry, I just ran over your cat."
[Jane and Michael descend from being up in the air]
Jane: Oh, that is sad.
Michael: The poor cat.
Uncle Albert: And the man said, "I'd like to replace your cat." And the lady said, "That's all right with me, but how are you with catching mice?"
[then they all burst out laughing and Jane and Michael re-ascend back to the tea table in the air]


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Best Supporting Actor Oscar 1959






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Ed Wynn on the
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Ed Wynn Facts
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.

At the end of the '30s, several of his business ventures collapsed, including a radio chain, and he suffered a severe nervous breakdown.

The epitaph on his grave stone at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California reads: "Dear God, Thank You".

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