25 Facts About Bert Lahr

Bert Lahr was best known for his role as the Cowardly Lion, as well as his counterpart Kansas farmworker "Zeke", in the MGM adaptation of The Wizard of Oz.

Bert Lahr was well known for his quick-witted humor and his work in burlesque and vaudeville and on Broadway.

Bert Lahr later served in the US Navy during World War I as a seaman second class.

Bert Lahr began performing in minor parts on vaudeville stages at age 14.

Bert Lahr quit school at age 15 to join a juvenile vaudeville act.

Bert Lahr eventually received top billing, working for the Columbia Amusement Company.

Bert Lahr played to packed houses, performing classic routines such as "The Song of the Woodman".

Bert Lahr made his feature film debut in 1931's Flying High, playing the oddball aviator he had played on stage.

Bert Lahr signed with New York-based Educational Pictures for a series of two-reel comedies.

Many of Bert Lahr's scenes took several takes because other cast members, especially Garland, couldn't complete the scenes without laughing.

In June 2013, Bert Lahr's original reading script for The Wizard of Oz, bequeathed to his great-grandson, was appraised with an insurance value of $150,000 on PBS's Antiques Roadshow in an episode filmed in Detroit, Michigan.

Bert Lahr got a script of Waiting for Godot, and was greatly impressed but unsure of how the revolutionary play would be received in the United States.

Bert Lahr co-starred in the US premiere of Waiting for Godot in 1956 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami, Florida, playing Estragon to Tom Ewell's Vladimir.

The set was cleared, and Bert Lahr was allowed more freedom in his performance.

Bert Lahr was praised and though he claimed he did not understand the play, others would disagree and say he understood it a great deal.

Bert Lahr performed in commercials, including a memorable series for Lay's potato chips during its long-running "Betcha can't eat just one" campaign with Lahr appearing in different costumes.

Bert Lahr performed in classical works on television adaptations of Androcles and the Lion and the School for Wives.

Bert Lahr played Moonface Martin in a television version of Anything Goes, with Ethel Merman reprising her role as Reno Sweeney and Frank Sinatra appearing as Billy Crocker.

Bert Lahr was sometimes mistaken for actor Allan Melvin by casual observers.

In 1964, Bert Lahr won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his role in the musical Foxy.

Bert Lahr grew tired of waiting, became involved with another man and married him.

Jane Bert Lahr is an author and literary editor who was married to drama critic Martin Gottfried.

Bert Lahr was considered a serious personality offstage, prone to melancholy and, like his mother, hypochondria.

At the time, most of Bert Lahr's scenes had already been shot.

Bert Lahr was buried at the Union Field Cemetery in Ridgewood, Queens, New York.