Mr 1977
11-11-2003, 05:34 PM
CHESTER, Conn. (AP) — Art Carney, who played Jackie Gleason's sewer worker pal Ed Norton in the TV classic The Honeymooners and went on to win the 1974 Oscar for best actor in Harry and Tonto, has died at 85, a funeral home manager says.
Art Carney appeared on The Honeymooners as bumbling sidekick Ed Norton.
Carney died in Chester, Conn., on Sunday. He had been ill for some time.
The comic actor would be forever identified as Norton, Ralph Kramden's bowling buddy and not-too-bright upstairs neighbor on The Honeymooners. The sitcom appeared in various forms from 1951 to 1956 and was revived briefly in 1971. The shows can still be seen on cable.
With his turned-up porkpie hat and unbuttoned vest over a white T-shirt, Carney's Ed Norton with his dopily exuberant "Hey, Ralphie boy!" became an ideal foil for Gleason's blustery, bullying Kramden. Carney won three Emmys for his role and his first taste of fame.
"The first time I saw the guy act," Gleason once said, "I knew I would have to work twice as hard for my laughs. He was funny as hell."
In one episode, he and Ralph learn to golf from an instruction book. Told to "address the ball," Norton gives a wave of the hand and says, "Hellooooo, ball!" In another episode, Norton inadvertently wins the award for best costume at a Raccoon Lodge party by showing up in his sewer worker's gear.
He told a Saturday Evening Post interviewer in 1961 that strangers were always asking him how he liked it down in the sewer. "I have seasonal answers," he said. "In the summer: 'I like it down there because it's cool.' In the winter: 'I like it down there because it's warm.' Then I've got one that isn't seasonal: 'Go to hell.'"
After The Honeymooners, Carney battled a drinking problem for several years. He spent nearly half a year in a sanitarium.
His career resumed, and in 1974 he was cast in Paul Mazurksy's Harry and Tonto as a 72-year-old widower who travels from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. He stopped drinking during the making of the film. When it won him his Oscar, Carney cracked to reporters: "You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled."
"Art was, and is one of the most endearing men I have ever met," the late actress Audrey Meadows (the caustic Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners) wrote in her 1994 memoir Love, Alice. She called him a "witty and delightful companion who went out of his way to help each new actor find his niche in the often bewildering world of The Jackie Gleason Show.
Carney was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 4, 1918, and baptized Arthur William Matthew Carney. His father was a newspaperman and publicist. He was drafted into the Army in 1944 and took part in the D-Day landing at Normandy. A piece of shrapnel shattered his right leg. He was left with a leg three-quarters of an inch shorter than the other and a lifelong limp.
Among his movie credits: "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, The Late Show, House Calls, Movie Movie, Sunburn, Going in Style, Roadie, Firestarter, The Muppets Take Manhattan and Last Action Hero.
Carney married his high school sweetheart, Jean Myers, in 1940. After the marriage broke up, Carney married Barbara Isaac in 1966. They divorced 10 years later, and in 1980 he and his first wife remarried.
"We always kept in touch because of our three children," he said in a 1980 AP interview. "After our second divorces, it was sort of like the puppy coming home: 'Oh, it's you, come on in.' We decided to give it a go again."
Art Carney appeared on The Honeymooners as bumbling sidekick Ed Norton.
Carney died in Chester, Conn., on Sunday. He had been ill for some time.
The comic actor would be forever identified as Norton, Ralph Kramden's bowling buddy and not-too-bright upstairs neighbor on The Honeymooners. The sitcom appeared in various forms from 1951 to 1956 and was revived briefly in 1971. The shows can still be seen on cable.
With his turned-up porkpie hat and unbuttoned vest over a white T-shirt, Carney's Ed Norton with his dopily exuberant "Hey, Ralphie boy!" became an ideal foil for Gleason's blustery, bullying Kramden. Carney won three Emmys for his role and his first taste of fame.
"The first time I saw the guy act," Gleason once said, "I knew I would have to work twice as hard for my laughs. He was funny as hell."
In one episode, he and Ralph learn to golf from an instruction book. Told to "address the ball," Norton gives a wave of the hand and says, "Hellooooo, ball!" In another episode, Norton inadvertently wins the award for best costume at a Raccoon Lodge party by showing up in his sewer worker's gear.
He told a Saturday Evening Post interviewer in 1961 that strangers were always asking him how he liked it down in the sewer. "I have seasonal answers," he said. "In the summer: 'I like it down there because it's cool.' In the winter: 'I like it down there because it's warm.' Then I've got one that isn't seasonal: 'Go to hell.'"
After The Honeymooners, Carney battled a drinking problem for several years. He spent nearly half a year in a sanitarium.
His career resumed, and in 1974 he was cast in Paul Mazurksy's Harry and Tonto as a 72-year-old widower who travels from New York to Chicago with his pet cat. He stopped drinking during the making of the film. When it won him his Oscar, Carney cracked to reporters: "You're looking at an actor whose price has just doubled."
"Art was, and is one of the most endearing men I have ever met," the late actress Audrey Meadows (the caustic Alice Kramden on The Honeymooners) wrote in her 1994 memoir Love, Alice. She called him a "witty and delightful companion who went out of his way to help each new actor find his niche in the often bewildering world of The Jackie Gleason Show.
Carney was born into an Irish-Catholic family in Mount Vernon, N.Y., on Nov. 4, 1918, and baptized Arthur William Matthew Carney. His father was a newspaperman and publicist. He was drafted into the Army in 1944 and took part in the D-Day landing at Normandy. A piece of shrapnel shattered his right leg. He was left with a leg three-quarters of an inch shorter than the other and a lifelong limp.
Among his movie credits: "W.W. and the Dixie Dance Kings, The Late Show, House Calls, Movie Movie, Sunburn, Going in Style, Roadie, Firestarter, The Muppets Take Manhattan and Last Action Hero.
Carney married his high school sweetheart, Jean Myers, in 1940. After the marriage broke up, Carney married Barbara Isaac in 1966. They divorced 10 years later, and in 1980 he and his first wife remarried.
"We always kept in touch because of our three children," he said in a 1980 AP interview. "After our second divorces, it was sort of like the puppy coming home: 'Oh, it's you, come on in.' We decided to give it a go again."