Also won Best Comedy Team (with Imogene Coca) in 1953.
Arrived in New York City penniless and tried to join the musician's union (later he audited classes at the famed Juilliard School of Music).
At fourteen, Caesar first went to the Catskills as a saxophonist with Mike Cifficello's Swingtime Six and would also occasionally perform in sketches.
Best remembered on 'Your Shows of Shows' and the movies, 'Grease' (1978) and Grease 2.
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 84-86. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Caesar was assigned as a musician in the Coast Guard, taking part in the service show "Tars and Spars," where producer Max Liebman overheard him improvising comedy routines among the band members, and switched him over to comedy. Sid later made his film debut in the adaptation of his stage hit Tars and Spars (1946).
Caesar's appearance in his first series "The Admiral Broadway Revue" (1949) with Imogene Coca was a huge hit with TV audiences. Simultaneously broadcast on NBC and the Dumont network, its sponsor, Admiral Corporation, an appliance company, could not keep up with the demand for its new television sets, so the show was canceled on account of its runaway success.
Despite his apparent fluency in many languages, in reality Caesar can only speak English and Yiddish.
His children are Michele ("Shelly"), Rick (born February 18, 1952), and Karen (born in 1956).
His father, Max Caesar, owned a restaurant in Yonkers, NY.
His son Rick went to Yale University.
His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
In his book Caesar's Hours, Sid describes the essence of his comedy as 'working both sides of the street', the deliberate blending of comedy and pathos. His idols were Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, Keaton, and W. C. Fields.
Made his Broadway debut performing in the 1948 revue "Make Mine Manhattan," which featured The Five Dollar Date, one of Sid's first original pieces in which he sang, acted, double-talked, pantomimed, and wrote the music.
Played at the Vacationland Hotel in Swan Lake in the Catskills during his salad days. There, under the tutelage of Don Appel, the resort's social director, Caesar played in the band and learned to perform comedy, doing three shows a week.
Received the Sylvania Award in 1958 for his work in television.
Sid gave up alcohol 'cold turkey'. His autobiography, Where Have I Been, published in 1983 and his second book, Caesar's Hours, both chronicle his struggle to overcome alcoholism and barbiturates.
Studied saxophone at the Julliard School of Music before becoming an actor.
The son of Jewish immigrants Ida (née Raphael) and Max Caesar, who ran a 24-hour luncheonette, Sid would help his parents by waiting on tables and it was during this time that he learned to mimic many of the accents he would use throughout his long career.
Voted the United States' Best Comedian by Motion Picture Daily's TV poll in 1951 and 1952.