No award for Jackie?

[dwyr]

Watching “The Honeymooners” on TVLand this afternoon before heading off to work reminded me how much I like Jackie Gleason. I can’t believe he never won an Emmy or an Oscar for any of his work. Audrey Meadows and Art Carney both got Emmys for “The Honeymooners”, but never Gleason. Oh, that particular series was formulaic to be sure, but Jackie had a much wider range than that. He had an unsurpassed talent, I think, for expressing emotion nonverbally. His “Poor Soul” character was pure pathos. A work of art. And did anyone ever see his movie “Gigot”? He plays a somewhat simple mute man who befriends a little girl. Not a word does he utter during the whole film yet his performance makes me cry every time. It was watching Gleason that made me first realize how little difference there is, really, between comedy and tragedy.[sup]*[/sup] Truly “The Great One”. To me anyway.

*[sub]I’m thinking primarily of his variety show and skit work. Smoky and the Bandit now…that’s just a tragedy.[/sub]

[Zenster]

I remember both his primetime television show and The Honeymooners as well. Although he did not strike me as a real talented performer at that very young age, later in life I heard that he was also a very talented orchestral composer. That brought him up a notch or two rather quickly.

[dwyr]

Right, I forgot about the music! My brother actually has an album or two of Gleason’s. Good stuff.