Popular actor dead

Press, 26 June 1987, Page 8

Popular actor dead

NZPA-Reuter . Fort Lauderdale

' The American comedian, Jackie Gleason, who gained fame playing a fat bumbling bus driver in the hit television comedy series “The Honeymooners,” died of cancer on Tuesday night at his home in Fort Lauderdale, his family said. : Mr Gleason, nicknamed “The Great One,” was discharged from a hospital last Thursday after undergoing cancer treatment, said a spokesman, Ray Casas.' - "He was feeling iniood spirits Monday

day,” his wife, Marilyn, said in a statement. “He quietly, comfortably passed away.” Mr Gleason, a relative recluse In his last years, created the character Ralph Kramden in the popular comedy series made in the mid-1950s that had remained a cult favourite since.

In his long career, the rotund comedian made 20 films and earned the admiration of such actors as Lord Laurence Olivier, with whom he co-starred in “Mr Halpern and Mr Johnson,” a television film. Lord Olivier called

Gleason a great serious actor and one of the finest he had ever worked with.

Among his most famous performances was his role as Minnesota Fats in the film “The Hustler,” for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Even when his later films such as "Smokey and the Bandit” and its sequels scored low with critics, Mr Gleason’s reputation was untouched.

He wasrelativeiy reclusive for the last several years, the days of allnight partying and leggy shqgrgirls gone but not regftstted