Born:

November 11, 1925

Died:

April 11, 2013

Jonathan Winters Overview:

Known for an endless supply of funny voices, a huge stable of crazy characters and his absurdist style, comedian Jonathan Winters was one-of-a-kind. He was a comic who created bits in the moment, preferring to improvise his routines and work without a net. The result was comedy that was as unpredictable as it was funny. Winters worked consistently from the 1950s almost until the day he died in 2013, and was still putting out comedy albums well into his 70s and 80s.

He was one of the greats.

Quick Jonathan Winters Facts:

• Jonathan Winters was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio.
• He joined the U.S. Marine Corps during his senior year of high school and fought in WWII.
• Winters began performing comedy in the early '50s after winning a talent competition on the advice of his wife.
• He appeared in more than 50 movies and TV shows during the course of his career, most notably the movie It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and opposite Robin Williams during the fourth and final season of Mork & Mindy.
• He was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 1999.
• Winters died of natural causes at the age of 87.

Jonathan Winters Comedy Albums:

• Down to Earth (1960)
• The Wonderful World of Jonathan Winters (1960)
• Here's Jonathan (1961)
• Another Day, Another World (1962)
• Humor Seen Through the Eyes of Jonathan Winters (1962)
• Jonathan Winters' Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)
• Whistle Stopping with Jonathan Winters (1964)
• Movies Are Better Than Ever (1966)
• Jonathan Winters...Wings It! (1969)

• Stuff 'n Nonsense (1969)
• Jonathan Winters and Friends Laugh...Live (1973)
• Answer Your Telephone (1988)
• Finally Captured (1988)
• In the '90s (1990)
• Jonathan Winters is Terminator 3 (1992)
• Crank(y) Calls (1995)
• Outpatients (2000)
• Paul Bunyan (2001)
• Old Folks (2006)
• The Underground Tapes (2007)
• Final Approach (2011)

Additional Jonathan Winters Facts:

• Winters starred on the short-lived Randy Quaid sitcom Davis Rules from 1991-1992, for which he won an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
• In addition to stand-up comedy, Winters studied cartooning in college and worked as a radio DJ early in his career.
• Winters is a part of TV history, having performed a 15-minute comedy set during the first color television broadcast in 1957.
• He had his own nightly series on CBS from 1967 until 1969.
• He was given a Pioneer TV Land Award in 2008, presented to him by Robin Williams.
• Winters published his memoir, Winters' Tales: Stories and Observations for the Unusual, in 1987.
• He was married for 64 years until his wife passed away in 2009.
• Winters spent one season as a regular on the comedy variety series Hee Haw from 1983 to 1984.
• He did a lot of voiceover work for animated series and films, including Animaniacs, Pound Puppies, Yogi's Treasure Hunt and contributed the voice of Papa Smurf in The Smurfs and The Smurfs 2.
• Winters was the subject of a documentary, Certifiably Jonathan, in 2007.

If you like Jonathan Winters, check out: Robin Williams, Patton Oswalt, Drew Carey, Jim Gaffigan, Maria Bamford