Actor Art Carney Dead at 85

[Peaches-n-Cream]

HARTFORD, Conn., Nov. 11 — _Art Carney, who played Jackie Gleason’s sewer worker pal Ed Norton in the TV classic “The Honeymooners” and went on to win the 1974 Oscar for best actor in “Harry and Tonto,” has died at 85.

_CARNEY DIED IN Chester, Conn., on Sunday and was buried on Tuesday after a small, private funeral. He had been ill for some time.
_ _ _ _The comic actor would be forever identified as Norton, Ralph Kramden’s bowling buddy and not-too-bright upstairs neighbor on “The Honeymooners.” The sitcom appeared in various forms from 1951 to 1956 and was revived briefly in 1971. The shows can still be seen on cable.
_ _ _ _With his turned-up porkpie hat and unbuttoned vest over a white T-shirt, Carney’s Ed Norton with his exuberant “Hey, Ralphie boy!” became an ideal foil for Gleason’s blustery, bullying Kramden. Carney won three Emmys for his role and his first taste of fame.
_ _ _ _“The first time I saw the guy act,” Gleason once said, “I knew I would have to work twice as hard for my laughs. He was funny as hell.”
_ _ _ _In one episode, Norton and Ralph learn to golf from an instruction book. Told to “address the ball,” Norton gives a wave of the hand and says, “Hellooooo, ball!” In another episode, Norton inadvertently wins the award for best costume at a Raccoon Lodge party by showing up in his sewer worker’s gear. Another time, the loose-limbed Norton teaches Ralph a finger-popping new dance called the Hucklebuck.
_ _ _ _Carney told a Saturday Evening Post interviewer in 1961 that strangers were always asking him how he liked it down in the sewer. “I have seasonal answers,” he said. “In the summer: ‘I like it down there because it’s cool.’ In the winter: ‘I like it down there because it’s warm.’ Then I’ve got one that isn’t seasonal: ‘Go to hell.”’
_ _ _ _After “The Honeymooners,” Carney battled a drinking problem for several years. His behavior became erratic while co-starring with Walter Matthau in the Broadway run of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple” in the 1960s. He dropped out of the show and spent nearly half a year in a sanitarium.
_ _ _ _His career resumed, and in 1974 he was cast in Paul Mazurksy’s “Harry and Tonto” as a 72-year-old widower who travels from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. He stopped drinking during the making of the film.
_ _ _ _When it won him his Oscar, Carney wisecracked: “You’re looking at an actor whose price has just doubled.”
_ _ _ _“Art was, and is one of the most endearing men I have ever met,” the late actress Audrey Meadows (the caustic Alice Kramden on “The Honeymooners”) wrote in her 1994 memoir “Love, Alice.” She called him a “witty and delightful companion who went out of his way to help each new actor find his niche” on the show.
_ _ _ _Carney was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 4, 1918, and baptized Arthur William Matthew Carney. His father was a newspaperman and publicist.
_ _ _ _
MAN OF MANY VOICES
_ _ _ _After appearing in amateur theatricals and imitating radio personalities, Carney won a job in 1937 traveling with Horace Heidt’s dance band, doing his impressions and singing novelty songs.
_ _ _ _“There I was, an 18-year-old mimic rooming with a blind whistler,” he told People magazine in 1974. “He would order gin and grapefruit juice for us in the morning, and it was great. ... No responsibilities, no remorse. I was an alcoholic, even then.”
_ _ _ _Later he won a job at $225 a week imitating Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and other world leaders on a radio show, “Report to the Nation.”
_ _ _ _He was drafted into the Army in 1944 and took part in the D-Day landing at Normandy. A piece of shrapnel shattered his right leg. He was left with a leg three-quarters of an inch shorter than the other and a lifelong limp.
_ _ _ _Carney returned to radio as second banana on comedy shows, then ventured into television on “The Morey Amsterdam Show” in 1948. That brought him to the attention of Gleason.
_ _ _ _Among his movie credits: “W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings,” “The Late Show,” “House Calls,” “Movie Movie,” “Sunburn,” “Going in Style,” “Roadie,” “Firestarter,” “The Muppets Take Manhattan” and “Last Action Hero.”
_ _ _ _Around Westbrook, where he and his wife had a waterfront home, Carney was known around town as “Mr. C.”
_ _ _ _Family friend Janice Buglini remembered how Carney came to cheer up her 11-year-old daughter, who had leukemia. “He would bring ice cream over for her, and a lobster — anything she wanted,” Buglini said.
_ _ _ _Carney married his high school sweetheart, Jean Myers, in 1940. After the marriage broke up, Carney married Barbara Isaac in 1966. They divorced 10 years later, and in 1980 he and his first wife remarried.
_ _ _ _“We always kept in touch because of our three children,” he said in a 1980 AP interview. “After our second divorces, it was sort of like the puppy coming home: ‘Oh, it’s you, come on in.’ We decided to give it a go again.”
_ _ _ _
_ _ _ _© 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Senusret I]

[sigtau305]

Very Sad. He will be missed.

[Tom Earp]

What a very sad day for the TV Watching people!

What a great lose for us all!

[Rudey]

Originally posted by Tom Earp
What a very sad day for the TV Watching people!

What a great lose for us all!

It's "loss". You learned English from the day it was probably invented. Speak like a normal person damn it or I will constantly reply to every damn post you make until you get so damn annoyed that you either enroll in ESL or just stop posting.

-Rudey
--Someone please sit this guy down and have him watch Reading Rainbow.

[mmcat]

how sad....he was an original.

[Senusret I]

Originally posted by Rudey
It's "loss". You learned English from the day it was probably invented. Speak like a normal person damn it or I will constantly reply to every damn post you make until you get so damn annoyed that you either enroll in ESL or just stop posting.

-Rudey
--Someone please sit this guy down and have him watch Reading Rainbow.

Tell him how you really feel!

-Senusret I
--I wonder if Reading Rainbow is going to get the funding it needs for future seasons.

[33girl]

Rudey -

Put Tom Earp on your ignore and shut the hell up.

Thank you, drive through.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
Rudey -

Put Tom Earp on your ignore and shut the hell up.

Thank you, drive through.

OK sweetheart let's have a chat. You say that except you clogged up a bunch of forums complaining about one hoosier. Those forums actually had serious things in them. Now how about you shutup. Don't act like you're better and can say that. You're not. You did it worse than I did. I didn't even talk to Tom until the jerk decided to start picking on me.

-Rudey

[tinydancer]

OH NO!! I had not heard that until right now. I have watched him on tv all my life. What a great talent he was. Sure will miss him. A very funny man.

[FeeFee]

I heard about his death this morning. A great loss indeed.

[33girl]

Originally posted by Rudey
OK sweetheart let's have a chat. You say that except you clogged up a bunch of forums complaining about one hoosier. Those forums actually had serious things in them. Now how about you shutup. Don't act like you're better and can say that. You're not. You did it worse than I did. I didn't even talk to Tom until the jerk decided to start picking on me.

-Rudey

I never "clogged forums" or I'm sure one of the mods would have let me know. Can you say the same? I also didn't attack his intelligence or say some of the type things you've said.

And I never threatened to reply to "every damn post he made." I just did not like some of the editorializing he was doing. He's actually been really cool lately and toned it down. So obviously I was right.

Whatever.

Thank you, drive through.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
I never "clogged forums" or I'm sure one of the mods would have let me know. Can you say the same? I also didn't attack his intelligence or say some of the type things you've said.

And I never threatened to reply to "every damn post he made." I just did not like some of the editorializing he was doing. He's actually been really cool lately and toned it down. So obviously I was right.

Whatever.

Thank you, drive through.

You just clogged this one twice by replying to me first of all.

You went through both the general greek forum and the risk management forum fighting with hoosier. Not only did people defend hoosier because he has a right to post, but they told you to stop arguing with him. I was one of them. It wasn't just the editorializing...you went farther. Accept that.

Do you honestly want to really push this? I've never been anything but nice to you. I wan't anything but nice to tom until he started pushing my buttons.

I will reply to every post he makes because i actually have an incentive to do so. You had none. That was a silly comment to make.

-Rudey
--Let me have the last word and drop this because I am right.

[33girl]

I never let anyone have the last word who tells me to let them have the last word.

If you can find a post where I went farther and said some of the things like you're saying, please do so.

And I explained everything else on the "smutty" thread.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
I never let anyone have the last word who tells me to let them have the last word.

If you can find a post where I went farther and said some of the things like you're saying, please do so.

And I explained everything else on the "smutty" thread.

I explained everything on there too.

-Rudey
--If I said you were sexy would you just let this go?