Sheldon Leonard

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Sheldon Leonard Bershad (* 22. February 1907 in New York City , New York ; † 10. January 1997 in Beverly Hills , California ) was an American film - and TV - producer , director , screenwriter and actor .

Life

Sheldon Leonard was born to the Jewish couple Anna and Frank Bershad and graduated from Syracuse University in 1929 .

As an actor, Leonard specialized in supporting roles, especially gangsters or felons, and appeared in films like Isn't life beautiful? (1946), to have and not to have (1944) and Open Secret (1948). His hallmark was his heavy New York accent, which he uttered from the corner of his mouth. In the cult film Decoy , Leonard uses his felon personality to impersonate die-hard police detective Joe Portugal. In the 1950s, Leonard dubbed Dodsworth the lazy cat in two Warner Bros. cartoons produced under the direction of Robert McKimson .

On the radio, Leonard played the eccentric racetrack tug The Tout on The Jack Benny Program in the late 1940s and early 1950s . His role was to greet Benny out of the blue at railroad stations, street corners or in department stores ("Hey Bud, come here a minute"), and ask Benny what he was doing and then dissuade him by using insane and irrelevant racetrack logic. Ironically, in his role as The Tout, he never gave out any information about horse racing unless Jack Benny specifically requested it. One of the excuses The Tout made was, "Who knows about horses?" ("Who knows horses?"). Leonard was also part of the ensemble of the radio show of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis . He also often appeared in the English radio drama series The Adventures of the Saint ( Simon Templar ), in which he played gangsters and felons, but sometimes also positive roles.

Leonard is also known as a producer of television series such as the Danny Thomas Show (also known as Make Room For Daddy ) (1953-1964), Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966) and tennis rackets and Cannons (1965–1968). Leonard also dubbed Linus the Lionhearted in a series of Post Crispy Critters cereal television commercials in 1963 and 1964 that resulted in a Linus cartoon television series broadcast on Saturday and later Sunday mornings on CBS (1964-66) and ABC (1967-69) was broadcast. He also briefly starred on his own television show, Big Eddie , in which he played the owner of a large sports stadium. The show ran for only one season from 1975 to 1976.

The Andy Taylor character from the Andy Griffith Show was introduced in an episode of the 1960 Danny Thomas Show that led to the television series The Andy Griffith Show . Leonard is therefore unofficially listed as the inventor of the practice of using a backdoor pilot episode for a new television series in which the guest star is introduced as a new character in order to use this character as the basis for the new television series.

Leonard was the first Miller Lite Spokesman along with writer Mickey Spillane . Using his typical New York accent, he addresses the audience: "I was at first reluctant to try Miller Lite, but then I was persuaded to do so by my friend, Large Louis." (I was reluctant at first To try Milly Lite but then I got convinced by my friend Large Louis). One of his last roles was a guest appearance on an episode of the television series Cheers in 1990, in which he played the owner of "The Hungry Heifer," Norm Peterson's favorite restaurant.

Leonard died at the age of 89 and was buried in Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City , California .

Bill Cosby used an embodiment of Sheldon Leonard for a title of his comedy album Wonderfulness from 1966. The title "Niagara Falls" describes Sheldon Leonard's honeymoon at Niagara Falls .

Sheldon Leonard's name inspired the writers of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory to choose the first names for the characters Sheldon Cooper and Leonard Hofstadter because they are fans of his work.

Filmography (selection)

producer

Director

actor

literature

  • Autobiography: And The Show Goes On: Broadway and Hollywood Adventures . Limelight, 1995, ISBN 0-87910-184-9

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary: Sheldon Leonard | Independent, The (London) . 
  2. ↑ Sheldon Leonard Biography - Yahoo! Movies
  3. ^ John Dunning: On the air: the encyclopedia of old-time radio . Oxford University Press US, 1998, ISBN 0-19-507678-8 , p. 438.
  4. ↑ The Big Bang Theory, la fórmula perfecta del humor in: La Voz del Interior of October 31, 2010 (Spanish)
  5. ↑ http://www.hollywood.com/tvseason/Cheers_Season_1990_1991/6193080

Web links

Commons : Sheldon Leonard  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Leonard, Sheldon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bershad, Sheldon Leonard (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and producer
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , New York
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 1997
Place of death Beverly Hills , California