After starting his showbiz life as a singer for bandleader Horace Heidt, Carney moved into acting on 1940s daytime radio serials. His talent for mimicry landed him a job on a serious political program, "Report to the Nation," impersonating prominent politicians of the day.

In 1948, he made his first foray into TV on the shortlived "Morey Amsterdam Show," co-starring alongside the comic and, bizarrely, "Valley of the Dolls" author Jacqueline Susann, whose husband, Irving Mansfield, produced and directed the series. Jackie Gleason brought Carney onto his live CBS comedy variety show "Cavalcade of Stars" in 1951.

Originally, "The Honeymooners" made up the last thirty minutes of "Cavalcade of Stars," but in 1955, it was spun off into its own series. It is the thirty-nine episodes produced for the 1955-56 season that are the classic "Honeymooners" which have never been off TV since their original airings almost fifty years ago.

Working with "the Great One" wasn't for the fainthearted. Gleason believed that rehearsals ruined spontaneity, and co-stars Carney, Audrey Meadows, and Joyce Randolph didn't even see the script until the day before the show. But Carney was a supporting actor in the truest and best sense. Gleason once missed his cue, and Carney, stranded alone on live television, filled two minutes by carefully peeling an orange with great panache until the star made his belated entrance. It was this kind of ingenuity and instinct that spurred Jackie Gleason to give Art Carney 90% of the credit for "The Honeymooners'" success, saying, "He has exquisite timing, and the best body language in the business." Carney won five of his six Emmys for his work with Gleason.

In 1959, Art Carney appeared in "Night of the Meek," one of the most memorable episodes of "The Twilight Zone." Playing a down-and-out alcoholic fired from his job as a department store Santa, he later turns out to be the real Father Christmas. The actor's compassionate portrayal of a man learning about the joy of giving and the real meaning of Christmas helped make the touching fable into one of the series' true classics. Carney also played Santa Claus twenty-five years later in the CBS television movie "The Night They Saved Christmas."

Art Carney continued to win plaudits for his television and film appearances, and in 1965, he originated the stage role of the neurotic Felix Unger in Neil Simon's Broadway hit "The Odd Couple."

Throughout the 1960s, '70s and '80s, Carney worked consistently, occasionally reuniting with Gleason and his fellow "Honeymooners" cast members for TV specials. He was a "Batman" villain, The Archer, and won the 1974 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his touching performance in "Harry and Tonto," a poignant movie about an elderly man traveling cross-country with his cat. Carney was also named Best Actor by the National Society of Film Critics for the 1977 film "The Late Show." He even reteamed with Jackie Gleason for the 1985 TV movie "Izzy and Moe," in which they co-starred as Prohibition-era vaudevillians. Carney finally retired from the big and small screens in 1993.

Reportedly Carney has always been an introverted, intensely private man. He once said, "I'm only funny creating a character." But when you think about his characters, like the eternally optimistic, loosey-goosey goofball Ed Norton, that really is something to be proud of.

-- Jane Garcia