23 Facts About Bud Abbott

William Alexander "Bud" Abbott was an American comedian, actor and producer.

Bud Abbott was best known as the straight man half of the comedy duo Abbott and Costello.

Bud Abbott was a bareback rider of German Jewish background and he was a concessionaire and forage agent.

When Bud Abbott was a toddler, the family relocated to Harlem, then to the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, and his father became a longtime advance man for the Columbia Burlesque Wheel.

Bud Abbott worked his way back to the United States a year later.

Bud Abbott spent the next few years in burlesque box offices, rising to treasurer.

Betty performed on the Columbia Wheel, while Bud Abbott mostly remained behind the scenes.

Bud Abbott began performing as a straight man in the show when he could no longer afford to pay one.

Bud Abbott continued producing and performing in burlesque shows on the Mutual Burlesque wheel, and as his reputation grew, he began working with veteran comedians like Harry Steppe and Harry Evanson.

Bud Abbott crossed paths with Lou Costello in the early 1930s, when Bud Abbott was producing and performing in Minsky's Burlesque shows in New York, and Costello was a rising comic.

Bud Abbott's top billing resulted in a "permanent chill" between the two partners, according to Lou's daughter Chris Costello in her biography Lou's on First.

In mid-1945, the comedians were not on speaking terms after Costello fired a maid and Bud Abbott, having no grievance with the maid, hired her.

Witnesses differ on exactly what happened, but the accounts agree that Bud Abbott's timing had slowed down noticeably, throwing Costello's responses off and embarrassing him.

Bud Abbott faced financial difficulties in the late 1950s when the IRS disallowed $500,000 in tax exemptions which forced him to sell his home and come out of semi-retirement.

In 1960, Bud Abbott began performing with a new partner, Candy Candido, to good reviews.

That year, as it's reported, Bud Abbott was considered for a cameo in Stanley Kramer's comedy "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World".

In 1967, Bud Abbott provided his own voice for the Hanna-Barbera animated series The Bud Abbott and Costello Cartoon Show.

Bud Abbott has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: the radio star is located at 6333 Hollywood Boulevard, the motion pictures star is located at 1611 Vine Street, and the television star is located at 6740 Hollywood Boulevard.

Bud Abbott was a Freemason via Daylight Lodge No 525 in Michigan.

Bud Abbott died of cancer at age 76 on April 24,1974, at his home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.

Bud Abbott was cremated at Grandview Crematory in Glendale, California, and his ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean three miles out from Santa Monica.

Bud Abbott received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Acting from the Garden State Film Festival in 2006; it was accepted on his behalf by his daughter Vickie Bud Abbott Wheeler.

Bud Abbott is a 2009 inductee of the New Jersey Hall of Fame.