John Byner

The proud owner of tons of dialects and hundreds of uncanny impersonations, the short (5'7"), slight, deadpan, rubber-faced, fair-haired funnyman John Byner is the forerunner to such latter day gifted comic impressionists as Dana Carvey, Frank Caliendo and Jim Carrey. Byner's spot-on impressions have run the entertainment and historical gamut -- from John Wayne, Ed Sullivan, Walter Brennan and George Jessel to U. S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson. As icing on the cake, he hilariously unleashed over-done singing vocals to such stylists as Johnny Mathis and Dean Martin. At his heyday in the late 60s and early 70s, John and Rich Little were the cream of the mimicking crop -- deservedly recognized as the "Men of 1,000 Impressions". Born John Thomas Biener on June 28, 1938, in New York City, he was the son of Michael Biener, an auto mechanic, and Christina Biener, a mental hospital attendant. His stand-up comedy career began in New York's Greenwich Village where he worked for a year for Max Gordon at Gordon's jazz club "Village Vanguard". He then went on to open for some of the finest jazz greats of his time and steadily became a favorite New York nightclub fixture. As he rose to the top of his game, he opened or headlined prominent niteries throughout the country included headlining stints at Basin Street East, Copa Cabana, Latin Quarter, The Rainbow Room and at such showrooms as Harrah's, The Sahara, The Sands, Caesar's Palace, The Tropicana and Las Vegas Hilton.

John's TV career break happened in New York City on Merv Griffin's "Talent Scouts Show" in 1964.

After great exposure on both Garry Moore and Steve Allen's variety shows in 1966 and 1967, he clowned around on Ed Sullivan's showcase program over two dozen times and Johnny Carson late-night haunt over three dozen times. He added to the laughs on Carol Burnett, Mike Douglas and Dean Martin's self-titled shows and became a veritable favorite with David Letterman and Jay Leno at night.

John began on-camera acting in 1967.

He began things off with a recurring part on the short-lived sitcom Accidental Family (1967) starring Jerry Van Dyke and as the sole voice in the cartoon segment The Ant and the Aardvark (1969) of The Pink Panther (1969) series. This segment had the title characters voiced by Byner, who gave dead-on impressions of Dean Martin and Jackie Mason, respectively.

Was known for doing every voice (except one) in all 17 The Ant and the Aardvark (1969) cartoons.

John hosted and starred in his own summer variety series with The John Byner Comedy Hour (1972) which focused on sketch comedy and sitcom spoofs. John's series "Comedy on the Road," which aired for four seasons on A&E earned him his second Ace Award.

"John made his film debut in a slightly noticeable bit in the Barbra Streisand/Ryan O'Neal gagfest What's Up, Doc? (1972).

Was Garry Marshall's original choice to play the character of Mork on Happy Days (1974), but he turned it down. The part then went to Robin Williams, and soon spun off into the show Mork & Mindy (1978).

From there, he provided many side-splitting moments on such established 60s and 70s shows as "Get Smart", "The Mothers-In-Law," "Love, American Style," "Hawaii 5-O," "The Odd Couple," "Maude" and "When Things Were Rotten," and added greatly to the zaniness as Detective Donahue in the hit spoof Soap (1977) as well as the family sitcom The Practice (1976) starring comic legend Danny Thomas.

On the TV movie scene, John starred as a gangster in McNamara's Band (1977), but it failed as a pilot to a prospective series.

While he never found a strong footing in film, he managed to add second-banana fun to a handful of action comedies and slapstick vehicles such as The Great Smokey Roadblock (1977) with Henry Fonda and Eileen Brennan; the highly obscure A Pleasure Doing Business (1979) with Conrad Bain and Alan Oppenheimer; Stroker Ace (1983) starring Burt Reynolds; and the comedy horror Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) with Jeff Goldblum and Ed Begley Jr.. .

He also appeared in the comedies The Man in the Santa Claus Suit (1979) and Murder Can Hurt You! (1980), and the rare drama Will: The Autobiography of G.

The first came for his uproarious series Bizarre (1980), a half-hour sketch-styled program which aired for six seasons.

Gordon Liddy (1982) and played a failed ventriloquist in an episode of "Friday the Thirteenth: The Series.

John's penchant for creating voices led to an expansive career in animation for Disney The Black Cauldron (1985) as well as the TV cartoon programs "Duckman," "Garfield," Angry Beavers" and "Rugrats" and a revamped "Felix the Cat.

"His continued visibility into the 90's millennium has included a recurring role in the crime drama series Silk Stalkings (1991), as well as sporadic parts on "Married. . . with Children," "Dharma & Greg," "In the Heat of the Night" and "The First Family.

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. Pg. 82-83. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387