Happy Birthday to the great Jonathan Winters, born this day in 1925. He erased the line between comedy and insanity. As a kid named Jonathan, I identified with him and loved his strange schtick for as long as I can remember. Click the link to see him in The Loved One, directed by Tony Richardson in 1965. One of my favorite black comedies, its based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh. The screenplay – which also drew on Jessica Mitfords book The American Way of Death (1963) – was written by the brilliant American satirical novelist Terry Southern (who also wrote the screenplay for Dr. Strangelove )and British author Christopher Isherwood. In his interview with the Archive of American Television, Winters reported that he spent eight months in a private psychiatric hospital in 1959 and again in 1961. The comic suffered from nervous breakdowns and bipolar disorder. With an unprecedented frenetic energy, Winters made obscure references to his illness and hospitalization during his stand-up routines, most famously on his 1960 comedy album, The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters. During his classic “flying saucer” routine, Winters casually mentions that if he weren’t careful, the authorities might put him back in the “zoo,” referring to the institution. “These voices are always screaming to get out,” Winters told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “They follow me around pretty much all day and night.” Winters was able to use his talents in voice-over roles as a result. A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Winters once claimed, “Ive done for the most part pretty much what I intended.” He told U.S. News, “I ended up doing comedy, writing, and painting.... Ive had a ball, and as I get older I just become an older kid.” Winters died of natural causes on the evening of April 11, 2013, in Montecito, California, surrounded by family and friends, at the age of 87. Many comedians, actors, and friends gave personal tributes about Jonathan Winters on social media shortly after his death. Robin Williams posted, “First he was my idol, then he was my mentor and amazing friend. Ill miss him huge. He was my Comedy Buddha. Long live the Buddha.” youtu.be/d0Cmu-_bA48
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 17:27:40 +0000