The cast and crew for "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."
by alexanderdavies-99382 | created - 20 Jul 2022 | updated - 20 Jul 2022 | PublicThis classic comedy is like a who's who of Hollywood comedians and nightclub performers. The pace is fast and furious and that is just how I like it!
1. Spencer Tracy
Actor | Judgment at Nuremberg
Spencer Tracy was the second son born on April 5, 1900, to truck salesman John Edward and Caroline Brown Tracy in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. While attending Marquette Academy, he and classmate Pat O'Brien quit school to enlist in the Navy at the start of World War I. Tracy was still at Norfolk Navy Yard...
2. Milton Berle
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Milton Berle was an American comedian and actor.
Berle's career as an entertainer spanned over 80 years, first in silent films and on stage as a child actor, then in radio, movies and television. As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theatre (1948-55), he was the first major American television star and ...
3. Sid Caesar
Actor | Grease
Comedian, saxophonist, composer, actor and musician, he performed within the orchestras of Charlie Spivak, Shep Fields and Claude Thornhill as saxophonist. Later, as super-hip jazz musician "Cool Cees" in television skits, he played tenor saxophone, and sang with the satirical trio "The Hair Cuts" ...
4. Ethel Merman
Actress | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Born in the Astoria section of Queens, New York City, Ethel Merman surely is the pre-eminent star of 'Broadway' musical comedy. Though untrained in singing, she could belt out a song like quite no one else, and was sought after by major songwriters such as Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Having ...
5. Mickey Rooney
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. ...
6. Buddy Hackett
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Brooklyn-born Buddy Hackett was known mainly as a nightclub comic, especially in Las Vegas, where he first performed in 1952 and wound up being one of the biggest headliners in that city's history. Hackett always referred to himself as a "saloon comic" and preferred the intimacy of his stage act--...
7. Jimmy Durante
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
First wife Jeanne died in 1943. Wed second wife, Marjorie Little after 16 year courtship when she was 39 and he 67 Marjorie Little had been the hatcheck girl at the Copacabana. Durante and his second wife adopted a baby girl, Cecelia Alicia on Christmas day 1961. Durante doted on "CeCe" until his ...
8. Buster Keaton
Actor | The General
Joseph Frank Keaton was born on October 4, 1895 in Piqua, Kansas, to Joe Keaton and Myra Keaton. Joe and Myra were Vaudevillian comedians with a popular, ever-changing variety act, giving Keaton an eclectic and interesting upbringing. In the earliest days on stage, they traveled with a medicine ...
9. Dick Shawn
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
One-of-a-kind comedian Dick Shawn was as intriguingly clever and off-the-wall as they came. As such, he proved to be rather an acquired taste on film and TV. A counterculture favorite far ahead of his time, it became a hit-and-miss effort in proper vehicles for this man's eccentric genius. He ...
10. Terry-Thomas
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
One of Britain's most beloved eccentric comedians, the irrepressible, gap-toothed Terry-Thomas was born Thomas Terry Hoar-Stevens in Lichfield Grove, Finchley. He was the son of Ellen Elizabeth (Hoar) and Ernest Frederick Stevens, a fairly well-to-do London businessman. He was afforded a private ...
11. Edie Adams
Actress | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
The scintillating, sultry-eyed blonde (formerly a redhead) star of screen, TV and award-winning stage went on to become best known, however, for her sensual delivery pitching cigars in taunting '60s ads and commercials with her Mae Westian come-on line "Why don't you pick one up and smoke it ...
12. Dorothy Provine
Actress | The Great Race
Flashy, leggy, bouffant blonde Dorothy Provine was a solid screen representation of the Kennedyesque era when life seemed so full of fun, so innocent and so optimistic. This sparkling beauty also gave TV audiences a double dose blast to the past via her popular co-starring roles on late 50s/early ...
13. Jack Benny
Actor | The Jack Benny Program
The son of a saloon keeper, Jack Benny (born Benny Kubelsky) began to study the violin at the age six, and his "ineptness" at it, would later become his trademark (in reality, he was a very accomplished player). When given the opportunity to play in live theatre professionally, Benny quit school ...
14. Jonathan Winters
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Jonathan Harshman Winters III was born on November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio. His father, Jonathan Harshman Winters II, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression. His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his ...
15. Phil Silvers
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Phil Silvers was a comedic actor of Russian-Jewish descent, nicknamed as "The King of Chutzpah." He was best known for his starring role as United States Army Master Sergeant Ernest "Ernie" Bilko in the very popular hit sitcom "The Phil Silvers Show" (1955-1959). He later had important roles in the...
16. Joe E. Brown
Actor | Some Like It Hot
Joe E. Brown happily claimed that he was the only youngster in show business who ran away from home to join the circus with the blessings of his parents. In 1902, the ten-year-old Brown joined a circus tumbling act called the Five Marvellous Ashtons that toured various circuses and vaudeville ...
17. Moe Howard
Actor | If a Body Meets a Body
Moe Howard, the "Boss Stooge" and brother of Stooges Curly Howard and Shemp Howard, began his acting career in 1909 by playing bit roles in silent Vitagraph films. At 17 he joined a troupe working on a showboat and also appeared in several two-reel comedy shorts. In 1922 he, brother Shemp and Larry...
18. Leo Gorcey
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Leo Gorcey's parents were actor Bernard Gorcey (born 1888) who stood 4' 10", and Josephine Condon (born 1901), who stood 4' 11" and weighed 95 pounds; they worked in vaudeville in New York. In 1915, 14-year-old Josephine gave birth to Fred. In 1917, Leo was born, a large baby at 12 lb. 3 oz.; as an...
19. Barrie Chase
Actress | Cape Fear
Barrie Chase was born on October 20, 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. She is an actress, known for Cape Fear (1962), It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963) and Mardi Gras (1958). She is married to Richard Kaufman. They have one child. She was previously married to Jan Malmsjö and Gene Shacove.
20. Norman Fell
Actor | Three's Company
Norman Fell was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1924. He graduated from Temple University with a bachelor's degree in drama. During World War II, he was an Air Force tail gunner in the Pacific. After the war, he studied acting and obtained small parts in television and on stage. His first ...
21. Charles McGraw
Actor | Spartacus
Stony-faced, grizzled-looking tough guy Charles McGraw (real name Charles Butters) notched up dozens of TV and film credits, usually portraying law enforcement figures or military officers, plus the odd shifty gangster. While at high school he worked as a theatre usher and was nicknamed "Chick" by ...
22. Don Knotts
Actor | The Andy Griffith Show
Don Knotts, the legendary television character actor, was born Jesse Donald Knotts on July 21, 1924 in Morgantown, West Virginia, to William Jesse Knotts and the former Elsie Luzetta Moore. He was the youngest of four sons in a family that had been in America since the 17th century.
His first stint ...
23. Arnold Stang
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
A show-stopping comic for decades, the inimitable Arnold Stang, with the trademark Runyonesque voice and thick, black glasses, started out famously on radio before branching out to include Broadway, films and especially TV. Born on September 28, 1918, in New York City (for decades he himself ...
24. Peter Falk
Actor | Columbo
Peter Michael Falk was born on September 16, 1927, in New York City, New York. At the age of 3, his right eye was surgically removed due to cancer. He graduated from Ossining High School, where he was president of his class. His early career choices involved becoming a certified public accountant, ...
25. Jim Backus
Actor | Rebel Without a Cause
Jim Backus was born James Gilmore Backus on February 25, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of the few actors to do it all: radio, Broadway, movies, television and cartoons. After attending preparatory school in his hometown Cleveland, Backus enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, to ...
26. Jerry Lewis
Actor | The Nutty Professor
Jerry Lewis (born March 16, 1926 - August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, film producer, screenwriter and film director. He is known for his slapstick humor in film, television, stage and radio. He was originally paired up with Dean Martin in 1946, forming the famed comedy team ...
27. Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
Actor | You Can't Take It with You
The son of a minstrel and circus tightrope walker, Eddie Anderson developed a gravel voice early in life which would become his trademark to fame. He joined his older brother Cornelius as members of "The Three Black Aces" during his vaudeville years, singing for pennies in the hotel lobby. He ...
28. Sterling Holloway
Actor | The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Popular American character actor of amusing appearance and voice whose long career led from dozens of highly enjoyable onscreen performances to world-wide familiarity as the voice of numerous Walt Disney animated films. Born in the American Deep South to grocer Sterling P. Holloway Sr. and Rebecca ...
29. Paul Ford
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
If any man ever had a curmudgeon character face absolutely made for TV and film, it was Paul Ford. Small-eyed, balding, lugubrious, pot-bellied and with a memorable plum nose to rival that of the great Karl Malden, he made a very late entry into show business, finding major success as blowhard ...
30. Lloyd Corrigan
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Lloyd Corrigan was born on October 16, 1900 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Chase (1946). He died on November 5, 1969 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.
31. Carl Reiner
Writer | The Dick Van Dyke Show
Carl Reiner is a legend of American comedy, who achieved great success as a comic actor, a director, producer and recording artist. He won nine Emmy Awards, three as an actor, four as a writer and two as a producer. He also won a Grammy Award for his album "The 2,000 Year Old Man", based on his ...
32. William Demarest
Actor | Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
A stocky, serious-looking character, Carl William Demarest started off in vaudeville in 1905 along with two older brothers. At one time he also performed in a stage act with his wife Estelle Collette (billed as 'Demarest and Collette') and then moved on to Broadway. He entered movies in 1926 and ...
33. Andy Devine
Actor | Stagecoach
Rotund comic character actor of American films. Born Andrew Vabre Devine in Flagstaff, Arizona, he was raised in nearby Kingman, Arizona, the son of an Irish-American hotel operator Thomas Devine and his wife Amy. Devine was an able athlete as a student and actually played semi-pro football under a...
34. Larry Fine
Actor | Disorder in the Court
Larry began performing as a violinist at a young age. During his teenage years, he earned his living as a singer and boxer. At 18, Larry began working vaudeville with "The Haney Sisters and Fine" and in 1925, he joined Ted Healy and Moe Howard in the act that would eventually become The Three ...
35. Stan Freberg
Actor | Lady and the Tramp
Stan Freberg grew up in Los Angeles, California. From an early age he was a big fan of radio and sound. He was blessed with the double abilities of being an amazing mimic and possessing a razor-sharp satirical mind. In the early 1940s he began to do voice work for both the Warner Brothers' cartoons...
36. Edward Everett Horton
Actor | Arsenic and Old Lace
It seemed like Edward Everett Horton appeared in just about every Hollywood comedy made in the 1930s. He was always the perfect counterpart to the great gentlemen and protagonists of the films. Horton was born in Brooklyn, New York City, to Isabella S. (Diack) and Edward Everett Horton, a ...
37. Marvin Kaplan
Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Marvin Kaplan was born on January 24, 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963), Wild at Heart (1990) and The Great Race (1965). He was married to Rosa Felsenburg. He died on August 25, 2016 in Tarzana, California, USA.
38. Allen Jenkins
Actor | Tomorrow at Seven
Both of Allen Jenkins' parents were musical comedy performers, and he entered the theater as a stage mechanic after World War I, after having spent time working in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Although his screen persona was that of a not-too-bright Brooklyn tough guy, Jenkins attended the American ...
39. Harry Lauter
Actor | Escape from the Planet of the Apes
American character actor specializing in villainous roles. Born in White Plains, New York to Herman E. and Franceska Lauter, he was raised in Denver, Colorado. Although it has been suggested that he appeared briefly in a couple of films during the Thirties, his real movie career began in 1946. He ...
40. Tom Kennedy
Actor | The Adventurous Blonde
Once a boxer, brawny character actor Tom Kennedy began his film career early in the silent era. He frequently played big, dumb, likable, working-class types, such as in The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1937). He also worked with W.C. Fields, The Marx Brothers, and Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in ...
41. Stanley Kramer
Producer | Judgment at Nuremberg
Stanley Kramer was born on September 29, 1913 in Hell's Kitchen [now Clinton], Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a producer and director, known for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) and Inherit the Wind (1960). He was married to Karen Sharpe, Anne P. ...
42. William Rose
Writer | Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
William Rose was born on August 31, 1918 in Jefferson City, Missouri, USA. He was a writer, known for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Ladykillers (1955) and It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). He was married to Tania Rose. He died on February 10, 1987 in Jersey, Channel Islands, UK.
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