Joey Bishop
Encyclopedia
Joey Bishop was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 entertainer who was perhaps best known for being a member of the "Rat Pack
Rat Pack
The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...

" with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...

, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

, and Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

. Bishop appeared on television as early as 1948 and eventually starred in his own weekly comedy series as well as hosting a talk show.

Personal life

Bishop, youngest of five children, was born in the Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...

, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, the son of Anna (née
Married and maiden names
A married name is the family name adopted by a person upon marriage. When a person assumes the family name of her spouse, the new name replaces the maiden name....

 Siegel) and Jacob Gottlieb, Jewish Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...

an immigrants. His father was a bicycle repairman. Bishop was raised in South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west.-History:...

. In 1941, Bishop married Sylvia Ruzga, who died in 1999 from lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

. They had one son, Larry Bishop
Larry Bishop
Larry Bishop is an American actor, screenwriter and movie director. He is the son of Sylvia Ruzga and comedian Joey Bishop...

, a film director and actor. Drafted into the US Army in World War II, he rose to the rank of Sergeant in the Special Services
Special Services (entertainment)
Special Services are the entertainment branch of the American military. The unit was created on 22 July 1940 by the War Department as part of the Army Service Forces. Special Services would not only use their own specially trained and talented troops but would often engage local performers.Special...

 serving at Ft. Sam Houston, Texas.

Career

Bishop began his career as part of a standup comedy act with his elder brother, Maury. He guest-hosted on television's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....

more times than anyone else, having also frequently appeared on Steve Allen
Steve Allen
Steve Allen may refer to:*Steve Allen , American musician, comedian, and writer*Steve Allen , presenter on the London-based talk radio station LBC 97.3...

's and Jack Paar
Jack Paar
Jack Harold Paar was an author, American radio and television comedian and talk show host, best known for his stint as host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962...

's previous versions of The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...

.

He starred in a situation comedy
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

 titled The Joey Bishop Show, which premiered on 20 September 1961 and ran for four seasons, first on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 and later CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

. Bishop played a talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

 host named Joey Barnes. His wife was portrayed by Abby Dalton
Abby Dalton
Abby Dalton is an American actress.Born as Marlene Wasden in Las Vegas, Nevada, she has made numerous appearances on television, including the recurring role of "Julia Cumson" on Falcon Crest...

, who joined the cast in 1962.

He later hosted a real 90-minute late-night talk show, also titled The Joey Bishop Show
The Joey Bishop Show (talk show)
The Joey Bishop Show is an American talk show which was first broadcast on ABC on April 17, 1967, hosted by Joey Bishop and featuring Regis Philbin in his first concentrated national television exposure, as Bishop's sidekick/announcer...

, that was launched by ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 in 1967 as competition to Carson's Tonight Show and ran for two years. His sidekick was then-newcomer Regis Philbin
Regis Philbin
Regis Francis Xavier Philbin is an American media personality, actor and singer, known for hosting talk and game shows since the 1960s. Philbin is often called "the hardest working man in show business" and holds the Guinness World Record for the most time spent in front of a television camera...

.

Bishop was among the stars of the original Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)
Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop....

film about military veterans who reunite in a plot to rob five Las Vegas casinos on New Year's Eve. He co-starred with Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Dean Martin
Dean Martin
Dean Martin was an American singer, film actor, television star and comedian. Martin's hit singles included "Memories Are Made of This", "That's Amore", "Everybody Loves Somebody", "You're Nobody till Somebody Loves You", "Sway", "Volare" and "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?"...

, Sammy Davis, Jr.
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Samuel George "Sammy" Davis Jr. was an American entertainer and was also known for his impersonations of actors and other celebrities....

 and Peter Lawford
Peter Lawford
Peter Sydney Ernest Aylen , better known as Peter Lawford, was an English-American actor.He was a member of the "Rat Pack", and brother-in-law to US President John F. Kennedy, perhaps more noted in later years for his off-screen activities as a celebrity than for his acting...

 of the so-called Rat Pack
Rat Pack
The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...

, although the five of them did not publicly acknowledge that name.

During filming, the five entertainers performed together on stage in Vegas at the Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel
The Sands Hotel was a historic Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, the Sands was the seventh resort that opened on the Strip....

. Bishop did only a little singing and dancing, but did tell jokes and write some of the act's material.

He later appeared with Sinatra, Martin and Davis in the military adventure Sergeants 3, a loose remake of Gunga Din
Gunga Din
-Background:The poem is a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer who saves the soldier's life but dies himself. The last line suggests a deep-down unease of conscience about the prevailing views of natural hierarchies, both in the depicted...

, and with Martin in the western comedy Texas Across the River
Texas Across the River
Texas Across The River is a 1966 western film comedy with Dean Martin and Joey Bishop. The film was directed by Michael Gordon.-Plot:Phoebe Ann Naylor is about to be wed to Don Andrea Baldazar, El Duce de la Casala in Louisiana. The festivities are broken up with the arrival of Yancey Cottle ...

, in which he portrayed an Indian.

Bishop was the only member of the Rat Pack to work with members of a younger group of actors dubbed the Brat Pack, appearing (as a ghost) in the film Betsy's Wedding with Molly Ringwald
Molly Ringwald
Molly Kathleen Ringwald is an American actress, singer and dancer. Having appeared in the John Hughes movies Sixteen Candles , The Breakfast Club , and Pretty in Pink , Ringwald has been frequently named the greatest teen star of all time...

 and Ally Sheedy
Ally Sheedy
Alexandra Elizabeth "Ally" Sheedy is an American film and stage actress, as well as the author of two books. She is best known for her roles in the Brat Pack films The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo's Fire.-Early life:...

.

His final appearance in a film was a non-speaking role in Mad Dog Time
Mad Dog Time
Mad Dog Time is a 1996 ensemble cast crime film written and directed by Larry Bishop, released through United Artists...

, written and directed by Larry, his son. His character was named Gottlieb, which was Bishop's real last name.

Bishop was portrayed by Bobby Slayton
Bobby Slayton
Bobby Slayton is an American stand-up comedian known as "The Pit Bull of Comedy" and Yid Vicious. Slayton, a native of Scarsdale, New York, is probably best known for a supporting role in the 2001 film Bandits, and as a frequent guest on The Adam Carolla Show.He played Joey Bishop in the 1998...

 in the 1998 HBO film The Rat Pack
The Rat Pack (film)
The Rat Pack is a 1998 HBO TV movie about the Rat Pack. The movie stars Ray Liotta as Frank Sinatra, Joe Mantegna as Dean Martin, Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis, Jr., and Angus Macfadyen as Peter Lawford....

.

Death

Bishop died on October 17, 2007 at his home in Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach, incorporated in 1906, is a city in Orange County, California, south of downtown Santa Ana. The population was 85,186 at the 2010 census.The city's median family income and property values consistently place high in national rankings...

 from heart failure. He was the last living member of the Rat Pack
Rat Pack
The Rat Pack was a group of actors originally centered on Humphrey Bogart. In the mid-1960s it was the name used by the press and the general public to refer to a later variation of the group, after Bogart's death, that called itself "the summit" or "the clan," featuring Frank Sinatra, Dean...

, and was also the longest-lived member.

Filmography

  • The Deep Six
    The Deep Six
    The Deep Six is a 1958 Warnercolor World War II drama film directed by Rudolph Maté, was based on a novel with the same name by Martin Dibner...

    (1958)
  • The Naked and the Dead
    The Naked and the Dead (film)
    The Naked and the Dead is a 1958 widescreen film based on Norman Mailer's World War II novel The Naked and the Dead. Directed by Raoul Walsh and filmed in Panama the screenplay attributed to the Sanders Brothers adds a strip tease and larger action scenes to Mailer's original narrative...

    (1958)
  • Onionhead
    Onionhead
    Onionhead is a 1958 movie, set on a U.S. Coast Guard cutter during World War II, starring Andy Griffith and featuring Felicia Farr, Walter Matthau, and Erin O'Brien....

    (1958)
  • Ocean's Eleven
    Ocean's Eleven (1960 film)
    Ocean's 11 is a 1960 heist film directed by Lewis Milestone and starring five Rat Packers: Peter Lawford, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Joey Bishop....

    (1960)
  • Pepe
    Pepe (film)
    Pepe is a 1960 film starring Mario "Cantinflas" Moreno in the title role, directed by George Sidney. A multitude of cameo appearances attempted to replicate the success of Mario Moreno's American debut, notably Around the World in Eighty Days, produced by Mike Todd in 1956.The film failed to...

    (1960) (Cameo)
  • Sergeants 3 (1962)
  • Johnny Cool
    Johnny Cool
    Johnny Cool is an offbeat 1963 crime film directed by William Asher. It stars Henry Silva and Elizabeth Montgomery.Johnny Colini, an exiled American gangster living in Sicily, rescues Salvatore Giordano, a young Sicilian outlaw, from the police...

    (1963)
  • Texas Across the River
    Texas Across the River
    Texas Across The River is a 1966 western film comedy with Dean Martin and Joey Bishop. The film was directed by Michael Gordon.-Plot:Phoebe Ann Naylor is about to be wed to Don Andrea Baldazar, El Duce de la Casala in Louisiana. The festivities are broken up with the arrival of Yancey Cottle ...

    (1966)
  • A Guide for the Married Man
    A Guide for the Married Man
    A Guide for the Married Man is a 1967 American bedroom farce comedy film starring Walter Matthau, Robert Morse, and Inger Stevens. It was directed by Gene Kelly. It features a large number of cameos, including Lucille Ball, Jack Benny, Terry-Thomas, Jayne Mansfield, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Joey...

    (1967)
  • Who's Minding the Mint?
    Who's Minding the Mint?
    Who's Minding the Mint? is a comedy movie from 1967 with elements of a caper film. Howard Morris directed a cast that included Jim Hutton, Dorothy Provine, Walter Brennan and Milton Berle. It was produced by Norman Maurer for Columbia Pictures....

    (1967)
  • Valley of the Dolls
    Valley of the Dolls (film)
    The soundtrack was released in 1967. Dionne Warwick sang the title track; however, her version is not on the soundtrack. Warwick was signed to Scepter Records at the time and could not contractually appear...

    (1967)
  • The Delta Force
    The Delta Force (film)
    The Delta Force is a 1986 American action film starring Chuck Norris and Lee Marvin as leaders of an elite squad of Special Forces troops based on the real life U.S. Army Delta Force unit. It was directed by Menahem Golan and featured Martin Balsam, Joey Bishop, Robert Vaughn, Steve James, Robert...

    (1986)
  • Betsy's Wedding
    Betsy's Wedding (film)
    Betsy's Wedding is a 1990 American comedy film written, directed by and starring Alan Alda. It co-stars Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Madeline Kahn, Joey Bishop, Joe Pesci, Anthony LaPaglia, Burt Young and Catherine O'Hara.-Plot:...

    (1990)
  • Mad Dog Time
    Mad Dog Time
    Mad Dog Time is a 1996 ensemble cast crime film written and directed by Larry Bishop, released through United Artists...

    (1996)

Television work

  • What's My Line?
    What's My Line?
    What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....

    (1950–1967) (frequent panelist)
  • The Polly Bergen Show
    The Polly Bergen Show
    The Polly Bergen Show is a half-hour 18-episode comedy/variety show, starring then 27-year-old Polly Bergen, which aired on NBC in the 1957-1958 television season. The program is remembered for its impressive guest-star lineup as well as its closing theme song, "The Party's Over" .The Polly Bergen...

    (May 3, 1958) (guest star)
  • The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis
    The Frank Sinatra Timex Show: Welcome Home Elvis
    Welcome Home Elvis was a 1960 television special on ABC starring Frank Sinatra and featuring Elvis Presley in his first televised appearance since coming home from his military service in Germany. The special was officially titled It's Nice to Go Traveling, but is more commonly known as Welcome...

  • The Joey Bishop Show  (1961–1965) situation comedy
    Situation comedy
    A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...

     co-starring Abby Dalton on NBC, then CBS
  • Password (1961–1967) (frequent guest)
  • Get Smart
    Get Smart
    Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...

    (1967) (cameo guest)
  • The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
    The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
    The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....

    (1962–1992) (frequent guest & substitute host)
  • The Hollywood Squares (1966–1981) (frequent panelist)
  • The Joey Bishop Show
    The Joey Bishop Show (talk show)
    The Joey Bishop Show is an American talk show which was first broadcast on ABC on April 17, 1967, hosted by Joey Bishop and featuring Regis Philbin in his first concentrated national television exposure, as Bishop's sidekick/announcer...

    (1967–1969) late-night 90-minute talk show
    Talk show
    A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....

     on ABC
  • Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
    Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
    Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In is an American sketch comedy television program which ran for 140 episodes from January 22, 1968, to May 14, 1973. It was hosted by comedians Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and was broadcast over NBC...

    (1968 and 1971)
  • The Jacksons Variety Show, special guest star
  • Celebrity Sweepstakes
    Celebrity Sweepstakes
    Celebrity Sweepstakes is an American television game show that aired on NBC's daytime schedule from April 1, 1974 to October 1, 1976. The show also had two separate weekly syndicated runs from September 9, 1974 to September 1975 and September 20, 1976 to September 1977.Jim McKrell hosted the show....

    (1974–1977) (frequent panelist)
  • Match Game
    Match Game
    Match Game is an American television game show in which contestants attempted to match celebrities' answers to fill-in-the-blank questions...

    (1976) (panelist)
  • Liar's Club
    Liar's Club
    Liar's Club is an American comedy game show, produced by Ralph Andrews that had three syndicated runs. It was first seen in 1969 with Rod Serling as host, and returned for a three-season run from 1976-1979...

    (1976–1978) (frequent panelist)
  • Break the Bank (1976–1977) (frequent panelist)
  • Glory Years (1987)

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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