Celebrities who were universally beloved by their peers

[crazyjoe]

@Starving_Artist

I read somewhere long ago (Fred de Cordova’s autobiography, I think) that Joan kept her deal with Fox secret and didn’t place her call to Carson until her show was a done deal. Whoever the author was, he said that if Joan had called Johnny beforehand and told him she was going to do her own show, he’d have congratulated her and wished her well. Certainly other entertainers had tried to go up against Carson and he remained friendly with them. Jerry Lewis and Dick Cavett are two who come to mind. It was also alleged that Joan tried to hire Fred de Cordova and Peter Lassaly (Carson’s executive producer and the show’s director) for her own show. (Now that I think about it, I do believe it was de Cordova’s book where I read this account. I just remembered that he said something about her having told him she’d leave the light on for him if he changed his mind.)

To be honest, I find this account somewhat suspect because Ed McMahon still seemed fond of Joan and spoke well of her at various times for the rest of his life, and I doubt he’d have felt that way if these accounts of her alleged skullduggery were true.

But who knows?

Still, and funny as it seems, Joan herself still seemed to have fond feelings for Carson up to when she died. Shortly after her death I saw a clip of a recent in-studio interview she had done for a radio station somewhere, and she spoke quite glowingly of Carson and seemed genuinely sorry about their rift. She also seemed resentful of Carson’s last wife, Alex, stating in a rather scornful tone that she’d heard stories about how Alex had really been living it up “on Johnny’s money”. It was pretty clear that she still held a lot of affection for him even then.

But you’re right in that I probably overstated things by saying Carson was “universally” loved and admired. Still, apart from Joan Rivers I don’t know of another celebrity who’s ever expressed anything but admiration for Carson, and that was the main thrust of the OP - celebrities who were beloved by their peers.

Based on a bio I saw of Wayne Newton, I don’t think he had a lot of nice things to say about Johnny either. The impression I got was that if you kissed his ass, Johnny was a great ally but if you got on his shit list, he’d do his best to have you blackballed

[Starving_Artist]

You’re right, I forgot about Wayne Newton. He had to show up at Carson’s office and threaten him with physical violence to get him to lay off all the Wayne Newton jokes.

Thus, I hereby withdraw my nomination of Johnny Carson.

[needscoffee]

Steve Carell, according to Jane Lynch.

[Slithy_Tove]

@Greekfreak

Cubby Broccoli

May have/probably manslaughtered Ted Healy.

[Loach]

@Horatio_Hellpop

Stand-up comics reviled Robin Williams as a joke thief. No one I give a crap about, but the story comes up kind of a lot.

I think it is pretty widely accepted that he was an inadvertent joke thief. I remember hearing from him that it was true. When he was in the zone his comedy was basically stream of consciousness. Sometimes things he heard before would come out of his mouth without him even realizing it. When he figured out what was going on he stopped watching other comics. The reputation from earlier in his career stayed with him.

[Kamino_Neko]

@Master_Wang-Ka

And given Jack Benny’s radio/TV character, I find it funny to think that he was apparently a great and beloved guy among his peers in real life.

Yeah, Jack Benny the man was pretty much 180% away from Jack Benny the character - where the character was stingy, the man was generous to a fault. (And where the character was a terrible violinist, the man was quite competent, though I doubt that has nearly as much to do with how well-liked he was.)

[TriPolar]

@Slithy_Tove

May have/probably manslaughtered Ted Healy.

Another reason he was so well liked.

[Don_Draper]

@Starving_Artist

I think Johnny Carson falls into this category.

Johnny was constantly praised by other celebs on The Tonight Show for the skill with which he did his job, with even the biggest of them observing that they couldn’t begin to do what he did. And in his recent book, Johnny Carson, Carson’s lawyer Henry “Bombastic” Bushkin relates a story where Carson had promised to attend a dinner party at the home of Henry Mancini. Bushkin was there, having been included at Carson’s request, and the guest list included Cary Grant, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis, etc. Carson was very late and virtually everyone at the party at one time or another approached Bushkin, anxiously wanting to know if Johnny was still coming and/or why was he late. Johnny and his wife eventually arrived, much to everyone’s relief, with Johnny soon the center of attention (a star among stars, as Buskin put it) as he sat on a sofa trading quips and doing magic tricks.

It’s particularly significant that Johnny was held in such high esteem considering his actual temperament, which came as quite a surprise. In his book, Buskin describes being summoned to Carson’s palatial apartment in the United Nations Plaza in 1970, shortly after having been hired by Carson during a brief meeting in Carson’s office. In attendance was sports magnate Sonny Werblin (former owner of the NY Jets and recruiter of Joe Namath), who was also Carson’s next door neighbor and business manager. During their meeting and right in front of Carson, Werblin warned Bushkin to tread lightly…that the unhappiest man he’d ever known was Jack Benny (Carson’s idol, btw), and that Carson was the second-unhappiest man he’d ever known. He then warned Bushkin to tread lightly as Carson’s mood could go from up to down in milliseconds.

So here we have two guys who were universally beloved by both their audiences and their peers, yet were profoundly unhappy men in their private lives. I would never have guessed it of either of them and it’s surprising to me that each was able to transcend his foul temperament and earn universal praise, love and admiration despite their seemingly overwhelming unhappy nature.

I don’t think Carson was universally beloved as the OP requires. Carson was certainly well-liked and the center of attention in the Hollywood A-list circles he socialized; but he also had a long history of being pushy, throwing his clout around, being condescending to particular guests he didn’t like, and most especially holding iron-clad grudges. His feud with Joan Rivers was especially notable - once he felt that she “crossed” him, she was permanently exiled from the Tonight Show and he never spoke to her again for the rest of his life. Also, there was a lot of animosity between Carson and the original cast of SNL. Carson publicly said “none of them could improv worth a fart of beans”, prompting Belushi to make a few snide remarks about him during SNL episodes. And certainly none of the Hollywood-based writers or union leaders had any love for him - during a late 1980s writers strike that forced many shows to go on hiatus, Carson famously defied the picket line so to speak and simply wrote his own monologue material.

As for folks who really were universally loved, John Ritter seems to get nothing but praise by the people who worked with him.

[Dewey_Finn]

@cochrane

I suppose Lamar Odom can be called a celebrity, as far as professional athletes go, and aside from his connection with the Kardashians. All of his NBA teammates, opposing coaches and players, and commentators have had nothing but kind words to say about him, especially during his current health crisis.

Carol Burnett was on the public radio comedy quiz program Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! recently. A week or so after Carol’s appearance, the host mentioned that she was one of the nicest people they ever had on and another person who was also on the program and was about as nice was Kim Kardashian.

[GoodOmens]

@Kamino_Neko

Yeah, Jack Benny the man was pretty much 180% away from Jack Benny the character - where the character was stingy, the man was generous to a fault. (And where the character was a terrible violinist, the man was quite competent, though I doubt that has nearly as much to do with how well-liked he was.)

You do have to have significant skill to play that badly that well.

[RickJay]

Tom Cruise certainly polarizes the general public but he has an excellent reputation in the industry of being friendly, kind, easy to work with and gracious to the little people on set.

[TriPolar]

@RickJay

Tom Cruise certainly polarizes the general public but he has an excellent reputation in the industry of being friendly, kind, easy to work with and gracious to the little people on set.

Well he is the littlest person on the set most of the time. He did piss off Brooke Shields once I think, but seemed to patch things up. But there are three actresses who do not have kind opinions of him due to their marriages.

[John_Mace]

@running_coach

Guys, you’re slipping.

Paul Newman.

That was my first thought. Actually, it was my second thought. My first though, after looking at the OP’s list was “were???”

[Ambrosio_Spinola]

Warren Zevon appeared to have been very popular among a wide cross-section of showbiz types.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Kamino_Neko

Yeah, Jack Benny the man was pretty much 180% away from Jack Benny the character - where the character was stingy, the man was generous to a fault. (And where the character was a terrible violinist, the man was quite competent, though I doubt that has nearly as much to do with how well-liked he was.)

@GoodOmens

You do have to have significant skill to play that badly that well.

Here are Jack Benny and Isaac Stern having some fun with violins: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EofKXc-EOo. Quoth Wiki, “…Benny was a fairly good violinist who achieved the illusion of a bad one, not by deliberately playing poorly, but by striving to play pieces that were too difficult for his skill level.”

[SUZ_MAC]

Mary Tyler Moore. Who didn’t love Mare.

[bup]

Bob Newhart.

[Annie-Xmas]

Hal Prince is not only known as the Prince of Broadway because his shows are the best and he has earned more Tonys than anyone, and because of his last name, but also because he is truly a Prince of a guy. I’ve spoken to him at stage doors a few times, and he has always been very gracious and nice.

[Fuzzy_wuzzy]

@Greekfreak

I was just wondering about the cut-throat nature of Hollywood, and how over the years of endless stories of debauchery, there were/are some that seem to hold a special kind of esteem amongst their peers. Alive or dead, past or present, who do you think falls into this category? Not limited to actors, but film crew as well.

Based on all the interviews, podcasts, books I’ve heard, read over the years, it seems that Jack Benny gets the nod.

In addition to him:

Cubby Broccoli
John Ritter
Christopher Walken
Morgan Freeman
Tom Hanks
John Candy

Henry Winkler has a real dislike of one particular Hollywood star. The rumour is that star is Tom Hanks.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Edward Herrmann was a real sweetheart, from what I’ve read.