Jonathan Winters

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Birthday:

11 November 1925, Dayton, Ohio, USA

Birth Name:

Jonathan Harshman Winters Jr.

Height:

178 cm

Jonathan Harshman Winters III was born on November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio. His father, also Jonathan, was a banker who became an alcoholic after being crushed in the Great Depression. His parents divorced in 1932. Jonathan and his mother then moved to Springfield to live with his grandmother. There his mother remarried and became a radio personality. Jonathan joined the United States Marine Corps during his senior year of high school. Upon his discharge, he entered Kenyon College and later transferred to Dayton Art Institute. He met his wife, Eileen Schauder, in 1948 and married a month later. They remain married until her death in January 11, 2009. They have a son, Jay, who is a contractor, and a daughter, Lucinda, who is a talent scout for movies.Jonathan got his start in show business by winning a talent contest. This led to a children's television show in Dayton in 1950. This led to a game show and a talk show. Denied a requested raise, he moved the family to New York with only $56 in their pocket. Within two months, he was getting night club bookings. He suffered two nervous breakdowns, one in 1959 and another in 1961. He came out of "retirement" to work with director/writer Martin Guigui for Swing (2003) and Cattle Call (2006). He made ten Grammy-nominated comedy recordings and won once. Jonathan Winters died at age 87 of natural causes on April 11, 2013 in Montecito, California. Show less «

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.

I don't do jokes. The characters are my jokes.

[when someone asked him how to get into show business] You know how movie studios have a front gate? You get a Camaro with a steel grill, dr...Show more »

[when someone asked him how to get into show business] You know how movie studios have a front gate? You get a Camaro with a steel grill, drive it through the gate, and once you're on the lot, you're in showbiz. Show less «

As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things. I was a Walter Mitty type. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a detective, a docto...Show more »

As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things. I was a Walter Mitty type. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a detective, a doctor, a test pilot with a scarf, a fisherman who hauled in a tremendous marlin after a 12-hour fight. Show less «

[on painting] This year [1981] I got the idea when I was sitting in a hamburger joint and a hearse pulled up. A few minutes later a U-Haul p...Show more »

[on painting] This year [1981] I got the idea when I was sitting in a hamburger joint and a hearse pulled up. A few minutes later a U-Haul parked behind the hearse. I want to do a picture of a horse pulling a U-hearse entitled 'You Can't Take It With You'. Show less «

Of course there are those who can paint much more quickly than I. They take cobalt blue, throw it against a 15-by-20 canvas and say, "Ah, lo...Show more »

Of course there are those who can paint much more quickly than I. They take cobalt blue, throw it against a 15-by-20 canvas and say, "Ah, look, this is 3 o'clock overlooking Central Park". Then, when someone says, "I don't get it", the artist replies, "You don't get it? It's the happening, it's the feeling. And it costs $200,000". It's a slap in the teeth to talented, struggling people who studied art when some little dummy comes along with two brushes, drinks a lot of turpentine, smokes four joints and says, "Hey, man, is this not out of sight?". Show less «

I've done for the most part pretty much what I intended. I ended up doing comedy, writing and painting. I've had a ball. And as I get older,...Show more »

I've done for the most part pretty much what I intended. I ended up doing comedy, writing and painting. I've had a ball. And as I get older, I just become an older kid. Show less «

[re comedy icon Stan Laurel] Damn it! I'm the only one out here who never managed to meet him. And there he was, sitting right out there in ...Show more »

[re comedy icon Stan Laurel] Damn it! I'm the only one out here who never managed to meet him. And there he was, sitting right out there in Santa Monica all those years. The Oceana Apartments, wasn't it? I'll never get over that. Show less «