Portal:Comedy/Selected biography/35

Red Skelton (1913–1997) was an American entertainer known for his national radio and television acts. He began developing his comedic and pantomime skills at age 10 in a traveling medicine show. Over the next decade he worked on a showboat, in the burlesque circuit, and in vaudeville. In 1938 he became the host of radio's Avalon Time, and got his own radio show in 1941, The Raleigh Cigarette Program, which debuted many of his comedy characters. Though he regularly appeared on radio and film, Skelton was most eager to work in television. The Red Skelton Show premiered in 1951, and continued on a variety of networks and under several names until 1971. Afterwards, he focused on painting, and probably earned more from sales of lithographs of his works than from his entire television career. He received many accolades, including two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and induction into the Television and National Radio Halls of Fame.