 | This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (August 2011) |
Jerry Colonna | |
|---|---|
&sq=&lang=&file=File:Jerry_Colonna_1951.JPG) Colonna in 1951 | |
| Born | Gerardo Luigi Colonna September 17, 1904 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | November 21, 1986 (aged 82) Woodland Hills, California, U.S. |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1935–1971 |
| Spouse |
Florence Purcell (m. 1930) |
| Children | 1 |
Gerardo Luigi Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 21, 1986), better known as Jerry Colonna, was an American musician, actor, comedian, singer, songwriter and trombonist who played the zaniest of Bob Hope's sidekicks in Hope's popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s. He also voiced the March Hare in Walt Disney's 1951 animated feature film Alice in Wonderland.
With his pop-eyed facial expressions and large handlebar moustache, Colonna was known for singing loudly in what Gerald Nachman called a "comic caterwaul", and for his catchphrase, "Who's Yehudi?", uttered after many an old joke, though it usually had nothing to do with the joke itself. The line was believed to be named for violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, and "the search for Yehudi" became a running gag on Hope's show.
Colonna played a range of nitwitted characters, the best-remembered of which was a moronic professor, of which Nachman wrote:
- Colonna brought a whacked-out touch to Hope's show. In a typical exchange, Hope asks, "Professor, did you plant the bomb in the embassy like I told you?", to which Colonna replied, in that whooping five-alarm voice, "Embassy? Great Scott, I thought you said NBC!"