American comedian (1903-2003). Born
Leslie Townes Hope in
London, he and his family moved to America when he was still a baby. He got his start in
show business as a
vaudeville comic and made his way to
Broadway in the 1930s. After making a few uninspired short
films, he hit it big in
radio, starring on "
The Pepsodent Show" in 1938. He also appeared in "
The Big Broadcast" that year, where he and
Shirley Ross sang a song called "
Thanks for the Memories" -- of course, it has been his
signature song ever since.
Paramount signed Hope to a series of films, of which "
The Cat and the Canary" was the most
popular. The
comedic thriller featured Hope as a
wisecracking
coward who tossed off
topical references like fastballs, and
audiences loved it. Most of his
screen roles from then on had the same basic persona. After another popular ghost movie, "
The Ghost Breakers," Hope appeared with
Bing Crosby and
Dorothy Lamour in "
Road to Singapore," the first of the wildly successful "Road" movies. Hope and Crosby continued their
screwball, sometimes
ad-libbed comedies with "
Road to Zanzibar," "
Road to Morocco," "
Road to Utopia," "
Road to Rio," "
Road to Bali," and "
The Road to Hong Kong." The comic and the crooner also made frequent
cameo appearances in each other's
movies.
Some of Hope's other movies included comedies like "
The Princess and the Pirate," "
The Paleface," "
Son of Paleface," "
Fancy Pants," and "
My Favorite Blonde," as well as a couple of dramas: "
The Seven Little Foys" and "
Beau James." He also made his first
TV special for
NBC in 1950 -- for the next 40 years, he made regular specials for the
Peacock Network. He hosted the
Academy Awards for many years (and received four
honorary Oscars), and he made regular
tours to entertain
military troops
overseas.
After many years of quiet
retirement, Hope finally hit his 100th birthday, which was cause for much
celebration in the
entertainment biz (as well as in the
military -- Hope's tours with the
USO had been wildly popular with
soldiers for decades) and died only a few weeks later. He was probably the most popular
entertainer we've ever seen -- yes, bigger than
Elvis, bigger than
Sinatra, bigger even than
Britney -- and with his death, we've seen the official passing of America's last
Living Legend...
Mucho grande research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com)