Original upload date: Thu, 25 May 2017 00:00:00 GMT
Archive date: Mon, 06 Dec 2021 00:58:46 GMT
Gilford was discovered working in a pharmacy by his mentor Milton Berle. He started doing imitations and impersonations. His first appearance on film was a short entitled Midnight Melodies where he di
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d his imitations of George Jessel, Rudy Vallee and Harry Langdon. Gilford developed some unique impressions that became his trademarks — most notably, one of "split pea soup coming to a furious boil" using only his face. Other unusual impressions he created were a fluorescent light going on in a dark room, John D. Rockefeller Sr. imitating Jimmy Durante, and impressions of animals. He played Hysterium in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1963), Herr Schultz in Cabaret (1966). He was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actor in (1973) for his role as Phil Green in Save the Tiger (his co-star Jack Lemmon won for Best Actor). was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Save the Tiger. Gilford played the silent King Sextimus in Once Upon a Mattress and shared the stage with a young Carol Burnett in this production, and reprised his performance with her in two separate televised versions of the show, in 1964 and in 1972. Jack suffered with Stomach Cancer and lost his battle in June of 1990.
