Famous Circus Clowns

Famous clowns have been related to the theater, film, television and circus. A roster of such circus clowns has been compiled below.

Famous circus clowns
The list begins with Johann Ludwig Jacob who was inducted to the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. He was known as Lou Jacobs. He performed for more than 60 years in the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey. He was the first living person to have his portrait on an American postage stamp. He is also the initiator of the red rubber ball nose, used by many clowns after him.

Otto Griebling
He is looked up to as the finest circus clown from the United States. He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. He worked for Sells Floto, Cole Bros. And the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circuses. His performance was done silent or in pantomime.

George Carl
He was a true "vaudevillian" style comic and clown. Johnny Carson, who was a tremendous fan of Carl's, gave him an invitation for The Tonight Show. His appearance was so well appreciated that he was requested for another one in a matter of few weeks.

Glen "Frosty" Little
He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1991. His career spanned over three decades. He was a member of the first Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Clown college graduating class. He was the "Boss Clown" of the Red Unit from 1968 to 1980. He even had breakfast with President Richard Nixon.

Dan Rice
He was such an outstanding personality before the "Civil War" in the United States that he was a more famous household name than Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain. The Arkansas paper glorified Rice's circus as the "Greatest Show on Earth". In 1868, he ran for the President of the United States election and dropped out.

Jose Vega Santana a.k.a. Remi
He is considered as Puerto Rico's greatest clown. A book "Remi, El Clown" describes his adventures as a clown. He has made many presentations in the United States. While he was a student at the Inter-American University he developed the character of "Remi". His group called themselves as "Los Dulces Payasos" or "The Sweet Clowns".

Yuri Vladimirovich Nikulin
He qualified as a fully-trained clown at Moscow's Tsvetnoy Boulevard Circus in 1950 and never deserted the circus. In 1982, he became the director of the Moscow Circus. There exists a bronze monument to him in front of the circus. He was one of the best-loved man in Russia as he expressed the daily woes and laughter of the Soviet layman.

Emmett Kelly
He created the memorable clown figure "Weary Willie". From 1942 to 1956, he performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. Further, he appeared in the Bertram Mills Circus. The Emmett Kelly Museum is built in Sedan, Kansas in his honor. There is a photograph where Kelly is shown trying to extinguish the flames of the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944.

Oleg Konstantinovich Popov
He is called as the "Sun of the clowns". He won the Oscar of the clown world "The Golden Clown of Monte Carlo" in 1981. He was invited to perform at the 30th anniversary of the International Festival of the Circus of Monte-Carlo. Although he was 75 years old, he could inspire a royal standing ovation. His career began at the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard.

Josep Andreu i Lasserre or Charlie Rivel
His name is inspired from Charlie Chaplin. He was an internationally famous Catalan circus clown. In Cubelles, the Charlie Rivel Hall is a museum in his honor. According to a legend, Chaplin asked him who amongst the two imitated the other.

Joe Jackson Sr.
He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1994. His work is exclusively in vaudeville and European one-ring circuses.

Antonio Melo a.k.a. Batatinha
He is a popular Portuguese clown, who initially worked with another clown called Croquete and later with Companhia. Since 2003, he has been performing solo.

Jack Perry and Doug McKenzie or Zig and Zag
These are an Australian duo. For more than four decades, they appeared on the annual HSV-7 Royal Children's Hospital Appeal. In 1999, they were appointed Kings of Moomba.

Quail Dobbs
He was a famous rodeo clown and performer. For more than thirty years, he entertained rodeo crowds in the United States, Canada and Australia. His clowning acts involved trained animals and a Ford Model.

Mikhail Nikolayevich Rumyantsev or Karandash
This famous Soviet clown was the "People's Artist of the USSR" and the mentor of Oleg Popov and Yuri Nikulin. Along with the Moscow Circus on Tsvetnoy Boulevard he toured South America in 1960. The Moscow Circus school was named in his honor.

Vicki Frances Gabereau
She is a Canadian radio and television personality who worked as a professional clown. Her autobiography "This Won't Hurt a Bit" has been published. In 1974, she contested for the Mayor of Toronto.

Johnny Tatum
He was a famous rodeo clown and collaborated with the biggest rodeos like Cheyenne Frontier Days and Calgary Stampede.

Charles Adrien Wettach or Grock
He was a Swiss circus and music-hall clown. At one time, he was the highest paid artist in Europe.

Bim Bom
He was a Moscow circus clown well-known for making jokes of prominent leaders of the new Communist government in Russia.

Achille Zavatta
He was a French clown. When he was three, he performed in his family circus with his brothers Michel and Rolph called as the "Zavatta Trio".

Some other famous circus clowns are:

• Ian P
• The Rastellis
• Kahlan Brooks
• Drosta
• David Konyot
• The Fratellinis
• Blinko – Ernie Burch
• Francesco Caroli