Art Carney as Norton on TV's Honeymooners.
Art Carney on radio
Art Carney on the Twilight Zone
Jackie Gleason Show with Art Carney |
Carney was a busy radio actor before and after his military
service in World War II. In 1941 he was the house comic on the
dance band remote series, Matinee at Meadowbrook. One of his radio
roles during the 1940s was the fish Red Lantern on Land of the
Lost. In 1943 he played Billy Oldham on Joe and Ethel Turp, based
on Damon Runyon stories. He appeared on The Henry Morgan Show in
1946-47. He impersonated FDR on The March of Time and Dwight D.
Eisenhower on Living 1948. In 1950-51 he played Montague's father
on The Magnificent Montague. He was a supporting player on Casey,
Crime Photographer and Gang Busters. As Charlie the doorman on The
Morey Amsterdam Show (on both radio and TV in 1948-50), he uttered
the catchphrase, "Ya know what I mean?"
Carney began his film career in 1941 with a
uncredited role in Pot o' Gold, a minor film starring James
Stewart and Paulette Goddard, playing one of her brothers. In 1974
he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as
Harry Coombes, an elderly man going on the road with his pet cat,
in Harry and Tonto. In 1978, Carney appeared in The Star Wars
Holiday Special, a spin-off film to the Star Wars series. In it,
he played Trader Saun Dann, a member of the Rebel Alliance who was
a close friend of Chewbacca and his family. He also appeared in
such films as W.W. and the Dixie Dance kings, The Late Show, House
Calls, Movie Movie and Going in Style. Later movies included The
Muppets Take Manhattan, and the thriller Firestarter.
Carney gained lifelong fame for his portrayal of upstairs neighbor
and sewer worker, Ed Norton, opposite
Jackie Gleason's Ralph Kramden in the popular television comedy show
The Honeymooners and
on the Gleason variety shows that preceded and followed the
sitcom. Beyond The Honeymooners, Carney served as Gleason's
sidekick and troupe member during many of the Gleason's years on
television, which included several CBS runs of the Gleason variety
show and some Honeymooners specials on ABC.
His portrayal of Norton continues to
influence pop culture, particularly by inspiring the Hanna-Barbera
characters, Yogi Bear and Barney Rubble. Art Carney also had many
screen and stage roles, including the portrayal on Broadway of
Felix Unger in The Odd Couple (opposite Walter Matthau as Oscar).
He was nominated for seven Emmy Awards and won six.
On TV, besides playing Ed Norton from the 50s onward, he appeared
on "The Twilight Zone" (1960) in episode: "The Night of the Meek"
as a down and out Santa Claus.
Although he retired in the late 1980s, he returned in 1993 to make a small
cameo in the
Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Last Action Hero.
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