Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Harshman Winters III was born on November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio. His father, Jonathan Harshman Winters II, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression.

His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his grandmother. There his mother remarried and became a radio personality. Jonathan joined the United States Marine Corps during his senior year of high school. Upon his discharge, he entered Kenyon College and later transferred to Dayton Art Institute.

He met his wife, Eileen Schauder, in 1948 and married a month later.

This led to a children's television show in Dayton in 1950. This led to a game show and a talk show. Denied a requested raise, he moved the family to New York with only $56 in their pocket. Within two months, he was getting night club bookings.

He suffered two nervous breakdowns, one in 1959 and another in 1961.

Made his first appearance on I've Got a Secret (1952) with his mother, Alice Bahman, who was a radio personality in her own right on WIZE in Springfield, OH. The episode, I've Got a Secret: Episode dated 28 September 1960 (1960), aired on September 28, 1960.

He only did one serious role and that was The Twilight Zone: A Game of Pool (1961), a two-character show in which he played "James Howard (Fats) Brown", co-starring with Jack Klugman.

When Stanley Kramer offered him a part in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), he almost didn't take it because he had just recovered from a nervous breakdown. His wife talked him into it.

Much of the dialogue between he and close friend Robin Williams on Mork & Mindy (1978) was ad-libbed.

In a 1985 television special, named King Kong (1933) as the film that made the biggest impression on him in his youth.

The May 2, 1990, issue of Variety announced Jonathan Winters was a cast member of "The Teddy Bear Habit" which began filming Jun 5, 1989, in New York City under the direction of Jon Small. The film was based on the book by James Lincoln Collier. No evidence the film was ever completed or released.

In 2000 he won the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, presented annually by the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

As of November 2002, he was doing impromptu, free comedy routines the first Sunday of each month during the Ventura County Antique Fair Grounds and in November/December 2002 in San Francisco on the set of Swing (2003), directed by Martin Guigui where he plays the character of Uncle Bill.

He came out of "retirement" to work with director/writer Martin Guigui for Swing (2003) and Cattle Call (2006). He made ten Grammy-nominated comedy recordings and won once.

They remain married until her death in January 11, 2009. They have a son, Jay, who is a contractor, and a daughter, Lucinda, who is a talent scout for movies. Jonathan got his start in show business by winning a talent contest.

Finished recording his dialogue for The Smurfs 2 (2013) only nine days before his death.