Bob Hope
Bob Hope, one of America's best-loved actors and comedians, died today. Here's a brief guide to the life of a showbusiness legend.
1. Bob Hope, a man who did more entertaining, if you tot up the hours, than most others died today aged 100.
2. His life took him from this house in Eltham, south-east London, to the status of a Hollywood institution. He once said that if he had to live his life again he wouldn't have time.
3. The Hope family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when Leslie Townes, as Hope was then called, was four years old. "I left England when I found out that I couldn't be king," he later explained.
4. He began his entertainment career in vaudeville, shows comprising a succession of seven to 10 live stage acts, often performed by recent immigrants, before moving on to Broadway musical comedies, radio, television and film.
5. He appeared in more than 60 movies, the most famous perhaps being the 1940 -62 Road to ... (Singapore, Bali, etc) series with Bing Crosby.
6. He never won an Oscar for any of his efforts but hosted (or co-hosted) a record 17 ceremonies. "Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as they're known in my house, Passover," he told Hollywood's movers and shakers in 1968.
7. His films were popular and Woody Allen said Hope was his favourite movie comedian. However, in his later years, Hope became better known for performances to overseas US troops and playing golf. Both put him in the warm embrace of the US establishment.
8. He tee-ed off with Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the current US president, and was friends with 11 presidents. Of Richard Nixon, he said: "It appears that the president taped all his conversations in the Oval Office. I just hope that 18 minutes of missing tape included some of the bad jokes I told him."
9. With the United Services Organisation he entertained US soldiers during conflicts from the second world war to operation Desert Storm. The US navy named a ship after him and, in 1999, the US Congress made him an honorary veteran.
10. On his 100th birthday - as if to symbolise how far he had become a part of his adopted land, and especially its entertainment industry - a Hollywood intersection was renamed Bob Hope Square and 35 US states declared a Bob Hope Day. The Bob Hope Theatre in his native Eltham also raised a glass.
2. His life took him from this house in Eltham, south-east London, to the status of a Hollywood institution. He once said that if he had to live his life again he wouldn't have time.
3. The Hope family moved to Cleveland, Ohio, when Leslie Townes, as Hope was then called, was four years old. "I left England when I found out that I couldn't be king," he later explained.
4. He began his entertainment career in vaudeville, shows comprising a succession of seven to 10 live stage acts, often performed by recent immigrants, before moving on to Broadway musical comedies, radio, television and film.
5. He appeared in more than 60 movies, the most famous perhaps being the 1940 -62 Road to ... (Singapore, Bali, etc) series with Bing Crosby.
6. He never won an Oscar for any of his efforts but hosted (or co-hosted) a record 17 ceremonies. "Welcome to the Academy Awards or, as they're known in my house, Passover," he told Hollywood's movers and shakers in 1968.
7. His films were popular and Woody Allen said Hope was his favourite movie comedian. However, in his later years, Hope became better known for performances to overseas US troops and playing golf. Both put him in the warm embrace of the US establishment.
8. He tee-ed off with Prescott Bush, the grandfather of the current US president, and was friends with 11 presidents. Of Richard Nixon, he said: "It appears that the president taped all his conversations in the Oval Office. I just hope that 18 minutes of missing tape included some of the bad jokes I told him."
9. With the United Services Organisation he entertained US soldiers during conflicts from the second world war to operation Desert Storm. The US navy named a ship after him and, in 1999, the US Congress made him an honorary veteran.
10. On his 100th birthday - as if to symbolise how far he had become a part of his adopted land, and especially its entertainment industry - a Hollywood intersection was renamed Bob Hope Square and 35 US states declared a Bob Hope Day. The Bob Hope Theatre in his native Eltham also raised a glass.
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