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Buddy Hackett served three years in the Army with an antiaircraft unit during World War II. On a furlough in 1945, he returned home and bought a ticket to see the musical "Oklahoma!". He decided on a career in show business following his discharge.
[on late sportscaster Howard Cosell] There have always been mixed emotions about Howard Cosell: Some people hate him like poison; and other people just hate him regular.
- Buddy Hackett
Buddy Hackett
Leonard Hacker
31 August 1924, Brooklyn, New York
30 June 2003, Los Angeles, California
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Buddy Hackett (August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003) was an American comedian and actor. In his later life, he and his wife set up the Singita Animal Sanctuary in the San Fernando Valley, California.
Hackett was born Leonard Hacker in Brooklyn, New York, New York, the son of a Jewish upholsterer. He grew up on 54th and 14th Ave in Borough Park, Brooklyn, across from Public School 103 (now a yeshiva). He graduated from New Utrecht High School in 1942. While still a student, he began performing in nightclubs in the Catskills Borscht Belt resorts. He appeared first at the Golden Hotel in Hurleyville, New York, and he claimed did not get one single laugh.
Hackett enlisted in the United States Army during World War II and served in an anti-aircraft battery.
Hackett's first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. It was here that he changed his name from Leonard Hacker to Buddy Hackett. He made appearances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and continued to perform in the Catskills. He acted on Broadway, in Lunatics and Lovers, where Max Liebman saw him and put him in two television specials. A television series, Stanley, was developed for him and produced by Liebman, which helped start co-star Carol Burnett's career. In the late 1940s, Jules White, a friend of Hackett's, asked him if he would like to replace Curly Howard in The Three Stooges, after Curly suffered a stroke, but he turned down the role, according to Hackett, as stated in the The Love Bug Audio Commentary.
Hackett's movie career began in 1950 with a 10-minute "World of Sports" reel for Columbia Pictures called King of the Pins. The film demonstrated championship bowling techniques, with expert Joe Wilman demonstrating the right way and Hackett (in pantomime) exemplifying the wrong way. Hackett would not return to movies until 1953, after one of his nightclub routines attracted attention. With a rubber band around his head to slant his eyes, Hackett's "The Chinese Waiter" lampooned the heavy dialect, frustration, and communication problems encountered by a busy waiter in a Chinese restaurant: "No, we no have sprit-pea soup ... We gotta wonton, we got eh-roll ... No orda for her, juss orda for you!" The routine was such a hit that Hackett made a recording of it, and was hired to reprise it in the 1953 Technicolor musical Walking My Baby Back Home, produced by Universal-International.
Hackett was an emergency replacement for Lou Costello in 1954. Abbott and Costello were set to make a feature-length comedy Fireman, Save My Child, with a guest appearance by Spike Jones and His City Slickers. Several scenes had been shot with stunt doubles when Lou Costello was forced to withdraw due to illness. Universal-International salvaged the project by hiring Hugh O'Brian and Hackett to take over the Abbott and Costello roles; Jones and his band became the main attraction.
On June 12, 1955, Buddy Hackett married Sherry Cohen.
Hackett became known to a wider audience when he appeared on television in the 1950s and 1960s as a frequent guest on such talk shows as those of Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, often off-color jokes, and mugging at the camera. During this time, he also appeared as a panelist on What's My Line?. In 1960, he appeared as himself in an episode of NBC's short-lived crime drama Dan Raven, starring Skip Homeier, set on the Sunset Strip of West Hollywood. Hackett also appeared many times on the game show Hollywood Squares, in the late 1960s.
Hackett became widely known from his role in the 1963 box-office success It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. After starring on Broadway in I Had a Ball, Hackett appeared opposite Robert Preston in the 1962 film adaptation of The Music Man. Children became familiar with him as lovable hippie auto mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz in Disney's The Love Bug (1968). He appeared as Art Carney's replacement on The Jackie Gleason Show, and in the 1958 film God's Little Acre. His later career was mostly as a guest on variety shows and prime time sitcoms, such as Boy Meets World in its 4th season.
Recorded: Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini, first recorded by: Brian Hyland.
In 1978, Hackett surprised many with his dramatic performance as Lou Costello in the television movie Bud and Lou opposite Harvey Korman as Bud Abbott. The film told the story of Abbott and Costello, and Hackett's portrayal was widely praised. He and Korman did a memorable rendition of the team's famous "Who's on First?" routine.
Hackett starred in the 1980 film Hey Babe! with a 13-year-old Yasmine Bleeth, in her first screen appearance.
Throughout the 1970s Hackett appeared regularly doing TV ads for Tuscan Dairy popsicles and yogurt. But his most famous television campaign was for Lay's potato chips ("Nobody can eat just one!") which ran for 3 years, 1968-1971.
His latest film performance was voicing Scuttle, the goofy little seagull, in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) and the direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea in 2000. Hackett also appeared in the short term comedy series Action which starred Jay Mohr as movie producer Peter Dragon. He played Dragon's uncle Lonnie. He appeared again with Mohr as a judge in the reality show Last Comic Standing.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Hackett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In April 1998, Hackett guest starred in an episode of LateLine called "Buddy Hackett." The episode focuses on a news broadcast paying tribute to Hackett following his death, only to discover that the report of his death was a mistake. Robert Reich and Dick Gephardt also appeared in the episode, paying tribute to Hackett.
Hackett died on June 30, 2003, at his beach house in Malibu, California, at the age of 78. His son, Sandy Hackett, said his father had been suffering from diabetes for several years which was aggravated by his obesity.
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Quit doing appearances in 1996 after he suffered stage fright, including extreme dizziness, for the first time in his career. This event immediately followed gum surgery, which Buddy believes had something to do with the situation.
In 1953, gossip columns reported that Universal Pictures wanted to team Buddy Hackett with his friend, popular baritone Alan Dale, as their studio's answer to Paramount's box office sensations, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Nothing came of the idea because Dale preferred to remain a solo act. Hackett, however, did appear in Universal's Walking My Baby Back Home (1953) later that year.
Father of Sandy Hackett, Ivy Julie, Lisa Jean.
Son of Philip Hackett and Anna Geller.
His real name, Lenny Hacker, was used as the name of a character he played in episode 1.05 ("The Entertainer") of "Space Rangers" (1993).
Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 201-202. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387
Towards the end of his life, he was raising money for an animal shelter.
Although his on-stage humor was not nearly as raw, in retrospect, as many of the young comedians who would succeed him, his frequently ribald performances in nightclubs and in concert came as something of a shock to those who had enjoyed his "cleaned-up" (at the behest of the censors) performances on TV and in films.
Next door neighbor of Sandy Koufax in childhood.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 224-226. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
According to his commentary on "The Love Bug", he was offered $2000 a week to replace Curly of The Three Stooges. He refused.
Allegedly regretted turning down the sequels for "The Love Bug".
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