Biography
One of the era's most cherished standup performers, Buddy Hackett paradoxically ranked among the most explicit; his appeal rested on an uncommon knack for blending warmth with vulgarity, as his quacking vocal style and cherubic features rendered even the crudest material inoffensive. Leonard Hacker entered the world on August 31, 1924, in New York City, where he routinely disrupted classrooms with antics before military service. After discharge he launched a comedy career whose signature bit, "The Chinese Waiter," drew directly from overseas duty. Local Brooklyn audiences embraced him first, after which he advanced to the Catskills resort circuit and made an early television appearance on Laff Time in 1945. Two years later his screen bow came as the voice of a talking camel in Slave Girl. Universal Pictures placed him under contract in 1953; he subsequently headlined the Broadway comedy Lunatics and Lovers for two seasons and cut the Coral album The Chinese Waiter. The year 1956 brought the lead in the television sitcom Stanley, and 1958 found him installed as a regular on The Jackie Gleason Show. That same year he essayed an uncommon dramatic part in God's Little Acre. By the early 1960s he had become a busy supporting player in such comedies as It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) and Muscle Beach Party (1964). Though his nightclub material stayed unfiltered, he also turned up regularly in wholesome vehicles such as The Music Man (1962) and Disney's The Love Bug (1968). Television guest shots dominated his acting schedule from the 1970s onward, yet he sustained a steady standup schedule and revisited the Disney lot in 1989 to supply voices for the animated success The Little Mermaid.
Albums
