Jack Benny Net Worth

Jack Benny's Quotes

• [Commenting on the vocal talents of his radio show's co-star] There's only five real people in Hollywood. Everyone else is Mel Blanc.
• [After being presented with an award] I don't deserve this, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that, either.
• [After being introduced by Ed Sullivan on his radio debut] This is Jack Benny talking. There will now be a slight pause while you say, "Who cares?"
• I began my show business career playing violin in San Francisco at the corner of Market and Taylor. I understand that there is a theater there now.
• [on Al Jolson] When you talk about the world's greatest entertainer you have to say Al Jolson, because there was no one like him. Only Judy Garland and perhaps Frank Sinatra got anywhere near him!

Interesting Facts about Jack Benny

1. Interred at Hillside Memorial Park, Culver City, California, USA.
2. A middle school in his hometown of Waukegan, Illinois, was named after him. The school football team is the "39ers," (in honor of his insistence that he is 39 years old every year).
3. He once appeared on the TV quiz show The $64,000 Question (1955). After answering the first question correctly he quit and took home $1.00. His category was violins.
4. His most famous gag was on his radio show when, in his usual character as a comical miser, he's confronted by a robber who says, "Your money or your life." That's followed by two to three minutes of dead silence, except for the audience which laughed with increasing volume as the silence continued. Finally the robber prodded Jack by saying, "Well?" to which Benny responded, "I'm thinking it over!"
5. At the time of his death, he was scheduled to appear in The Sunshine Boys (1975). After he died, the role was taken over by George Burns.
6. Two holidays figured prominently in his life: Born on St. Valentine's Day, 1894, he died on the day after Christmas, Boxing Day, 80 years later.
7. Pictured on one of five 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating famous comedians, issued in booklet form 29 August 1991. The stamp designs were drawn by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The other comedians honored in the set are Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy; Edgar Bergen (with alter ego Charlie McCarthy); Fanny Brice; and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
8. He met his future wife Mary Livingstone while he was appearing at the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles, and he regularly ate across the street at the lunch counter of the May Company department store, where Mary worked as a lingerie salesgirl. Jack Benny actually first met his wife Mary Livingstone in Vancouver British Columbia when he was appearing there, possibly at the Orpheum there as well.
9. When he appeared as a celebrity guest on the game show Password (1961), he got the word "miser" and gave his first clue as, "Me!" thus bringing down the house.
10. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1989.
11. Star of "The Canada Dry Program" on NBC Radio (1932) and CBS Radio (1932-1933).
12. Star of "The Lucky Strike Program" on NBC Radio (1944-1949) and CBS Radio (1949-1955).
13. 1933-34: Star of NBC Radio's "The Chevrolet Show".
14. 1934: Star of NBC Radio's "The General Tire Show".
15. 1942-44: Star of NBC Radio's "The Grape Nuts Flakes Program".
16. 1934-42: Star of NBC Radio's "The Jell-O Program".
17. He sometimes referred cryptically to "my book" in interviews over the years; the manuscript for his autobiography, "Sunday Nights at Seven," wasn't discovered until years after his death.
18. He was actually a very competent violin player, although not an expert, and performed a series of benefit concerts with an orchestra. He was similarly generous with money in real life. The bad violin playing and the miserliness was just a part of his act.
19. A lifelong lover of classical music, he counted the great violinist Isaac Stern among his closest friends and legendary composer/pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff among his greatest fans.
20. Towards the end of his TV series, he was waiting for his show to air and began watching Bonanza (1959), which started half an hour sooner. He wound up missing his show and said "If I won't even watch me, what chance do I have?".