EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons. The family emigrated to the United States aboard the SS Philadelphia, and passed inspection at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at the age of seventeen.
1903 - 2003
Stats:
Real Name: Leslie Townes Hope
Height: 5' 10"
Hair Color: brown
Eye Color: brown
Quote: "I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful."
Real Name: Leslie Townes Hope
Height: 5' 10"
Hair Color: brown
Eye Color: brown
Quote: "I have seen what a laugh can do. It can transform almost unbearable tears into something bearable, even hopeful."
From the age of 12, he worked at a variety of odd jobs at a local board walk. He would busk, doing dance and comedy patter to make extra money. Silent film comedian Fatty Arbuckle saw one of his performances, and in 1925 got him steady work with Hurley's Jolly Follies. After five years on the vaudeville circuit, by his own account, Hope was surprised and humbled when he and his partner (and future wife) Grace Louise Troxell failed a 1930 screen test for Pathé at Culver City, California.
Hope, like other stage performers, made his first films in New York. Educational Pictures employed him in 1934 for a short-subject comedy, Going Spanish. Unfortunately for Hope, he sealed his fate with Educational when a newspaper columnist asked him about the film. Hope cracked, "When they catch John Dillinger, they're going to make him sit through it twice." Educational fired him, but he was soon before the cameras at New York's Vitaphone studio starring in 20-minute comedies and musicals.
Paramount Pictures signed Hope for the 1938 film The Big Broadcast of 1938. During a duet with Shirley Ross as accompanied by Shep Fields and his orchestra, Hope introduced the song later to become his trademark, "Thanks for the Memory", which became a major hit and was praised by critics. The sentimental, fluid nature of the music allowed Hope's writers (whom he is said to have depended upon heavily throughout his career) to later invent endless variations of the song to fit specific circumstances, such as bidding farewell to troops while on tour..
Hope became one of Paramount's biggest stars, and would remain with the studio through the 1950s. As a movie star, he was best known for My Favorite Brunette and the highly successful "Road" movies in which he starred with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour.
On July 27, 2003, Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake at 9:28 p.m. He was 100 years old. According to one of Hope's daughters, when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, he told his wife, "Surprise me."
For more information about Bob Hope please visit: Wikipedia
Bob Hope's Filmography
Going Spanish (1934)
Paree, Paree (1934)
The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
College Swing (1938)
Give Me a Sailor (1938)
Thanks for the Memory (1938)
Never Say Die (1939)
Some Like It Hot (1939)
The Cat and the Canary (1939)
Road to Singapore (1940)
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Caught in the Draft (1941)
Nothing But the Truth (1941)
Louisiana Purchase (1941)
My Favorite Blonde (1942)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
Combat America (1943)
They Got Me Covered (1943)
Show Business at War (1943)
Let's Face It (1943)
The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)
My Favorite Brunette (1947)
Variety Girl (1947)
Where There's Life (1947)
Road to Rio (1947)
The Paleface (1948)
Sorrowful Jones (1949)
The Great Lover (1949)
Fancy Pants (1950)
My Favorite Spy (1951)
The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Son of Paleface (1952)
Road to Bali (1952)
Off Limits (1953)
Scared Stiff (1953)
Here Come the Girls (1953)
Casanova's Big Night (1954)
The Seven Little Foys (1955)
That Certain Feeling (1956)
The Iron Petticoat (1956)
Beau James (1957)
Paris Holiday (1958)
The Geisha Boy (1958)
Alias Jesse James (1959)
The Five Pennies (1959)
The Facts of Life (1960)
Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
Critic's Choice (1963)
Call Me Bwana (1963)
A Global Affair (1964)
I'll Take Sweden (1965)
The Oscar (1966)
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)
Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
Eight on the Lam (1967)
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
Cancel My Reservation (1972)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Spies Like Us (1985)
A Century of Cinema (1994)
That Little Monster (1994)
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997)
Paree, Paree (1934)
The Big Broadcast of 1938 (1938)
College Swing (1938)
Give Me a Sailor (1938)
Thanks for the Memory (1938)
Never Say Die (1939)
Some Like It Hot (1939)
The Cat and the Canary (1939)
Road to Singapore (1940)
The Ghost Breakers (1940)
Road to Zanzibar (1941)
Caught in the Draft (1941)
Nothing But the Truth (1941)
Louisiana Purchase (1941)
My Favorite Blonde (1942)
Road to Morocco (1942)
Star Spangled Rhythm (1942)
Combat America (1943)
They Got Me Covered (1943)
Show Business at War (1943)
Let's Face It (1943)
The Princess and the Pirate (1944)
The Story of G.I. Joe (1945)
Road to Utopia (1946)
Monsieur Beaucaire (1946)
My Favorite Brunette (1947)
Variety Girl (1947)
Where There's Life (1947)
Road to Rio (1947)
The Paleface (1948)
Sorrowful Jones (1949)
The Great Lover (1949)
Fancy Pants (1950)
My Favorite Spy (1951)
The Lemon Drop Kid (1951)
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Son of Paleface (1952)
Road to Bali (1952)
Off Limits (1953)
Scared Stiff (1953)
Here Come the Girls (1953)
Casanova's Big Night (1954)
The Seven Little Foys (1955)
That Certain Feeling (1956)
The Iron Petticoat (1956)
Beau James (1957)
Paris Holiday (1958)
The Geisha Boy (1958)
Alias Jesse James (1959)
The Five Pennies (1959)
The Facts of Life (1960)
Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
The Road to Hong Kong (1962)
Critic's Choice (1963)
Call Me Bwana (1963)
A Global Affair (1964)
I'll Take Sweden (1965)
The Oscar (1966)
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number! (1966)
Not With My Wife, You Don't! (1966)
Eight on the Lam (1967)
The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell (1968)
How to Commit Marriage (1969)
Cancel My Reservation (1972)
The Muppet Movie (1979)
Spies Like Us (1985)
A Century of Cinema (1994)
That Little Monster (1994)
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997)
Early Days Productions: Bob Hope 01/28/2012
Full Movie: Call Me Bwana (1963)
A returning moon capsule with vital information goes off course and lands in Africa where the little-known Ekele tribesmen find it. Washington orders the great African Authority Matthew Merriwether (Bob Hope), an utter fraud and authority only on feminine pulchritude, to go find it. - from the IMDB
