24 Facts About Ed Wynn

Isaiah Edwin Leopold, better known as Ed Wynn, was an American actor and comedian.

Ed Wynn was noted for his Perfect Fool comedy character, his pioneering radio show of the 1930s, and his later career as a dramatic actor.

Ed Wynn's father, Joseph, a milliner, was born in Bohemia.

Ed Wynn attended Central High School in Philadelphia until age 15.

Ed Wynn ran away from home in his teens, worked as a hat salesman and as a utility boy, and eventually adapted his middle name "Edwin" into his new stage name, "Ed Wynn", to save his family the embarrassment of having a lowly comedian as a relative.

Ed Wynn began his career in vaudeville in 1903 and was a star of the Ziegfeld Follies starting in 1914.

Ed Wynn wrote, directed, and produced many Broadway shows in the subsequent decades, and was known for his silly costumes and props as well as for the giggly, wavering voice he developed for the 1921 musical revue The Perfect Fool.

Ed Wynn became a very active member of The Lambs Club in 1919.

Ed Wynn reprised his Fire Chief radio character in two films, Follow the Leader and The Chief.

Ed Wynn first appeared on television on July 7,1936, in a brief, ad-libbed spot with Graham McNamee during an NBC experimental television broadcast.

Ed Wynn was a rotating host of NBC's Four Star Revue from 1950 through 1952.

Also in 1959, Ed Wynn appeared on Serling's TV series The Twilight Zone in "One for the Angels".

Ed Wynn appeared in feature films and anthology television, endearing himself to new generations of fans.

Ed Wynn was caricatured in the Merrie Melodies cartoon shorts Shuffle Off to Buffalo, I've Got to Sing a Torch Song, and as a pot of jam in the Betty Boop short Betty in Blunderland.

Ed Wynn appeared as the Fairy Godfather in Jerry Lewis's Cinderfella.

Ed Wynn provided the voice of the Mad Hatter in Walt Disney's film Alice in Wonderland and played The Toymaker alongside Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands in the Christmas operetta film Babes in Toyland released in 1961.

Ed Wynn first married actress Hilda Keenan on September 5,1914.

Ed Wynn married his second wife, Frieda Mierse, on June 25,1937, but would divorce her only two years later on December 12,1939.

Ed Wynn married his third and final wife Dorothy Elizabeth Nesbitt on July 31,1946.

Ed Wynn filed for divorce from Wynn on February 1,1955, and it was finalized on March 1,1955.

Ed Wynn was a Freemason at Lodge No 9 in Pennsylvania.

Ed Wynn died on June 19,1966, in Beverly Hills, California, of esophageal cancer, at the age of 79.

Ed Wynn is interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

Ed Wynn was posthumously named a Disney Legend on August 10,2013.