THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013
RIBUNE hearing
PAGE 7
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CELEBRITY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jonathan Winters at the kick off of The Last 70mm Film Festival presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Samuel Goldwyn theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif. Winters, whose breakneck improvisations inspired Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many others, died Thursday at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes. He was 87.
Comedian Jonathan Winters dies remembered for improvisations
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Jonathan Winters, the cherub-faced comedian whose breakneck improvisations and misfit characters inspired the likes of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey, has died. He was 87.
The Ohio native died Thursday evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes, said Joe Petro III, a longtime friend. He was surrounded by family and friends.
Winters was a pioneer of improvisational standup comedy, with an exceptional gift for mimicry, a grab bag of eccentric personalities and a bottomless reservoir of creative energy. Facial contortions, sound effects, tall tales — all could be used in seconds to get a laugh.
"Jonathan Winters was the worthy custodian of a sparkling and childish comedic genius. He did God's work. I was lucky 2 know him," Carrey tweeted on Friday.
On Jack Paar's television show in 1964, Winters was handed a foot-long stick, and he swiftly became a fisherman, violinist, lion tamer.
canoeist, U.N. dipul-
mat, bullfighter,
flutist, delusional
psychiatric patient,
British headmaster
and Bing Crosby's
golf club.
"As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things," he told U.S. News & World Report in
"The best stuff was before the cameras were on, when he was open and free to create," Williams once said. "Jonathan would just blow the doors off."
1988. "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."
Carson, meanwhile, lifted Winters' Maude Frickert character almost intact for the long-running Aunt Blabby character he portrayed on "The Tonight Show."
"Beyond funny. He invented a new category of comedic genius," comedian Albert Brooks tweeted Friday.
In other Twitter posts, Richard Lewis called Winters "the greatest
The humor most often was based in reality — his characters Maude Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins, for example, were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio.
A devotee of Groucho Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Winters and his free-for-all brand of humor inspired Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Tracey Ullman and Lily Tomlin, among others. But Williams and Carare are his best-known followers.
Williams helped introduce Winters to new fans in 1981 as the son of Williams' goofball alien and his earthling wife in the final season of ABC's "Mork and Mindy."
"First, he was my idol; then he was my mentor and amazing friend. I'll miss him huge. He was my Comedy Buddha. Long live the Buddha," Williams said in a statement Friday.
The two often strayed from the script.
improvisational comedian of all time" and Roseanne Barr added "a genius has vanished this realm."
"Jonathan Winters was the worthy custodian of a sparkling and childish comedic genius."
Winters' only Emmy was for best supporting actor for playing Randy Quaid's father in the sitcom "Davis Rules" (1991). He was nominated again in 2003 as outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for an appearance on "Life With Bonnie"
"I knew him for 55 years, and he's always been silly, every moment of his life," veteran announcer Gary Owens, who collaborated with Winters on four comedy albums, recalled warmly Friday in an interview with the AP.
He also won two Grammys for his work on "The Little Prince" album in 1975 and for his "Crank Calls" comedy album in 1996.
He spoke by phone with him just two days ago, Owens said, and although frail, Winters still broke into a routine in which he was being pecked in the head by a pet perigrine falcon he claimed to keep by his bed.
Winters received the Kennedy
center's second, Mark Twain Prize
for Humor in 1999, a year after Richard Prvor.
JIM CARREY Actor
In later years, he was sought out for his changing voice and contributed to cartoons and animated
films. He played three characters in the "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" movie in 2000.
The comedian quickly realized the possibilities, author David Hajdu wrote in The New York Times in 2006. He soon used video technology "to appear as two characters, bantering back and forth, seemingly in the studio at the same time. You could say he invented the video stunt."
The Internet Movie Database website credits him as the voice of Papa in the forthcoming "The Smurfs 2" film.
Winters was born Nov. 11, 1925, in Dayton, Ohio. Growing up during the Depression as an only child whose parents divorced when he was 7, he spent a lot of time entertaining himself.
He continued to work almost to the end of his life and to influence new generations of comics.
Winters made television history in 1956 when RCA broadcast the first public demonstration of color videotape on "The Jonathan Winters Show."
"No him, no me. No MOST of us, comedy-wise," comic Patton Oswalt tweeted Friday.
"She was very fast. Whatever humor I've inherited I'd have to give credit to her," he told the Cincinnati Enquirer in 2000.
Winters, who battled alcoholism in his younger years, described his father as an alcoholic. But he found a comedic mentor in his mother, radio personality Alice Bahman.
Winters joined the Marines at 17 and served two years in the South Pacific. He returned to study at the Dayton Art Institute, helping him develop keen observational skills.
After stints as a radio disc jockey and TV host in Ohio from 1950-53, he left for New York, where he found work doing impressions of John Wayne, Cary Grant, Marx and James Cagney, among others.
At one point, he won a talent contest by doing impressions of movie stars.
"He said, 'What's the matter with those characters in Ohio? I'll bet there are some far-out dudes that you grew up with back in Ohio," Winters told the Orange County Register in 1997.
One night after a show, an older man sweeping up told him he wasn't breaking any new ground by mimicking the rich or famous.
Two days later, he cooked up one of his most famous characters: the hard-drinking, dirty old woman Maude Frickert, modeled in part on his own mother and an aunt.
Appearances on Paar's show and others followed, and Winters soon had a following. Before long, he was struggling with depression and drinking.
"I became a robot," Winters told TV critics in 2000. "I almost lost my sense of humor ... I had a breakdown, and I turned myself in (to a mental hospital). It's the hardest thing I've ever to do."
Winters was hospitalized for eight months in the early 1960s. It's a topic he rarely addressed.
"If you make a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year and you're talking to the blue-collar guy who's a farmer 200 miles south of Topeka, he's looking up and saying, 'That bastard makes (all that money) and he's crying about being a manic depressive?' Winters said.
"it finally opened up and realized I was in charge," Winters told PBS interviewers for 2000's "Jonathan Winters: On the Loose." "Improvisation is about taking chances, and I was ready to take chances"
When he got out, there was a role as a slow-witted character waiting in the 1963 ensemble film "It's a Mad. Mad. Mad. Mad World."
Roles in other movies followed, as did TV shows, including his own.
While show business kept Winters busy, the former art school student was also a painter and writer. His paintings and sketches were often filled with humor.
"I find painting a much slower process than comedy, where you can go a mile a minute verbally and hope to God that some of the people out there understand you," he said in the 1988 U.S. News and World Report interview. "I don't paint every day. I'm not that motivated. I don't do anything the same every day. Discipline is tough for a guy who is a rebel."
Among his books is a collection of short stories called "Winters' Tales" (1987).
"I've done for the most part pretty much what I intended — I ended up doing comedy, writing and painting," he told U.S. News. "I've had a ball. And as I get older, I just become an older kid."
Winters' wife, Eileen, died in 2009. He is survived by two children, Lucinda Winters and Jay Winters.
LOCAI
Student to run Chicago Marathon
KRISTA JOY MONTGOMERY editor@kansan.com
If the Chicago Marathon could be compared to a runner's Goliath, then Molly Morel is its David. She speaks in a quiet voice that expands with confidence as she describes the journey of her intensive six-month training regimen for the 26.2-mile run.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Moreland, a junior studying history and pre-law, remembers the exact day she started running. July 9, 2011, was the day she says changed her life. Pre-diabetic, overweight and at her wits' end, Molly drove to a nearby trail determined to run as far as she possibly could. She remembers all the sensory details;the shades of the leaves on the trees, the way the sunlight reflected through the woods, and the post-run feeling that something big had happened.
Running a full marathon takes a lot of training to prepare for the 26.6 miles endurance challenge. Daily trainings require determination and a mind set to achieve a goal.
"The scariest thing is starting." Moreland says, "It's challenging yourself to do something you don't think you can do. It pushes you outside your comfort zone."
Moreland began a positive evolution, overcoming her fears and making mile-by-mile goals. Little by little her confidence and endurance grew, and in the process she lost fifty pounds and reversed her pre-diabetes.
Molly ran a half-marathon in Lawrence last April, completing the full 13.1 miles. After achieving that milestone, she began dreaming of running in the Chicago Marathon.
"It has a certain je ne sais quo, especially with entry being so coveted." she explains. "It's every runners' dream."
Encouraged in her diet and gym goals by her fiancé, Molly finally decided to enter.
"It was serendipitous," Moreland said, "because initially I wasn't even sure I could participate."
On the day that online registration opened, so many people scrambled for one of the 45,000 spots that the system crashed. Several days later, the marathon announced that 15,000 of those spots would
be raffled off in a random lottery. Moreland and her friend both entered the raffle, with Moreland winning the chance to run.
Moreland started brainstorming on how to turn her dream into a reality. She began training six days a week, with a schedule gradually leading her up to 20-mile daily runs by Oct. 13. In addition to training, she wanted to see her running have a positive effect on others. Moreland decided to try fundraising, and focused on her passion for animals. She wrote to 30 animal shelters and Wayside Waifs contacted her right away. The largest pet adoption center in Kansas City, Wayside Waifs is a non-profit animal shelter with no-nill policy.
Molly mentioned running the marathon was a huge personal
goal," said Megan Harding, manager of special events at the shelter. "Adding a charitable element takes it to another level. Helping the greater community through that goal is in line with our mission here at Wavside Waifs."
In exchange for paying the registration fee and sponsoring Moreland's race, she is fundraising for Wayside Waifs. Her goal is to raise $1,000 for the charity.
"it sounds so cliche," Moreland said, "but running is that one thing that makes me feel good about myself. And it's enabling me to spread that through the community. I think everyone needs to find that."
Edited by Julie Etzler