Profile of Buddy Hackett on Famous Like Me

Buddy Hackett (August 31, 1924 – June 30, 2003), born Leonard Hacker, was an American comedian and actor.

Hackett was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Public School 103 and then went on to New Utrecht High School. While still in high school, he began appearing in nightclubs, beginning with the "Borscht Belt", resorts in the Catskills. He served three years with an anti-aircraft unit during World War II.

His first job after the war was at the Pink Elephant, a Brooklyn club. He made appearances in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, and 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, which helped start Carol Burnett's career. He 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 Jack Paar and Arthur Godfrey, telling brash, often off-color jokes, and mugging widely at the camera.

He became widely known from his film role in the box-office success, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. 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.

In 1978, Hackett surprised many when he gave a dramatic performance as Lou Costello in the TV movie Bud And Lou. Harvey Korman played Bud Abbott in this production. 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.

His last film performance was reprising the voice of Scuttle, the goofy little seagull, in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989) for the direct-to-video sequel The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea in 2000.

For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Buddy Hackett was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Buddy Hackett died in 2003 in Malibu, California of natural causes at the age of 78.

Filmography

• Walking My Baby Back Home (1953)
• Fireman, Save My Child (1954)
• God's Little Acre (1958)
• The Shoes (1961) (short subject)
• All Hands on Deck (1961)
• Everything's Ducky (1961)
• The Music Man (1962)
• The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
• It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
• Muscle Beach Party (1964)
• The Golden Head (1964)
• The Love Bug (1968)
• The Good Guys and the Bad Guys (Cameo)
• Hey Babe! (1980)
• Loose Shoes (1980) (Cameo)
• Scrooged (1988) (Cameo)
• The Little Mermaid (1989) (voice)
• Mouse Soup (1992) (short subject) (voice)
• Paulie (1998)

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