Bob Elliott (comedian)
{{Short description|American comedian (1923–2016)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bob Elliott
| image = Bob Elliott.JPG
| caption = Elliott on Monitor in 1960
| birth_name = Robert Brackett Elliott
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1923|3|26}}
| birth_place = Winchester, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2016|2|2|1923|3|26}}
| death_place = Cundy Harbor, Maine, U.S.
| occupation = Comedian, actor
| years_active = 1946–2008
| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Jane Underwood|1943|1953|end=div}}|{{marriage|Lee Peppers|1954|2012|end=died}}}}
| children = 5; including Chris
| relatives = {{ubl|Abby Elliott (granddaughter)|Bridey Elliott (granddaughter)}}
}}
Robert Brackett Elliott (March 26, 1923 – February 2, 2016) was an American comedian and actor, one-half of the comedy duo of Bob and Ray. He was the father of comedian/actor Chris Elliott and grandfather of actresses and comedians Abby Elliott and Bridey Elliott. He is most remembered for the character of radio reporter Wally Ballou.
Life and career
Elliott was born in Winchester, Massachusetts,{{cite web|work=The Seattle Times|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/bob-elliott-half-of-the-legendary-radio-comedy-team-bob-and-ray-dies/|first=Dennis|last=McLellan|access-date=February 4, 2016|date=February 3, 2016|title=Bob Elliott, half of legendary radio-comedy team Bob and Ray, dies|via=Los Angeles Times}} the son of Gail Marguarite (née Brackett), a needleworker, and Fred Russell Elliott, who worked in insurance.{{cite web|url=http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=haruspex&id=I148465|access-date=February 4, 2016|work=Ancestry.com|title=Fred Russell Elliott|publisher=Permira}} Bob Elliott served in the U.S. Army in Northern Europe during World War II. On radio, he appeared in programs with his long-time partner Ray Goulding. These were in different series and time slots over decades, beginning in the late 1940s at Boston's WHDH radio on the show Matinee with Bob and Ray.{{Cite news|title = Bob Elliott, master satirist of radio fame, dies at 92|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/pop-culture-satirist-bob-elliott-dies-at-92/2016/02/03/9ec0f682-ca98-11e5-ae11-57b6aeab993f_story.html|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=February 3, 2016|access-date=February 3, 2016|issn=0190-8286|language=en-US|first=Adam|last=Bernstein}}
{{quote box
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|quote = "The funniest people in this country, these guys are also two of the keenest observers of the American scene and the finest interviewers in the business."{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/news/bob-elliott-bob-and-ray-comedian-dead-at-92-20160203#ixzz3zEKxuh46|access-date=February 4, 2016|date=February 3, 2016|magazine=Rolling Stone|first=Daniel|last=Kreps|title=Bob Elliott, 'Bob and Ray' Comedian, Dead at 92}}
|salign = right
|source =—David Letterman said of the duo prior to one interview.}}
File:Bob and Ray Tedi Thurman Monitor.gif in a publicity photo with Tedi Thurman for Monitor, where all were program regulars]] On television, Elliott and Goulding hosted Bob and Ray from 1951 to 1953. He appeared on a number of other television programs, including Happy Days; Newhart; and Bob & Ray, Jane, Laraine & Gilda in 1979 (with Goulding, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman and Gilda Radner); The David Steinberg Show; and Saturday Night Live. In 1982, Elliott was in Author! Author! as Patrick Dicker.{{cite news|last=Bennetts|first=Leslie |title=Author! Author! Shoots in N.Y., N.Y.|work=The New York Times|date=January 24, 1982|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/24/movies/author-author-shoots-in-ny-ny.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=February 3, 2016}}{{cite news|last=Chase |first=Chris|title=The author of Author! Author!|work=The New York Times|date=July 2, 1982|access-date=February 3, 2016|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/07/02/movies/at-the-movies-the-author-of-author-author.html}}{{cite news|last=Scott|first=Jay|title=Author! Author! Just a Mish-Mash of Mush|work=The Globe and Mail|date=June 19, 1982|access-date=February 3, 2016|url=http://vhscollector.com/movie/author-author|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160204045902/http://vhscollector.com/movie/author-author|archive-date=February 4, 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|last=Kroll|first=Jack|title=Kingdom of Cute|work=Newsweek|date=July 5, 1982|access-date=February 3, 2016|url=http://rheaven.blogspot.com/2009/12/author-author.html}}{{cite news|last=Arnold|first=Gary|title=Al Pacino on the Writer's Block|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 19, 1982|access-date=February 3, 2016|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1982/06/19/al-pacino-on-the-writers-block/5bb5072f-e2c5-4ca4-bad9-709cc0f9a75a/}}{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=John|title=The Official Razzie Movie Guide: Enjoying the Best of Hollywood's Worst|year=2005|publisher=Grand Central Publishing|isbn=0-446-69334-0}} He would star in made-for-TV-Movie's such as Between Time and Timbuktu and FDR: A One Man Show. Elliott also made television commercials, and co-wrote some humor articles with Ray Goulding for Mad Magazine in the 1950s.[https://www.madcoversite.com/ugoi-bob_elliott.html Mad Magazine Contributors – Bob Elliott] Retrieved 31 May 2020.
In 1970, the duo debuted in The Two and Only on Broadway.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.ew.com/article/2016/02/03/bob-elliott-dead|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|access-date=February 4, 2016|date=February 3, 2016|first=Ariana|last=Bacle|title=Comedian Bob Elliott dies at 92}} Bob and Goulding worked together up until Goulding's death in 1990.
Solo works
In 1990, Elliott portrayed a bank guard in Quick Change.{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/quick_change/|title=Quick Change|date=July 13, 1990|work=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Flixster|access-date=February 3, 2016}} In 1990, he portrayed "Fred Peterson" in the television series Get a Life, which starred Chris as his son. Four years later, the elder Elliott appeared in the Tim Burton production Cabin Boy, playing Chris's father again. In 2004, he appeared in a skit on the Air America radio program The O'Franken Factor.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} Elliott appeared on radio with Garrison Keillor in The American Radio Company of the Air.
Personal life
Elliott married Jane Underwood in 1943. They divorced in 1953, having no children. Bob and Ray writer Raymond Knight died in 1953.{{cite web|url=http://projects.latimes.com/hollywood/star-walk/raymond-knight/|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=February 3, 2016|title=Raymond Knight}} In 1954, Elliott married Knight's widow, Lee (née Peppers). They were married for 58 years until her death in 2012. They had two sons, Chris Elliott and Bob Elliott Jr., and one daughter, Amy Andersen.{{cite web|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DEEDD1F3AF93AA15757C0A9649D8B63|access-date=February 3, 2016|date=April 29, 2012|work=The New York Times|title=Lee K. Elliott}} They adopted Lee and Ray Knight's two children, Colony Elliott Santangelo and Shannon Elliott. They had 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
In 1989, Elliott co-authored son Chris's mock autobiography, Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/daddysboysonssho00elli|title=Daddy's Boy: A Son's Shocking Account of Life with a Famous Father|isbn=978-0385297301|year=1989|first1=Chris|last1=Elliott|first2=Bob|last2=Elliott|publisher=Dell Publishing}}
=Death=
Elliott died in Cundy's Harbor, Maine on February 2, 2016, from throat cancer at the age of 92.{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/04/arts/television/bob-elliott-of-bob-and-ray-comedy-fame-dies-at-92.html|title=Bob Elliott, of Bob and Ray Comedy Fame, Dies at 92|date=February 3, 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=February 3, 2016|first1=Peter|last1=Keepnews|first2=Richard|last2=Severo}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1959
| Test Dive Buddies | Bob | Short film directed by Ed Graham Jr. |
| 1960
| Kid Gloves | Bob | Short film directed by Ed Graham Jr. |
| 1971
| Hugh Upson/David Chetley/Sandy Van Andy | Satirical comedy film directed by Norman Lear. |
| 1980
|Vengeance | Luke | Directed and written by Bob Bliss. |
| 1981
| B.C.: A Special Christmas | Peter (voice) |
| 1982
| Patrick Dicker | American comedy drama film directed by Arthur Hiller and written by Israel Horovitz. |
| 1984
| Kidco | Policeman #2 | Comedy film directed by Ronald F. Maxwell. |
| 1987
| Fred | {{Plain list |
}} |
| 1990
| Bank Guard | {{Plain list |
}} |
| 1994
| William Mayweather | {{Plain list |
}} |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1951–53
| Co-Host | 15-minute television series on NBC. |
| 1972
| Bud Williams, Jr. | {{Plain list |
}} |
| 1976
| {{cGuest}} | Episode: "Episode #1.1 (Pilot)" |
| 1978
| Interviewer | Episode: "Elliott Gould/Peter Tosh" |
| 1979
| Gil Crawford | Episode: "Here Comes the Bride, Again" |
| 1981
| The Steve Allen Comedy Hour | {{cGuest}} | Episode: "Episode #1.22" |
| 1985
| Zeke Rainey | Episode: "A False Start" |
| 1986
| Action Family | The Vendor | {{Plain list |
}} |
| 1987
| FDR: A One Man Show | Make-Up Man | {{Plain list |
}} |
| rowspan="2" | 1988
| {{cGuest}} | Episode: "Hale to the Chief" |
| Newhart
| Bill Loudon | Episode: "I Came, I Saw, I Sat" |
| 1990–92
| Fred Peterson | Contract role |
| 1999
| LateLine | Wally Van Horn | Episode: "The Minister of Television" |
| 2008
| Edgar Hornsby (voice) | Episode: "Square-Footed Monster" |
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
{{Portal|Biography|United States|Radio|Film|Television}}
{{commons category-inline|Bob Elliott}}
- {{IMDb name|254387|Bob Elliott}}
- {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/19961227104652/http://www.bobandray.com/ Larry Josephson's official Bob and Ray site]}}
- [http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2011/04/live-from-harpswell-…the-barrymores-of-comedy Portland Monthly: Elliott family life in Maine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200818114550/http://www.portlandmonthly.com/portmag/2011/04/live-from-harpswell-%E2%80%A6the-barrymores-of-comedy/ |date=2020-08-18 }}
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/magazine/29Elliott-t.html New York Times article about the Elliot family]
- Bob and Ray shows at the Internet Archive collection "Bob and Ray for the Truly Desperate" https://archive.org/details/bobandraytoaster
- {{emmytvlegends name|bob-elliott}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-bef | before=Dennis James }}
{{s-ttl
| title = Host of The Name's the Same
| years = April 11 – June 21, 1955
| with = Ray Goulding
}}
{{s-aft| after=Clifton Fadiman }}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Bob}}
Category:20th-century American comedians
Category:20th-century American male actors
Category:American comics writers
Category:American male comedians
Category:American male film actors
Category:American male radio actors
Category:American male television actors
Category:American male voice actors
Category:American radio personalities
Category:Comedians from Massachusetts
Category:Deaths from cancer in Maine
Category:Deaths from throat cancer in the United States
Category:Mad (magazine) people
Category:Male actors from Boston