{"id":27732,"date":"2013-04-12T15:19:43","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T19:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=27732"},"modified":"2013-04-12T15:19:43","modified_gmt":"2013-04-12T19:19:43","slug":"jonathan-winters-87","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2013\/04\/12\/jonathan-winters-87\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Winters, 87"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jonathan_winters\"<\/a>Being unable to afford a watch led him to enter a contest where one was a prize. Winning that contest led him to a career as a disc jockey in his native Dayton, Ohio. A disagreement over money with the radio station led him to move to New York City to try his hand at being a professional entertainer. And that move led to immortality for Jonathan Winters.<\/p>\n

Winters\u00a0became\u00a0one of the most renown comedians of the 1950s, employing a manic wit, skill at improvisation and the ability to create memorable characters such as Maude Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins. The comedian became a big star on the comedy club\u00a0and\u00a0talk show circuit, becoming a favored guest on both the Jack Paar and Johnny Carson versions of\u00a0The Tonight Show<\/strong>. His work during his career served as an inspiration to a whole generation of comedians, most notable Robin Williams.<\/p>\n

His first film was a doozy: he starred as Lennie Pike in the memorable\u00a0It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad<\/strong> World<\/strong>. He followed up that film with roles in fare such as\u00a0The Loved One,\u00a0<\/strong>The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming<\/strong>\u00a0and Moon Over Parador<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

To a younger generation, he became known for his role as Mirth on\u00a0the\u00a0ABC sitcom\u00a0Mork & Mindy<\/strong>, the son of Williams’ Mork character.<\/p>\n

In recent years, Winters worked extensively providing voice-work for animation, most notably providing the voice of Grandpa Smurf in the\u00a0Smurfs\u00a0<\/strong>TV show and Papa Smurf in\u00a0The Smurfs\u00a0<\/strong>film. His voice will\u00a0be\u00a0heard in July’s\u00a0The Smurfs 2<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The influential comedian succumbs to natural causes. <\/div>\n

[click for more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":27733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[6342,4010,6343],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-27732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-obituary-news","8":"tag-its-a-mad","9":"tag-mad","10":"tag-mad-world"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t