Article: Bob Hope was one of the innovators of screen comedy.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Carrie Rickey

Bob Hope was a fixture of American humor for so many decades that it's easy to forget he was among the innovators of screen comedy in the sound era. His topical jokes and cheeky habit of stepping out of character to address the audience influenced generations of funnymen from Jerry Lewis to Jerry Seinfeld and from Bill Cosby to Bill Murray.

Like his fellow vaudevillians-turned-movie stars Will Rogers and Groucho Marx, Hope made it seem normal for an actor to walk out of his role and comment on the action around him.

So profound was his impact that when Woody Allen assembled a 1979 tribute to Hope for the Film Society of ...

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