25 Facts About Joey Bishop

Joey Bishop was a member of the "Rat Pack" with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

Joey Bishop is listed as the 96th entry on Comedy Central's list of 100 greatest comedians.

Joey Bishop was drafted into the US Army during World War II, and he rose to the rank of sergeant in the Special Services, serving at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

Joey Bishop began his career in the 1930s when he skipped his final semester of high school to form a comedy trio with two other boys, performing in nightclubs and burlesque houses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and throughout the East Coast.

The act broke up when Rummy was drafted during World War II, with Joey Bishop continuing as a solo performer until he himself was drafted in 1942.

Bishop would later include his former partners in his projects, with Rummy Bishop having a small role in Oceans 11 and Mel Bishop appeared in several roles on The Joey Bishop Show, including one episode.

Joey Bishop resumed his solo career after he was discharged from the military in August 1945, working at the Casablanca Roadhouse in New Jersey and then becoming an opening act in New York City at the Greenwich Village Inn.

Joey Bishop became a regular performer at New York's Latin Quarter nightclub for $1,000 a week, which led to appearances on television and film.

Joey Bishop appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on May 28,1950.

Joey Bishop's growing celebrity led to his being a headliner in top nightclubs his own right, and television appearances on The Dinah Shore Chevy Show on April 19,1957, and many other variety programs in the early days of television.

Joey Bishop guest-hosted The Tonight Show substituting for Jack Paar, and then guest-hosted The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson at least 175 times in the 1960s, and from 1971 to 1976 more than anyone else until that time.

Joey Bishop frequently appeared on Steve Allen's and Jack Paar's previous versions of The Tonight Show.

Bishop starred in the situation comedy The Joey Bishop Show that premiered on September 20,1961, and ran for 123 episodes over four seasons, first on NBC and later CBS.

Bishop later hosted a 90-minute late-night talk show, titled The Joey Bishop Show, that was launched by ABC on April 17,1967, as competition to Carson's Tonight Show and ran until December 26,1969.

Joey Bishop was among the stars of the original Ocean's 11 film about military veterans who reunite in a plot to rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve.

Joey Bishop co-starred with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr.

Joey Bishop did only a little singing and dancing, but he told jokes and wrote most of the act's material.

Joey Bishop later appeared with Sinatra, Martin, Davis, and Lawford in the military adventure Sergeants 3, a loose remake of Gunga Din, and with Martin in the Western comedy Texas Across the River, in which he portrayed an American Indian.

Sinatra, offended, hung up on Joey Bishop and cut him out of the Rat Pack.

Joey Bishop was the only member of the Rat Pack to work with members of a younger group of actors dubbed the Brat Pack, appearing in the film Betsy's Wedding with Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy.

Joey Bishop's final appearance in a film was a non-speaking role in Mad Dog Time, written and directed by his son, Larry.

Joey Bishop's character was named Gottlieb, which was his real surname.

Joey Bishop was portrayed by Bobby Slayton in the HBO film The Rat Pack.

Joey Bishop wed Sylvia Ruzga in 1941, and they were married for 58 years until her death from lung cancer in 1999.

In failing health for some time, Joey Bishop died at age 89 of multiple organ failure on October 17,2007, in his home on Lido Isle, a man-made island in the harbor of Newport Beach, California, as the last surviving Rat Pack member.