One of television's most popular comedians, Red Skelton is most fondly remembered for The Red Skelton Show, which ran on NBC from 1951-1953, and then on CBS from 1953-1970 (with a brief return to NBC for the 1970-1971 season). A very likeable personality and gifted pantomimist, Skelton also starred in a series of comedy films and had a career filled with contradictions. Noted writer Ross Wetzsteon once commented, Skelton was "a mime whose greatest success was on the radio. A folk humorist in the years when American entertainment was becoming urban. A vulgar knockabout at a time when American comedy was becoming sophisticated and verbal. A naïve ne'er-do-well in the age of the self-conscious schlemiel. Red Skelton's career is a study in how to miss every trend that comes down the pike."

Skelton was born Richard Bernard Skelton in 1913 (few sources list 1910), and...