Comedians and comic actors who primarily got their yucks from facial expressions

Bert Lahr had a wonderfully rubbery face.

I came in to mention him, but I was damned if I could remember his last name.

I was going to say Red Skelton but he’s already been mentioned.

So I’ll add Jackie Gleason.

Tim Allen had some good facial expressions, if you ever considered him funny.

Peter Lorre .

Buddy Hackett

I wouldn’t call him a comic actor. When he was in comedies he was mostly spoofing his own image.

Shemp. It wasn’t exactly his expressions, but his face always made me laugh…

Good call.

Kristen Wiig.

Betty Hutton.
ETA: Martha Raye.

Jackie Gleason had more than his face, but his bug-eyed look of pain (like the episode where his back was hurting and someone gave him a good-natured slap on the back) was comedy gold.

Rowan Atkinson wouldn’t be half as funny if he didn’t have such a rubbery face.

Among today’s comedians it’s got to be Rowan Atkinson or Jim Carrey (insofar as Carrey is a comedian anymore.) If you watch their standup and sketch works they are master physical comedians. Not just with the face, but they both use their whole body. But the face is a big part of it.

John Belushi may not have depended on his face, but he is one of the few that can make me laugh by his facial expressions alone.

Jerry Lewis, the king of mugging.

Bill Cosby got a lot of laughs from his expressions. Both in standup and in the beginning credits of The Cosby Show.

I think a lot of the early TV comedians relied a lot on facial expressions, such as Sid Caesar and Milton Berle.

I know it gets put down here but I’m a fan of Big Bang Theory. Most of the funniest parts happen because of the timing and expressions of Jim Parsons rather than the actual lines. Kaley Cuoco does a pretty good job this way too.

John Stewart, not in his stand up but on his show.

Eddie Murphy