Born on July 13, 1913, at Vincennes, Inidiana, Richard Bernard Sketon was the son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Skelton was introduced to showbiz at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at 15.
At 17 he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937. He made his film debut at RKO in a Ginger Rogers vehicle, Having Wonderful Time (1938).
Billed as Richard Skelton, he performed some of his own set pieces-such as a demonstration of how different people walk up and down stairs. He performed more of his own material in a pair of Warner Bros. short subjects, Seeing Red and The Broadway Buckaroo. Skelton had used his "Guzzlers Gin" comedy sketch as his successful 1940 screen test for MGM. It was later filmed in the 1946 movie Ziegfeld Follies. When MGM signed him in 1940, it was to use him as comedy relief, as in Flight Command (1940) and two of the Dr. Kildare films, in which he played an ambulance driver. But with Whistling in the Dark (1941) he proved he could carry a comedy vehicle by himself, and his movie career took off. Having played a radio sleuth called "The Fox" in his first starring vehicle, he repeated the role in a pair of enjoyable sequels, Whistling in Dixie (1942) and Whistling in Brooklyn (1943).
Buster Keaton, then down on his luck and working as a comedy script doctor at MGM, took Skelton in tow and coached him for such films as I Dood It in 1943 (based on Keaton's Spite Marriage), 1948's A Southern Yankee, The Yellow Cab Man in 1950, and Watch the Birdie in 1950( based on Keaton's The Cameraman). Unfortunately, MGM never understood slapstick comedy, and wouldn't let Keaton and Skelton create their own "little" films. Instead, Red was featured in heavyhanded remakes of classic properties like Merton of the Movies and The Show-Off (both 1947) and grafted onto big musicals like Lady Be Good (1941), Ship Ahoy, Panama Hattie (both 1942), DuBarry Was a Lady (1943, opposite Lucille Ball), Bathing Beauty (1944), Neptune's Daughter (1949), Three Little Words (1950, playing Bert Kalmar to Fred Astaire's Harry Ruby), Texas Carnival (1951), and Lovely to Look At (1952). He had many good moments in these tuneful films, but they weren't "his" movies. At least in Ziegfeld Follies (1946) he had committed to film his all-time best solo routine, the uproarious "Guzzler's Gin." He also scored a hit on loan-out to Columbia for The Fuller Brush Man (1948).
Skelton and Stilwell were divorced in 1943. In 1945 he married Georgia Davis.
His ex-wife/manager, Stilwell, negotiated a seven-year $5 million Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year The Red Skelton Show premiered on NBC. For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television selling upwards to $80,000. Skelton earned over $2.5 million annually at one time as an artist, after the cancellation of his variety show.
His film career started to peter out in the 1950s, as his television career was on the ascent. MGM tried him in more subdued situation comedies like Half a Hero (1953), and even cast him in a straight dramatic role. The Clown (also 1953) was a not-bad remake of the classic tearjerker The Champ, with Skelton going from pathos to melodrama as a washed-up entertainer who's idolized by his son. He made his last starring film in 1957, Public Pigeon No. One. Occupied with television and nightclubs, Skelton's remaining film appearances were guest-star bits in Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), Ocean's Eleven (1960), and Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), which featured him in a very funny pantomime prologue.
In 1971, Skelton and Davis were divorced. In 1973 he married Lothian Toland. Skelon had son Richard who died of leukemia at age nine, and a daughter Valentina.
In 1986 Red Skelton, as Clem Kaddiddlehopper, received an Honorary Doctorate of Foolology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
Skelton died on September 17, 1997, at Rancho Mirage, California of pneumonia. He is interred at Forest Lawn at Glendale, California.
Quotes by Skelton:
"My mother told me something I've never forgotten: 'Don't take life too seriously, son, you don't come out of it alive anyway."His traditional TV sign-off: "Good night, and may God bless."
"All men make mistakes, but married men find out about them sooner."
When Harry Cohn, the notorious--and much despised--head of Columbia Pictures died, Hollywood crowds at his funeral prompted this famous Skelton response: "It just goes to show you if you give the people want they want, they'll come out."
My research has Skelton appearing at the Riviera, 1958 and 1959; Sahara in various years including 1974; and Sands 1957, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1967 and 1968.
His film/TV credits include Marilyn Monroe: The Final Days (2001) as himself; That's Dancing! (1985); Great Standups (aka Great Standups: Sixty Years of Laughter(1984); Freddy the Freeloader's Christmas Dinner (1981); That's Entertainment, Part II (1976) - Appearance; Monsanto Night Presents Walt Disney's America on Parade (1976); Rudolph's Shiny New Year (1975) voice of Father Time/Baby Bear; Swing Out, Sweet Land (1970) as himself; Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours 11 minutes (aka Those Magnificient Men in Their Flying Machines (1965) as Neanderthal Man; MGM's Big Parade of Comedy (aka Big Parade of Comedy (1964); Ocean's Eleven (1960) as himself; Public Pigeon No. One (1957) as Rusty Morgan; Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) as Drunk in Saloon; Hollywood Goes to War (1954) as himself; Susan Slept Here (1954) (uncredited) as Oswald from North Dakota; The Great Diamond Robbery (1953) as Ambrose C. Park Half a Hero (1953); as Ben Dobson; The Clown (1952) as Dodo Delwyn; Lovely to Look at (1952) as Al Marsh; Texas Carnival (1951) as Cornie Quinell; The Red Skelton Show (Red Skelton Hour) (1951) TV Series (1951-71); Excuse My Dust (1951) as Joe Belden; The Fuller Brush Girl (aka Affairs of Sally) (1950) as himself; Watch the Birdie (1950) as Rusty Cammeron/Pop Cammeron/Grandpop Cammeron; Moments in Music (1950); Duchess of Idaho (1950) - Cameo appearance; Three Little Words (1950) as Harry Ruby; The Yellow Cab Man (1950) as Agustus 'Red' Pirdy; Neptune's Daughter (1949) as Jack Spratt; A Southern Yankee (aka My Hero) (1948) as Aubrey Filmore; (1948); The Fuller Brush Man (aka That Mad Mr. Jones) (1948) as Red Jones; Merton of the Movies (1947) as Merton Gill aka Clifford Armytage; The Luckiest Guy in the World (1946) (voice) as Comedian on radio; The Show-Off (1946) as J. Aubrey Piper; Ziegfeld Follies (1946) as Announcer/J. Newton Numbskull; Bathing Beauty (1944) as Steve Elliot; Radio Bugs (1944) (voice) as Himself; I Dood It (By Hook or by Crook) (1943) as Joseph 'Joe' Rivington Renolds; Whistling in Brooklyn (1943) as Wally 'The Fox' Benton; Thousands Cheer (1943) - Cameo appearance; Du Barry Was a Lady (1943) as Louis Blore/King Louis XV; Maisie Gets Her Man (aka She Got Her Man) (1942) as Herbert P. 'Hap' Hixby; Ship Ahoy (1942) as Merton K. Kibble; Whistling in Dixie (1942) as Wally 'The Fox' Benton; Panama Hattie (1942) as Red; Dr. Kildare's Wedding Day (aka Mary Names the Day) (1941) as Vernon Briggs; Lady Be Good (1941) as Joe 'Red' Willet; The People vs. Dr. Kildare (My Life Is Yours) (1941) as Vernon Briggs; Whistling in the Dark (1941) as Wally 'The Fox' Benton; Flight Command (1940) as LTJG 'Mugger' Martin; Seeing Red (1939) as Red/doorman/coatroom attendant/waiter/emcee; Having Wonderful Time (1938) (as Richard 'Red' Skelton) as Itchy Faulkner; Week End In Hollywood (????) (uncredited) as Himself;
His other credits include The Red Skelton Show (1951) TV Series (executive producer); Made in Paris (1966) (composer of the song "My True Love"); and The Red Skelton Show (1951) TV Series (writer).
Skelton's guest appearances include Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse (1958) in episode: The Man In The Funny Suit; The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957) playing "Himself" in episode: "Lucy Goes to Alaska" (episode # 2.3) 2/9/1959; and The Colgate Comedy Hour (1950) playing himself.
