Jonathan Winters

Comedian, Film actor

1925 – 2013

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Who was Jonathan Winters?

Jonathan Harshman Winters III was an American comedian, actor, author, and artist.

Beginning in 1960, Winters recorded many classic comedy albums for the Verve Records label. He also had records released every decade for over 50 years, receiving 11 nominations for Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album during his career and winning a Grammy Award for Best Album for Children for his contribution to an adaptation of The Little Prince in 1975 and the Grammy Award for Best Spoken Comedy Album for Crank Calls in 1996.

With a career spanning more than six decades, Winters appeared in hundreds of television show episodes/series and films combined, including eccentric characters on The Steve Allen Show, The Garry Moore Show, The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters, Mork & Mindy, Hee Haw, and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

After voicing Grandpa Smurf on The Smurfs and Papa Smurf in The Smurfs, Winters’s final feature film was The Smurfs 2 in 2013, which is dedicated in his memory.

A pioneer of improvisational stand-up comedy with a gift for mimicry, impersonations, various personalities, and a seemingly bottomless reservoir of creative energy, Winters was one of the first celebrities to go public with a personal mental illness issue and felt stigmatized as a result. According to Jack Paar, "If you were to ask me the funniest 25 people I've ever known, I'd say, 'Here they are—Jonathan Winters.'" He also said of Winters, "Pound for pound, the funniest man alive."

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Born
Nov 11, 1925
Bellbrook
Also known as
  • Jonathan Harshman Winters Jr.
  • Winters, Jonathan
  • Bashful Bigshots
  • Jonathan Harshman Winters III
  • Chester Honeyhugger
Parents
Spouses
Children
Nationality
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • Kenyon College
Lived in
  • Dayton
Died
Apr 11, 2013
Montecito

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

Citation

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"Jonathan Winters." Biographies.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.biographies.net/people/en/jonathan_winters>.

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