Sid Caesar - Biography

Born

September 8, 1922

Died

February 12, 2014

Sid Caesar Overview

One of the godfathers of modern television comedy, Sid Caesar is an icon in the comedy world. Besides just giving early work to future heavy hitters like Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks and Woody Allen (who all wrote for Caesar at the start of their careers), his legendary variety series Your Show of Shows, Caesar helped invent the TV sketch comedy.

Known for creating hilarious characters more than telling jokes, Caesar called up on his training as a sketch performer in the Catskills to combine slapstick and situational humor to create something that felt totally new and the influence of which is still felt today.

Quick Sid Caesar Facts

• Isaac Sidney Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York in September, 1922.
• By age 14, he was performing as a musician and occasional sketch comedy performer in the Catskils.
• His first performances as a comedian came as part of a Palm Beach, Florida, revue while he was still serving in the Coast Guard.
• After a brief detour to Hollywood in the late '40s, Caeser returned to New York embarked on a national tour.
• He made his first television appearance on Texaco Star Theater in 1948.
• Just two years later, Caesar appeared on the first episode of Your Show of Shows in 1950. The sketch comedy and variety series ran for nearly 140 episodes and had a writing staff that included Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and Neil Simon, among others.

• Caesar continued to work on television and branched out onto the stage and movie screens throughout the '50 and '60s.
• In 1978, he has one of most famous roles as Coach Calhoun in the film adaptation of the Broadway musical Grease. He reprised his role for the 1982 sequel.
• Caesar was nominated for 11 Emmys and won two awards for Your Show of Shows.
• He has published two books: his 1982 autobiography Where Have I Been? and Caesar's Hours.
• Sid Caesar passed away on February 12, 2014. He was 91 years old.

 

Sid Caesar and Your Show of Shows

Beginning in 1950, Sid Caesar became the star of the live 90-minute weekly variety series Your Show of Shows, still considered one of the greatest comedy series of all time. It starred Caesar and Imogene Coca and had a writing staff that included Carl Reiner (who occasionally performed), Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and Mel Tokin. It was one of the 20 highest-rated shows on TV for three consecutive years and ran for nearly 140 episodes. The show went off the air in 1940.

After Your Show of Shows ended, Caesar continued to work on television. His first follow-up series, Caesar's Hour, debuted in 1954 and ran until 1957. On its writing staff was Larry Gelbart, who would go on to create MASH. In the early '60s, he starred on several television specials called Caesar Sees It, which eventually became the regular series The Sid Caesar Show, which ran from 1963 to 1964. Though he would continue to appear on television, it was the last regular series of which Caesar was the star.

Ten sketches from show were adapted into a 1973 theatrical feature, Ten From Your Show of Shows.

Additional Sid Caesar Facts

• In addition to the Emmys for Your Show of Shows, Caesar was named the "Best Comedian on TV' by Look magazine in 1951 and again in 1956.
• Caesar was given his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
• He was nominated for a Best Lead Actor Tony Award in 1963 for his performance in Little Me, which required him to play eight parts with 32 costume changes.
• He has a lead role in the 1963 film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, co-starring Jonathan Winters.
• In 1985, he was inducted in the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
• Caesar was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Television Broadcast Critics Association in 2011.
• He struggled for years with an addiction of alcohol and sleeping pills, which he kicked in 1977.
• Though he never wrote for Your Show of Shows as is often rumored, Woody Allen did write for several of Sid Caesar's early television shows and specials.