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Daily News
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Art Carney Dead at 85
Oscar and multiple Emmy-winning Honeymooners star died Sunday night
in Connecticut.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
By Vincent Rowe
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Mulitple Emmy winner Art Carney, best known for his role as Ed Norton on The
Honeymooners, died Sunday night in Chester, CT, after being ill for some
time. The actor, who also won a best actor Oscar in 1974 for his role in Harry
and Tonto, was 85 years old.
Carney's sewer worker Norton, who oft donned a turned-up hat and vest over
a white T-shirt, kept his buddy and downstairs neighbor Ralph Kramden, played
by Jackie Gleason, on his toes. The show aired from 1951 through 1956, with
a brief revival in the early '70s, and the role garnered Carney three Emmy Awards
along the way. The show can still be seen on cable.
Carney was born in Mount Vernon, NY, on November 4, 1918. His father worked
at the newspaper and was a publicist. Carney started his entertainment career
performing in amateur theatrical productions and impersonating various radio
personalities. His comic talents won him a job touring with Horace Heidt's dance
band in 1937 doing his various impressions and performing comedic songs.
Soon thereafter, Carney left the dance tour in order to try his hand at stand
up comedy in various nightclubs. His show never took off, but he soon landed
a job on the radio show Report to the Nation doing his Franklin D. Roosevelt
and Winston Churchill impressions.
When the War broke out, Carney was drafted in 1944 and was part of the D-Day
invasion on the beaches of Normandy. While serving, his leg was damaged by shrapnel,
which left him with one leg three-quarters of an inch shorter than the other
and a lifelong limp.
After returning from the War, Carney returned to show business appearing on
the television show The Morey Amsterdam Show in 1947. That gig caught
the attention of Gleason, which landed him the role of his lifetime.
The years after The Honeymooners proved tough for Carney, who turned
to alcohol. He had been performing Neil Simon's The Odd Couple on Broadway
before having to drop out to spend time in a clinic. Back in action in 1974,
Paul Mazursky cast him Harry and Tonto as a 72-year-old widower who travels
from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. The role won him an Oscar and critical
praise.
He later went on to star in films such as W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings,
The Late Show, Sunburn, Firestarter, The Muppets Take
Manhattan and Last Action Hero, among others.
| Carney married Jean Myers, his high school sweetheart, in 1940. They divorced
and he married Barbara Isaac in 1966. After ten years, that marriage broke up,
and Carney married Myers once again in 1980. |
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