27 Facts About Jack Paar

1. Jack Paar wrote four books, including I Kid You Not and Three on a Toothbrush (1965).

2. Jack Paar died in Greenwich, Connecticut on January 27, 2004.

3. Jack Paar left The Tonight Show in 1962, and went on to host a weekly variety show titled The Jack Paar Program.

4. Jack Paar was born on May 1, 1918, in Canton, Ohio.

5. Jack Paar was married twice to his first wife, Irene Paar.

6. Jack Paar is best known for his stint as the second host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962.

7. Jack Paar had long been in ill health, having undergone triple-bypass heart surgery in 1998.

8. Jack Paar died at his Greenwich, Connecticut, home on January 27, 2004, with his wife and daughter Randy by his side.

9. Jack Paar was twice married to his first wife, Irene Paar.

10. Jack Paar came back to television on a regular basis beginning in January 1973, with Jack Paar Tonite which aired monthly as one of several rotating shows on ABC's Wide World of Entertainment.

11. Jack Paar has appeared in occasional specials for the network until 1970.

12. Jack Paar agreed, deciding on a variation of his late-night format and titling the show The Jack Paar Program.

13. Jack Paar signed off the show for the last time on March 29, 1962, spending much of that final program ripping his enemies in the press, notably gossip columnists Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen.

14. Jack Paar appeared in the 1950 film Walk Softly, Stranger, starring Joseph Cotten.

15. Jack Paar contracted tuberculosis when he was 14, and left school at 16.

16. Jack Paar moved with his family to Jackson, Michigan, about 40 miles south of Lansing, as a child.

17. Jack Paar was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family.

18. In the spring of 2004, a memorial for Jack Paar was held at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.

19. Jack Paar stayed on the show, which was in direct competition with Tonight, for one year before he quit.

20. Jack Paar continued to appear in occasional specials for the network until 1970.

21. Jack Paar showed film clips of The Beatles performing, one month before their famous live appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

22. Jack Paar once described that show as "so modest we did it from the basement rumpus room of our house in Bronxville.

23. Jack Paar returned to radio in 1950, hosting the $64 Question for one season, then quitting in a wage dispute after the show's sponsor pulled out and NBC insisted everyone involved take a pay cut.

24. Jack Paar projected a pleasant personality on film, and RKO called him back to emcee another filmed vaudeville show, Footlight Varieties.

25. Jack Paar signed as a contract player for Howard Hughes' RKO Pictures studio in the immediate postwar period, appearing as the emcee in the movie Variety Time, a compilation of vaudeville sketches.

26. Jack Paar was enough of a hit on Benny's show that Benny's sponsor, the American Tobacco Company, decided to keep him on the air, moving him to ABC for the fall season.

27. Jack Paar was drafted into the military in 1943 during World War II, interrupting his tenure as host of WBEN's morning show The Sun Greeter's Club.