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Article: Obituary: George Burns
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 11, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1996 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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George Burns was old for such a long time before his death that
it became increasingly difficult to credit that he must once have
been young. He also represented a unique case in the history of
light entertainment in having smoothly, if in leisurely fashion,
effected the transition from straight man to comic. In 1925, his
technique refined by years on the vaudeville circuit (as a member
of a children's singing quartet, exhibition roller-skater and
stand-up comedian), he met and married Gracie Allen, a pert
soubrette whose gamely long-suffering foil he would be for the next
30 years in Hollywood films, on radio and television.
To pigeonhole him without further qualification as the straight ...