Tell me what you can about Jack Benny. I love watching his reruns on TV.
—Ann Gears, Princeton, Kentucky
Born in Chicago and raised in Waukegan, Illinois, comedian Jack Benny, whose shtick included playing the violin poorly, a reputation as a penny pincher and his age being stuck at 39, was a star of vaudeville, radio, film and TV. “The Jack Benny Program” ran on radio from 1932 to 1955 and on television from 1950 to 1965, earning the master of comic timing two Emmy Awards and making stars of his sidekicks, Don Wilson and Eddie “Rochester” Anderson. He and his wife, Mary Livingstone, also his partner on radio, had a daughter, Joan. Benny died of pancreatic cancer in 1974 at age 80.
