Red Skelton
Acting
Born 1913-07-18
Died 1997-09-17
Vincennes, Indiana, USA
81 credits
Primetime Emmy Awards 2
Golden Globe Awards 2
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award 1
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1
Awards
Won 2 Primetime Emmy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards 2 won
- 1961 Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series Won The Red Skelton Show
- 1952 Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Won
Golden Globe Awards 2 won
- 1978 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award Won
- 1959 Best Television Series – Drama Won The Red Skelton Show
Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award 1 won
- — Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award Won
star on Hollywood Walk of Fame 1 won
- — star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Won
Award data from Wikidata (CC0). Coverage may be incomplete.
Read biography
The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of 7 by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15. At age 17, he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937 and on film in 1938. His ex-wife/manager negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year The Red Skelton Hour (1951) premiered on NBC. For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television. His home life was not completely happy--two divorces and a son Richard who died of leukemia at age 9--and he did not hang around with other comedians. He continued performing live until illness, and he was a longtime supporter of children's charities. Red Skelton died at age 84 of pneumonia in Rancho Mirage, California, on September 17, 1997. Red is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Glendale, California, in the Great Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Benediction.
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Filmography
— top 60 of 81
Acting
59 credits
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Red Skelton Show
Climax!
What's My Line?
The Steve Allen Show
The Oscars
The Bob Hope Show
Tonight Starring Jack Paar
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Jack Benny Program
The Dinah Shore Chevy Show
This Is Your Life
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
Around the World in 80 Days
Ocean's Eleven
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour
Bathing Beauty
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes
That's Entertainment!
That's Entertainment, Part II
Texaco Star Theater
That's Dancing!
Television: The First Fifty Years
Susan Slept Here
Rudolph's Shiny New Year
Neptune's Daughter
Du Barry Was a Lady
Twenty Years After
Ziegfeld Follies
The Big Parade of Comedy
The Fuller Brush Girl
Hollywood's Funniest All-Star Bloopers
Flight Command
The Great Diamond Robbery
The Dean Martin Christmas Show
Thousands Cheer
Three Little Words
Lovely to Look At
The Clown
A Brave Engineer: Buster Keaton's Last Ride
I Dood It
Swing Out, Sweet Land
Whistling in Dixie
Merton of the Movies
The Fuller Brush Man
Texas Carnival
Ship Ahoy
Clown Alley
Maisie Gets Her Man
Half a Hero
Whistling in Brooklyn
Having Wonderful Time
Elf: Christmas in Tinseltown
Inside the Dream Factory
Whistling in the Dark
Watch the Birdie
Panama Hattie
The Hollywood Clowns
Lady Be Good
Writing
3 credits
Other credits
1 credit
Producing
1 credit
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