Red Skelton

In a People Magazine interview late in his life, Skelton admitted that he fudged his officially accepted birth year, but did not elaborate. The year 1910 is sometimes given instead of 1913, but Skelton's biographer Arthur Marx claims that the comedian told close associates he was really born in 1906.

The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to show business at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At age 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 15. At age 18, he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937 and on film in 1938.

Used his "Guzzlers Gin" comedy sketch as his successful 1940 screen test for MGM. It was later filmed in Ziegfeld Follies (1945).

Star of "The Red Skelton Show" on NBC Radio (1941-1949) and CBS Radio (1949-1953).

Served in the United States Army during World War II (1944-1945). His date of induction to the U.S. Army was Wednesday 7 June 1944. (Associated Press, "Red Skelton Inducted", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Friday 9 June 1944, Volume 50, page 9.). The pressures of entertaining troops, and fulfilling his duties as a soldier, resulted in Skelton's hospitalization for a nervous breakdown in 1945.

The day after his wedding on March 9, 1945, Skelton checked into the hospital for a tonsillectomy.

His daughter Valentina Marie Skelton was born on May 5, 1947. His son, Richard Freeman Skelton was born on May 20, 1948 and died on May 10, 1958 of leukemia, just 10 days before his 10th birthday.

His ex-wife/manager negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year The Red Skelton Hour (1951) premiered on NBC.

In 1960, he purchased the old Charles Chaplin Studios on La Brea Avenue, where he produced his weekly television shows. He established Red-Eo-Tape (Red-Tape) Video Productions. His three RCA TK-41 camera mobile units became the first live color production company in Hollywood.

His brother Paul Skelton worked as an uncredited prop man on Irwin Allen series such as Lost in Space (1965).

For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television. His home life was not completely happy--two divorces and a son Richard who died of leukemia at age nine--and he did not hang around with other comedians. He continued performing live until illness, and he was a longtime supporter of children's charities.

On May 10, 1976, his ex-wife Georgia Davis committed suicide by gunshot on the 18th anniversary of their son's Richard Freeman Skelton's death.

In 1986, in character as Clem Kaddiddlehopper, Skelton received an Honorary Doctorate of Foolology from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Skelton was a Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity member and an honorary brother of the Phi Alpha Tau fraternity (based out of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts), from which, in 1961, he received the prestigious Connor Award.

Inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989.

Appears as the character Freddie the Freeloader on a 44¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Early TV Memories issue honoring The Red Skelton Hour (1951). The stamp was issued 11 August 2009.