Greatest/Comedian/Actor in our History

[gigster]

Who do you think is historically our greatest actor and comedian?

[DiogenesLamp]

Since you said “comic actor,” the answer is Buster Keaton, with Charles Chaplin a close second.

After movies became talkies, the spoken joke became as important as the acted joke, and comedians shifted accordingly. The top three would be, in no particular order, Groucho Marx, Robin Williams, and Steve Martin.

Excellent analysis, except for Robin Williams and Steve Martin.

Groucho Marx, I agree with, but i'm not sure Robin Williams and Steve Martin deserve spots 2 and 3.

I think Irene Ryan and Bob Denver were funnier.

[Bringbackthedraft]

In my lifetime there we 2, one was called Stan the other Ollie.

[Rusty0604]

I love Lucy!

[mjp]

Peter Sellers

[gigster]

Fields also did physical comedy, which puts him in the league with the fantastic Carol Burnett. I'm dejected none of you has even mentioned Fields for his acting talents.

[eyedigress]

Barry Soerto.

[stanne]

Lucy and Ethel knocked out a talent agent after mistaking him for an intruder. they’re are straightening him up so he and Ricky won’t know. He’s still out cold propped up on the sofa
Ethel is combing his hair, Combs his bangs down, puts the comb over his top lip whispering ‘hey, Lucy’ who looks up and loses it. It was an off script moment

Mel Brooks says that laughing at the enemy is good comedy. It’s where the producers came from

[dr_lew]

But most of the folks on FR are in their eighties,

I feel like a pup.

... so you will hear a lot of Bob Hope and Johnny Carson....

The great ones! ... But Carson didn't act, did he?

[DiogenesLamp]

Loved Red Skelton.

[stanne]

Faty Towers Hilarious So was Absolutely Fabulous

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I love Robin Williams esp. since Mork and Mindy. He was greased lightning humor, mime, pathos, and all the other human emotions wrapped up into one.

However, I think we have to create a timeline break between the old-timers, the middle ages (50’s-60’s) and the newcomers. (Mainly comedy with acting secondary with a few exceptions).

Oldtimers
Laurel & Hardy
Three Stooges
Abbott & Costello
W.C. Fields
Mae West
Charlie Chaplin
Harold Lloyd (silent films)
The Marx Brothers

Cary Grant (Arsenic and Old Lace)
William Powell (and Myrna Loy) - The Thin Man series
Bob Hope

Jack Benny - his TV show
Rochester - the king of the one liners until Robert Guillaume in “The Governor” v series (and BENSON)

George Burns (Oh God) and Gracey Allen (tv show, vaudeville)
Jackie Gleason - Minnesota Fats, The Honeymoones
Lucille Ball - The candy factory scene
George Gobels - greatly underrated comedian
Red Skelton - great at anything and a really nice person

Red Foxx - from old black clubs to TV. Funny as hell.

Jonathan Winters - in anything; Ma Fricka (The companion to Charlie Weaver) one of the alltime great verbal comedians (along with Robin Williams). You have to see what he does to Johnny Carson to understand.

from the 50s/60’s to the New Guys/Girls on the Block including the HBO Comedians of the Night

Bill Cosby - I saw him when he first got started. He was one of the first social awareness comedians who didn’t shove social issues/problems down the audience’s throat.

Billy Crystal (also a good actor)
Rodney Dangerfield (one of the all-time great single-liners)
George Carlin - sharp as a knife
Sam Kinnison (I think he only did one movie)
Rosanne Barr (when she was on point)
Robin Williams - tops

some of the Wayan Brothers (TV and on stage comedy; movies)
Richard Pryor
Eddie Murray - on stage and in movies
John Candy - more as a comedic actor

[I’m short on women comedians/actresses so someone can help fill in the blanks. I know that there are some really good ones out there].

Hillary Clinton - Her statements on her accomplishments and computer server/email foibles has me rolling in the aisles.

Her apparent before congressional committees, at press conferences and on newsmedia/talk shows have to rate as THE GREATEST PERFORMANCES BY A PSYCHOPATHIC ACTRESS IN HISTORY. She makes Betty Davis seem sane in all her movies.

There aren’t enough Oscars in existence to be awarded for “Best Liar in Modern American History” and she’s funny too. Every time she opens her mouth, I start to laugh, even if she hasn’t said anything yet.

I wonder if an actress can get an Academy Award while in jail. It would be worth finding out.

[Magnum44]

I’ve heard Cary Grant was an acrobat and possibly a juggler, but have never seen him do it.

Maybe because in his secret seedy life he was a nefarious CAT JUGGLER!

[Vermont Lt]

You and I are the youngsters.

I know who Jackie Gleason is. I know the honeymooners...but that was rerun land for me.

I think the median age on here is probably mid sixties. I am amazed at the 70-75 crowd is so well represented.

As a group, we tend to be the “get off my lawn” crew.

[DiogenesLamp]

I ‘d like to see the demographics of Free Republic to see who I’m communicating with. I will soon be 58 years old.

I'm betting most of Free Republic is 50+. I keep noticing far too many Freepers going silent over the years.

[trisham]

LOL!

[PghBaldy]

Ugly crowd tonight!

[FXRP]

I’ve got to go with Groucho for this one.

Best ensemble cast: It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
Spencer Tracy as Captain T.G. Culpeper
Edie Adams as Monica Crump
Milton Berle as J. Russell Finch
Sid Caesar as Melville Crump
Buddy Hackett as “Benjy” Benjamin
Ethel Merman as Mrs. Marcus
Dorothy Provine as Emmeline Marcus-Finch
Mickey Rooney as “Dingy” Bell
Dick Shawn as Sylvester Marcus
Phil Silvers as Otto Meyer
Terry-Thomas as Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne
Jonathan Winters as Lennie Pike
Supporting cast[edit]
Eddie “Rochester” Anderson as a cab driver
Jim Backus as airplane owner Tyler Fitzgerald
Barrie Chase as Sylvester Marcus’ sexy, laconic dancing girlfriend
William Demarest as Aloysius, Chief of the Santa Rosita Police Department
Jimmy Durante as “Smiler” Grogan, the robber who buried the money.
Peter Falk as a cab driver
Paul Ford as Col. Wilberforce
Cameo appearances[edit]
Jack Benny as man driving a 1931 Cadillac Fleetwood
Paul Birch as a Santa Rosita police officer at the intersection (with binoculars)
Ben Blue as the vintage biplane pilot
Joe E. Brown as the union official giving a speech at a construction site
Alan Carney as a sergeant with the Santa Rosita Police Department
Chick Chandler as the policeman at Ray and Irwin’s service station
Stanley Clements as a local reporter at police station
Lloyd Corrigan as the mayor of Santa Rosita
Howard Da Silva as police officer at airport
Andy Devine as the sheriff of Crockett County, California
Selma Diamond as Ginger Culpeper, Captain Culpeper’s wife (voice only)
Minta Durfee as a crowd extra watching the fire escape rescue
Roy Engel as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer at the intersection
Norman Fell as primary detective at the “Smiler” Grogan accident site
James Flavin as a crossroads patrolman (scene deleted from general release version)
Stan Freberg as a deputy sheriff of Crockett County
Nicholas Georgiade as supporting detective at the “Smiler” Grogan accident site
Louise Glenn as Billie Sue Culpeper, the daughter of Captain Culpeper (voice only)
Leo Gorcey as the cab driver bringing Melville and Monica to the hardware store
Stacy Harris as police radio voice unit F-7 (voice only), and as a detective outside of Mr. Dinkler’s hardware store
Don C. Harvey as a Santa Rosita Police Department officer
Sterling Holloway as the Santa Rosita Fire Department fireman
Edward Everett Horton as Mr. Dinkler, owner of the hardware store
Allen Jenkins as a policeman
Marvin Kaplan as service station co-owner Irwin
Robert Karnes as Sammy, a Santa Rosita Police Department officer in helicopter
Buster Keaton as Jimmy, Culpeper’s boatman friend
Tom Kennedy as a Santa Rosita traffic cop
Don Knotts as the nervous motorist
Charles Lane as the airport manager
Harry Lauter as a Santa Rosita Police Department police dispatcher
Ben Lessy as George the steward
Bobo Lewis as vintage biplane pilot’s wife
Jerry Lewis as the motorist who runs over Culpeper’s hat
Mike Mazurki as the miner bringing medicine to his wife
Charles McGraw as Lt. Mathews of the Santa Rosita Police Department
Tyler McVey as a police radio voice (voice only)
ZaSu Pitts as Gertie, the Santa Rosita Police Department Central Division’s switchboard operator
Carl Reiner as the Rancho Conejo airport tower controller
Madlyn Rhue as secretary Schwartz of the Santa Rosita Police Department
Eddie Ryder as Rancho Conejo air traffic control tower staff member
Arnold Stang as service station co-owner Ray
Nick Stewart as the migrant truck driver forced off the road
The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and Curly Joe DeRita) as Rancho Conejo Airport firemen
Sammee Tong as a laundryman
Doodles Weaver as a Dinkler Hardware Store employee
Lennie Weinrib as a police radio voice, and as a fireman (voice only)
Jesse White as a Rancho Conejo air traffic controller

[Rusty0604]

When I was a kid, I watched Chaplin and put on my dad’s clothes and ‘re-enacted him. I put on shows for my parent’s friends and they loved it! I also mimicked Mae West pretty good too.

[yuleeyahoo]

Groucho.

[Rytas]

I don’t know what the point of this question is.
Just to get a bunch of answers?
Okay.
Harold Lloyd who is still considered by critics as great comedian today as he was in the silent era.