Actor Art Carney, the 'Laugh Maker'

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

(11:14 PM ET)

USA TODAY staff and wire reports

When he won his Oscar for Harry and Tonto (1974) in 1975, he cracked: "You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled."

Art Carney, who played Jackie Gleason's dopey sidekick Ed Norton on television's The Honeymooners, and who later won an Oscar, died at the age of 85.

Image Credit: Reuters, Ltd.

USA TODAY
Art Carney, who died Sunday at 85, will always be identified with Ed Norton, his character on The Honeymooners. But there was much more to the man. Some trivia:

* Early in his career, he won attention for doing impressions of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and other world leaders on the radio show Report to the Nation. "I was a stale mimic," Carney once said. "I had a terrible act, but it got me by."

Johnny Grant Honorary Mayor of Hollywood places flowers at the star for Oscar winning actor Art Carney on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Tuesday, Nov. 11, in Los Angeles.

Image Credit: The Associated Press.

* On late-1940s radio, Carney made "Va-va-va-Voom" a national catchphrase as a reaction to female voluptuousness.

* But comedy was something else: "Comedy timing is like having an ear for music, something you're born with," he once said.

* The Honeymooners first appeared in 1951 as part of the Cavalcade of Stars variety show. Carney was cast as the neighborhood beat cop.
(More: USATODAY.com)
2003 © USA TODAY.

On the Net:

* Art Carney’s Filmography

The Internet Movie Dadtabase

* 'Honeymooners' actor Art Carney dies

Xinhua News Agency, China

Dan