Recorded a number of albums featuring instrumental "mood music" (what is now known today as "lounge music"). Gleason served as producer, band-leader, and (on occasion) vibraphone player, despite the fact that he couldn't read sheet music. Several of the albums included original compositions by Gleason. One album, "Lonesome Echo", topped the charts in 1955, and featured an album cover with original art by Salvador Dalí.

His family background was, according to most accounts, almost Dickensian. It was marked by severe illness and grinding poverty, in any event. His father, Herb Gleason, was a henpecked insurance clerk who took his myriad disappointments in life out in drink. He deserted the family when Jackie was nine and died sometime in the late 1940s. His mother, the former Mae Kelly, was a superstitious, quarrelsome woman, overprotective of her younger son, who died when Jackie was in his teens. An older brother, Clemence, was a wan, sickly lad who died, probably of tuberculosis, at the age of fourteen, when Jackie was three.

The Jackie Gleason Show (1961) helped propel the tourist industry in Miami Beach in the early & mid 1960s.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 328-331. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1999.

The set of "The Honeymooners" (1955) show was based on Jackie's childhood home on Chauncey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (originally Bushwick) area of Brooklyn, New York. The apartment building is still there and looks very much the same as in Jackie's time.

Buried in Miami. His grave site is all that one would expect. Engraved in the "riser" of the second step from the top is the classic, "AND AWAY WE GO".

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith, pg. 180-183. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Was a mentor and frequent drinking buddy of Frank Sinatra. It was Gleason who first introduced Sinatra to Jack Daniels whiskey, which became Sinatra's signature drink.

On August 2000, cable television station TvLand unveiled an eight-foot bronze statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden. The statue was placed in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

Once said that Orson Welles bestowed his "The Great One" nickname upon him.

The set of "The Honeymooners" (1955) show was based on Jackie`s childhood home on Chauncey Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant (originally Bushwick) area of Brooklyn, New York. The apartment building is still there and looks very much the same as in Jackie`s time.

In the 1930s, before he ever really made it even in smalltime venues, he was a bartender at a bar in Newark, New Jersey, called the Blue Mirror. He wore his apron high on the chest just like he did as his "Joe the Bartender" character 30 years later on his television show, and he entertained the patrons with his antics, just like "Joe the Bartender." Eventually, he got such a following that the owner gave him a chance at the microphone on stage. The rest, as they say, is history. This was also a time when he actually lived and slept in the back room with the empty bottles, etc. And, of course, it was across the street from a pool hall that he patronized in the afternoons after he was finished cleaning up the Blue Mirror.

His family background was, according to most accounts, almost Dickensian. It was marked by severe illness and grinding poverty, in any event. His father, Herb Gleason, was a henpecked insurance clerk who took his myriad disappointments in life out in drink. He deserted the family when Jackie was nine and died sometime in the late 1940s. His mother, the former Mae Kelly, was a superstitious, quarrelsome woman, overprotective of her younger son, who died when Jackie was in his teens. An older brother, Clemence, was a wan, sickly lad who died, probably of tuberculosis, at the age of fourteen, when Jackie was three.

Was a mentor and frequent drinking buddy of Frank Sinatra. It was Gleason who first introduced Sinatra to Jack Daniels whiskey, which became Sinatra`s signature drink.

"The Jackie Gleason Show" (1961) helped propel the tourist industry in Miami Beach in the early & mid 1960s.

The Miami Beach Auditorium was re-named the Jackie Gleason Theater and is located on 17th Street and Washington Avenue on South Beach.

Is portrayed by Brad Garrett in Gleason (2002) (TV) and by Sean Cullen in Martin and Lewis (2002) (TV)

He was not only a boxer and carnival barker in his early years, but also a pool hustler. Interestingly, he went on to play Minnesota Fats (Rudolf Wanderone Jr.) in The Hustler (1961) with Paul Newman.

Did not like working with young children.

Inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, 1986.

There were plans to reunite him with Art Carney for Steven Spielberg`s 1941 (1979). They were to play two men who would be stationed on top of a Ferris Wheel. However, Gleason`s representatives informed the producers that he would not perform with Carney.

On August 2000, cable television station TvLand unveiled an eight-foot bronze statue of Gleason as Ralph Kramden. The statue was placed in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

Once said that Orson Welles bestowed his

Recorded a number of albums featuring instrumental

On January 20, 1961, a game show he co-developed, "You`re In the Picture" (1960), premiered on CBS. The premise was to have celebrity guests place their heads into a cutout scene and ask the host questions as to guess what picture or historical scene they were in. The show`s concept was ill-conceived, especially for co-creator and host Gleason, and was blasted by critics and viewers alike. On the next week`s broadcast Gleason apologized to the viewers, saying, "Honesty is the best policy. We had a show last week that laid the biggest bomb! I`ve seen bombs in my day, but this one made the H-bomb look like a two-inch salute." The time slot was filled with a variety program; "The Jackie Gleason Show" (1961).

Father of actress Linda Miller.

Gleason was a voracious reader of books on the paranormal, including parapsychology and UFOs. He even had a house built in the shape of a UFO which he named "The Mothership".[7] During the 1950s, he was a semi-regular guest on the paranormal-themed overnight radio show hosted by John Nebel, and wrote the introduction to Donald Bain`s biography of Nebel.[8] According to Gleason`s second wife, Beverly McKittrick, he told her that U.S. President Richard Nixon took him on a secret visit to Homestead Air Force Base. There, Gleason allegedly saw an alien spaceship and dead extra-terrestrials.[7] After his death, his large book collection was donated to the library of the University of Miami.

Had an interest in the occult as well as an extensive collection of books on the paranormal.

Eponym of the Jackie Gleason (formerly 5th Avenue) Bus Depot in Brooklyn, New York.

Grandfather of actor Jason Patric.

Despite his iconic stature as a TV-comedy giant, Gleason never won an Emmy.

Prone to excess with wine, women, song and work, a lifestyle which often led to exhaustion. In such cases, he would check into a hospital for some needed rest. But one famous story has it, when Gleason really felt "sick", he checked himself OUT of the hospital, and went home to be taken care of!

He was legendary for his dislike of rehearsal, even in the early days of live TV. Yet he was equally renowned for his total mastery and control over each production detail and insisted on the show credit: "Entire Production Supervised by Jackie Gleason."

He designed his own fantastic round house that was built in Peekskill, New York, in the 1950s and remains a modern marvel. The precious wood interior took special crafting by Swedish carpenters who were brought to the U.S. for a year to work on the house. It contained a basement disco and one of the very first in-home video projection systems. Despite the enormous cost, the Gleason dream house long suffered from a leaky wooden roof.