Born on January 20, 1896 as Nathan Birnbaum, he was perhaps the best-known
cigar smoker ever. The beloved
actor and
comic smoked passionately until his death in
1996 at the age of 100.
He is the only
celebrity to have both his hands
and his cigar imprinted in the
sidewalk in front of
Mann's Chinese Theater in
Hollywood.
He was once asked by a
TV interviewer in the late
1980's what his
Doctor thought about an
elderly man of his age smoking. Burns retorted "
But my Doctor is dead!
The respect Burns commanded was perhaps best illustrated by a sign posted in a
Las Vegas hotel that he frequented. The sign read, "No smoking for all persons under the age of 95."
After his wife,
Gracie Allen passed away he never remarried. But until his death he always performed in the company of at least two
major babes.
I only had the privledge of seeing him perform once, in the early
1990's. Although he was already in a
wheelchair the old guy could really put it out; he sung an old
Vaudeville tune
"I wish I was 18 again".
There wasn't a dry eye in the house.