Gerardo Luigi "Jerry" Colonna (September 17, 1904 – November 21, 1986) was an Italian-American comedian, singer, songwriter, and trombonist best remembered as the zaniest of Bob Hope's sidekicks in Hope's popular radio shows and films of the 1940s and 1950s.With his pop-eyed facial expressions and walrus-sized handlebar moustache, Colonna was known for singing loudly "in a comic caterwaul," according to Raised on Radio author Gerald Nachman, and for his catchphrase, "Who's Yehudi?", uttered after many an old joke, although it usually had nothing to do with the joke. The line was believed to be named for violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin, and the search for Yehudi became a running gag on the Hope show.Colonna played a range of nitwitted characters, the best-remembered of which was a moronic professor. 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!"
He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Radio at 1645 Vine Street in Hollywood, California.
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Known for his google-eyed roll, facial contortions, and wide, handlebar mustache, the madcap comic always looked like the tenor of a barbershop quartet. His renditions of "Sweet Adeline" and "Down By the Old Millstream" were classics.
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After high school graduation from Boston English High, he found a job working as a longshoreman.
Worked with the CBS staff orchestra as a musician. He broke up the other players so much during rehearsals that he started getting jobs doing comic warm-ups on live radio programs.
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Suffered a serious stroke in August 1966 from which he never fully recovered. He spent nearly two years in various hospitals recuperating, including the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, California. When he returned to performing it was for Bob Hope in his annual Christmas show in Vietnam but his participation was brief.
$11 Million
