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Gerardo Luigi “Jerry” Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 22, 1986) was an American musician, actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and trombonist best remembered as the zaniest of Bob Hope’s sidekicks in Hope’s popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s.
With his pop-eyed facial expressions and walrus-sized handlebar moustache, Colonna was known for singing loudly “in a comic caterwaul,” according to Raised on Radio author Gerald Nachman, and for his catchphrase, “Who’s Yehudi?”, uttered after many an old joke, although it usually had nothing to do with the joke. The line was believed to be named for violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, and the search for Yehudi became a running gag on the Hope show.
Colonna featured in three of the popular Hope-Crosby Road films: Road to Singapore (1940) as Achilles Bombassa, Road to Rio (1947) as a Cavalry captain and The Road to Hong Kong (1962) in a cameo role. He can also be seen in the Fred Allen vehicle, It’s in the Bag! (1945), as psychiatrist Dr. Greenglass, and he made a brief appearance with Hope in the “Wife, Husband and Wolf” sketch in Star Spangled Rhythm. In 1956 he performed the featured song “My Lucky Charm” in the film Meet Me in Las Vegas, starring Dan Dailey and Cyd Charisse.
He provided the voice of the March Hare in the Walt Disney animated film version of Alice in Wonderland (1951) (another radio legend, Ed Wynn, voiced the Mad Hatter) and also lent his zany narration style to several Disney shorts, including Casey at the Bat (1946) and The Brave Engineer (1950).
Jerry Colonna Biography / Wiki
| Name | Jerry Colonna |
| Also Know | |
| Gender | Male |
| Known For | Acting |
| Place of Birth | Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Date of Birth | 1904-09-17 |
| Age(as in 2022) | 82 |
| Deathday | 1986-11-21 |
Jerry Colonna Acting Movies
| Movie Name | Character | Release Date | Overview |
| The Brave Engineer | Narrator | 1950-03-03 | Casey Jones is one of the best engineers there is and it is his duty to get his cargo to its destination on time via train. He sets off but is set bac… |
| Casey at the Bat | Narrator | 1946-08-15 | The over-confident Casey comes to the plate for Mudville in this animated version of the classic 1888 baseball poem by Ernest Thayer… |
| Ice-Capades | Colonna | 1941-08-19 | Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating … |
| Kentucky Jubilee | Jerry Harris | 1951-05-18 | A movie director travels to Kentucky to seek out local talent for a hillbilly musical film…. |
| Ice Capades Revue | Theophilus J. Twitchell | 1942-12-24 | Promoter Ann Porter decides to start her own Ice Show despite the efforts of ex-racketeer Duke Baldwin who owns a rival show. Jeff Stewart, a rich, su… |
| Priorities on Parade | Jeep Jackson | 1942-07-23 | Band leader Johnny Draper auditions his band, the Dixie Pixies, at the Eagle Aircraft Co., hoping to be hired to play for the workers in the plant. Ho… |
| Comin’ Round the Mountain | 1940-08-16 | A Tennessee boy (Bob Burns) returns from the big city, runs for mayor and puts his musical kin on the radio…. | |
| Stars on Horseback | 1943-04-23 | A profile of blacksmith George Garfield, among whose Hollywood clients were the horses of Joel McCrea and Guinn “Big Boy” Williams…. | |
| The Star Reporter | Singer-Freddie Rich Orchestra | 1938-03-21 | An entry in Paramount’s “Star Reporter” series starring Ted Husing. As usual, Ted is seated at a desk introducing various acts and peoplle, and the ca… |
| Song Hits on Parade | 1936-01-01 | Freddie Rich and his band perform a selection of musical numbers…. | |
| Make Mine Music | Narrator (segment “Casey at the Bat”) (voice) | 1946-06-30 | In the tradition of Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a glorious collection of nine musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites a… |
| Sis Hopkins | Professor | 1941-04-12 | An unsophisticated farm girl enrolls in college and stars in the campus musical…. |
| Atlantic City | The Professor | 1944-09-15 | In 1915, Atlantic City is a sleepy seaside resort, but Brad Taylor, son of a small hotel and vaudeville house proprietor, has big plans: he thinks it … |
| True to the Army | Pvt. ‘Pinky’ Fothergill | 1942-03-21 | A wire-walker, on the run from gangsters, masquerades as a soldier at her boyfriend’s Army base…. |
| Alice in Wonderland | March Hare (voice) | 1951-07-28 | On a golden afternoon, young Alice follows a White Rabbit, who disappears down a nearby rabbit hole. Quickly following him, she tumbles into the burro… |
| Swingtime in the Movies | The Texas Tornado | 1938-12-24 | In this musical short, a waitress at the Warner Bros. commissary gets her big break…. |
| Sweepstakes Winner | Nick, the Chef | 1939-05-20 | A scatterbrained waitress invests her inheritance in a broken-down race horse and a sweepstakes ticket…. |
| Operation Wonderland | Self | 1951-06-14 | 1951 behind the scenes featurette of the Walt Disney animated classic…. |
| Melody and Moonlight | Abner Kellogg | 1940-10-10 | Jane Frazee made her starring film debut in the Republic B-plus musical Melody and Moonlight. The plot is motivated by the show-biz aspirations of bel… |
| Bob Hope: Laughing With the Presidents | Himself | 1996-11-23 | For 11 Presidents, Bob Hope was a golfing buddy, national jester and constant guest at the White House. This special includes personal recollections a… |
| Music Land | Narrator | 1955-06-11 | Walt Disney animation animated cartoon musical compilation (“The BIG Parade of MIRTH and MELODY”; “Offering hits re-released from ‘Make Mine Music’ an… |
| Road to Singapore | Achilles Bombanassa | 1940-03-22 | Two playboys try to forget previous romances in Singapore – until they meet Dorothy Lamour…… |
| Andy Hardy Comes Home | Doc | 1958-12-22 | Andy Hardy, now a grown man with a wife and children, returns to his hometown on a business trip and finds himself getting mixed up in local politics…. |
| Ellis in Freedomland | 1952-06-15 | Westinghouse claims its electric appliances “freed women from the drudgery of housework.” The first half involves a dream salesman at work; the second… | |
| Naughty But Nice | Allie Gray | 1939-06-23 | Donald Hardwick (Dick Powell) is a stuffed-shirt, classical music professor. His family and small-town music college that he works are of equal mindse… |
| It’s in the Bag! | Dr. Greengrass | 1945-04-21 | The ringmaster of a flea circus inherits a fortune…if he can find which chair it’s hidden in…. |
| Port of Seven Seas | Arab Rug Dealer | 1938-07-01 | In the French port of Marseille, a young woman named Madelon is in love with a young sailor, Marius. Discovering she is pregnant after Marius sets out… |
| Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood No. 1 | Himself | 1941-10-02 | Hedda Hopper guides us through some of Hollywood’s sights; the home of William S. Hart and a Kay Kyser recording-session being among them…. |
| Rosalie | Joseph | 1937-12-24 | West Point cadet Dick Thorpe falls in love with a girl, who turns out to be a princess from an European kingdom…. |
| Garden of the Moon | Musician | 1938-09-23 | Don Vincente is determined to make a success of himself and his band. He gets his break by performing at the Garden of the Moon, which is broadcast ov… |
| Valley of the Giants | Saloon Singer | 1938-09-17 | A lumberman takes on a sleezy corporate giant wanting to move in and do whatever it takes to drive everyone else out of business…. |
| Star Spangled Rhythm | Jerry Colonna | 1942-03-05 | Pop, a security guard at Paramount has told his son that he’s the head of the studio. When his son arrives in Hollywood on shore leave with his buddie… |
| This Is Bob Hope… | Self (archive footage) | 2017-12-29 | During his career, Bob Hope was the only performer to achieve top-rated success in every form of mass entertainment. American Masters explores the ent… |
| Road to Utopia | Man on boat to Alaska (uncredited) | 1945-11-01 | While on a ship to Skagway, Alaska, Duke and Chester find a map to a secret gold mine, which had been ‘stolen’ by thugs. In Alaska to recover her fath… |
| Joys | 1976-03-05 | Over fifty of the greatest living comedians are called to a party at Bob Hope’s house, where each of them is systematically killed (and their bodies t… | |
| Meet Me in Las Vegas | Jerry Colonna | 1956-03-09 | Chuck Rodwell is a gambling cowboy who discovers that he’s lucky at the roulette wheel if he holds hands with dancer Marie. However, Marie doesn’t lik… |
| Little Miss Broadway | Band Member | 1938-07-29 | An orphan is provisionally adopted by the manager of a hotel populated by show business people. The hotel’s owner doesn’t like the entertainers and wa… |
| The Road to Hong Kong | Man Looking For a Match (uncredited) | 1962-01-01 | When Chester accidentally memorizes and destroys the only copy of a secret Russian formula for a new and improved rocket fuel, they are thrust into in… |
| Happy Birthday, Bob: 50 Stars Salute Your 50 Years with NBC | Self (archive footage) | 1988-05-16 | Stars celebrate Bob Hope’s 50 years with NBC…. |
Credit: TMDB
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