"BOB HOPE"
Birth Name: Leslie Townes Hope
Born: May 29, 1903
Died: July 27, 2003
THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES
Bob Hope
Comedy legend dies at age 100
Bob Hope, ski jump-nosed master of the one-liner and favorite comedian of servicemen and presidents alike, has died, just two months after turning 100. Hope died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said Monday.
Hope received more than 1,500 awards from Queen Elizabeth, the Pope, the Motion Picture Academy (four honorary Oscars), the White House, Congress and dozens of universities.
THE NATION'S MOST-honored comedian, Hope was a star in every category open to him — vaudeville, radio, television and film, most notably a string of "Road" movies with longtime friend Bing Crosby. For decades, he took his show on the road to bases around the world, boosting the morale of servicemen from World War II to the Gulf War.
"Bob Hope, like Mark Twain, had a sense of humor that was uniquely American and like Twain, we'll likely not see another like him," Dick Van Dyke said Monday.
President Bush said "the nation lost a great citizen" with Hope's death.
Hope died with his family, caretakers and a priest at his side.
"I can't tell you how beautiful and serene and peaceful it was," daughter Linda Hope said at a news conference Monday. "He really left us with a smile on his face and no last words. ... He gave us each a kiss and that was it."
On his 100th birthday, he was too frail to take part in public celebrations, but was said to be alert and happy — and overwhelmed by the outpouring of affection. The fabled intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street was renamed Bob Hope Square, and President Bush established the Bob Hope American Patriot Award. "He can't believe that this is happening and that he's made it to his Big 100," son Kelly Hope said at the time.
He was born Leslie Towns Hope on May 29, 1903, in Eltham, England, the fifth of seven sons of a British stonemason and a Welsh singer of light opera. The Hopes emigrated to the United States when he was 4 and settled in Cleveland. They found themselves in the backwash of the 1907 depression.
The boy helped out by selling newspapers and working in a shoe store, a drug store and a meat market. He also worked as a caddy and developed a lifelong fondness for golf. A highly competitive golfer, he later shot in the 70s and sponsored the Bob Hope Golf Classic, one of the nation's biggest tournaments.
Hope's wisecracks on film
"Failure is the only thing I've ever been
a success at."
— from "Here Come the Girls" (1957)
Bob Hope: "I've never heard my courage
questioned."
Lucille Ball: "I've never heard your courage mentioned."
— from "Sorrowful Jones" (1949)
"Brave men run in my family."
— from "The Paleface" (1948)
"I wanted to be a detective. It only took brains, courage and a gun — and I had the gun."
— from "My Favorite Brunette" (1947)
"The girls call me Pilgrim because every time I dance with one, I make a little progress."
— from "The Ghost Breakers" (1940)
Hope to Dorothy Lamour: "How did you get into that dress — with a spray gun?"
— from "Road to Rio" (1947)
Hope to Dorothy Lamour:"Those eyes, they're beautiful — and they match."
— from "The Road to Utopia" (1945)
Hope: "Many an afternoon, we had tea, the Duchess and I, while her husband, the Duke, was busily engaged in his favorite sport."
Percy Helton: "Was that cricket?"
Hope: "Perhaps not, but she was irresistible."
— from "Fancy Pants" (1950)
"You still have your hourglass figure, my dear, but most of the sand has gone to the bottom."
— from "The Lemon Drop Kid" (1950)
"Say, honey, you and me could make music together, and right now I feel like the Philharmonic."
— from "My Favorite Blonde" (1942)
Joan Collins: "I could love you body and soul."
Hope: "They're available — in that order."
— from "Road to Hong Kong" (1962)
Hope to Hedy Lamarr: "It's nights like this that drive men like me to women like you for nights like this."
— from "My Favorite Spy" (1951)
Audrey Dalton: "You mustn't be found in my room. If necessary, I will scream for help."
Hope: "Oh, I don't need any help."
— from "Casanova's Big Night" (1954)
"I've been chased by women before, but not while I was awake."
— from "The Paleface" (1948)
"Oh, I wish I was a girl so I could fight over me."
— from "Here Come the Girls" (1953)
Dorothy Lamour: "It seems to me we've met before ... perhaps in your dreams."
Hope: "You wouldn't be seen in those kinds of places."
— from "Road to Utopia" (1945)
Richard Carlson: "A zombie has no will of his own. You see them sometimes walking around blindly, with dead eyes, following orders, not knowing what they do, not caring."
Hope: "You mean like Democrats?"
— from "The Ghost Breakers" (1940)
Nydia Westman: "Do you believe in reincarnation, you know, that dead people come back?"
Hope: "You mean like Republicans?"
— from "The Cat and the Canary" (1939)
Hope to government officials: "Remember, you guys, your salaries are paid by the tax payers, and I may be one some day."
— from "My Favorite Spy" (1953)
"They tell me he was so crooked that when he died they had to screw him into the ground."
— from "The Cat and the Canary" (1939)
"If I get the electric chair, my agent gets 10 percent of the current."
— from "My Favorite Blonde" (1942)
Nydia Westman: "Don't these big empty houses scare you?"
Hope: "Not me. I was in vaudeville."
— from "The Cat and the Canary" (1939)
Hope on Bing Crosby: "I don't dally much with riff-raff these days, and he's a pretty raffy kind of riff."
— from "The Road to Morocco" (1942)
"My act is known all over Europe. That's why I'm taking it to America."
— from "The Princess and the Pirate" (1944)
Hope changed his name to Bob when classmates ridiculed his English schoolboy name.
He boxed for a time under the name Packy East — "I was on more canvases than Picasso" — and also tried a semester in college before devoting himself to show business. He quickly veered from song and dance to comedy patter, and his monologue routine was born.
By 1930, he had reached vaudeville's pinnacle — The Palace — and in the '30s he played leading parts in such Broadway musicals as "Roberta," "Ziegfeld Follies" and "Red, Hot and Blue," with Ethel Merman and Jimmy Durante. During "Roberta," he met nightclub singer Dolores Reade and invited her to the show. They married in 1934.
After a few guest radio spots, Hope began working regularly on a Bromo Seltzer radio program. In 1938, he was hired by Pepsodent to create his own show, and that led him to Hollywood. Paramount signed him for "The Big Broadcast of 1938," in which he introduced the song that became his trademark: "Thanks for the Memory." Soon he was teaming with Crosby in the seven "Road" pictures — "Road to Bali," "Road to Morocco," "Road to Zanzibar" and so on — playing best friends who lie, cheat and make fun of each other in comedic competition for glory and Dorothy Lamour.
MANY MOVIE CREDITS
In between, there were such pictures as "Cat and the Canary," "The Paleface," "Louisiana Purchase," "My Favorite Blonde," "That Certain Feeling," "I'll Take Sweden" and "Boy, Did I get a Wrong Number." He made 53 films from 1938 to 1972.
In 1950, he entered television, and his successes continued. Even 40 years later, he could be counted on to pull in respectable ratings. He also appeared more than 20 times at the Academy Awards, first on radio and than on television, as presenter, cohost or host between 1939 and 1978.
Hope started playing to troops well before the United States entered World War II.
He tried to enlist, but was told he could be of more use as an entertainer. He played his first camp show at California's March Field on May 6, 1941, seven months before Pearl Harbor.
His traditional Christmas tours began in 1948, when he went to Berlin to entertain GIs involved in the airlift. "For more than five decades, through four wars and years of peacekeeping missions, Bob Hope came to symbolize, for every man and woman in uniform, the idea that America cared for and supported its troops," said Edward A. Powell, president and CEO of the United Service Organizations.
His 1966 Vietnam Christmas show, when televised, was watched by an estimated 65 million people, the largest audience of his career. But his initially hawkish views on Vietnam opened a gap between the comedian and young Americans opposed to the war, who sometimes heckled him. Later, Hope said he was "just praying they get an honorable peace so our guys don't have to fight. I've seen too many wars."
In 1990, he traveled to the Persian Gulf to entertain troops preparing for war with Iraq. Because Saudi Arabia bars female entertainers, he had to leave Marie Osmond and the Pointer Sisters behind in Bahrain.
Hope never had a regular straight man, but he worked often with crooner Crosby, first in radio, where they developed a routine of insulting each other merrily. Crosby helped make Hope's nose famous as a "droop snoot" and a "ski run." For his part, Hope replied: "Only in Hollywood could a meatball make so much gravy."
Hope's awards included scores of honorary degrees; special Oscars for humanitarianism and service to the film industry; the George Peabody Award; the National Conference of Christians and Jews Award; and the Medal of Freedom from President Johnson. He received honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth in 1998. He was the author or co-author of 10 books, including his 1990 autobiography, "Don't Shoot, It's Only Me."
He was made an Honary Veteran.
He was Board Of Trustee Member at SMU {Southern Methodist University}. He also had taught Comedy at SMU. And now has a theater named after him on the SMU campus.
Hope's 85-year-old nephew, Milton Hope, said Monday he hopes his uncle is remembered not just for his jokes, but also for donating his money and time to charities.
"All I can say is he sure made a lot of people happy," Milton Hope said from his home in Aurora, Ohio.
In the mid-'90s, Hope played charity dates around the nation, but he seemed to slow his schedule. What was billed as his last NBC special, "Laughing with the Presidents," focusing on his long friendships with many occupants of the White House, appeared in late 1996. His more than 60-year association with the network was said to be a record.
In recent years, his hearing eroded, although he refused to wear a hearing aid. He suffered recurring eye problems, once remarking: "I've got a hemorrhage in the right eye now, and I used to have one in the left eye. I'm a walking hemorrhage."
Until increasing frailty slowed him down, Hope repeatedly pledged never to quit entertaining.
"I'm not retiring until they carry me away," he said. "And I'll have a few routines on the way to the big divot."
Hope is survived by his wife; sons Anthony and Kelly; daughters Linda and Nora Somers; and four grandchildren.
A private burial was planned, followed by a memorial service and tribute, Linda Hope said.
She said her mother had asked Hope in recent days where he wanted to be buried and he answered: "Surprise me."
"Thanks Bob"
For the wonderful memories.
Dolores Hope, turns 100 years old
Dolores Hope, the widow of legendary comedian Bob Hope, looks on as partygoers sing "Happy Birthday" to her during her 100th birthday party in Los Angeles, Wednesday, May 27, 2009.
Richard's Creations Tribrute to Bob Hope