Jim Backus height - How tall is Jim Backus?

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 34-35. New York: Facts on File (1992). ISBN 0816023387.

Jim Backus passed away on July 3, 1989, six months before his Gilligan's Island (1964) co-star Alan Hale Jr.'s death.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume Two, 1986-1990, pages 43-45. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1999).

Magoo in cartoons and Thurston Howell III in Gilligan's Island (1964).

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1735 Vine Street in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Had appeared with Mickey Rooney in four films: The Big Operator (1959), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), The Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County (1970) and Pete's Dragon (1977).

He reached the United States Top 40 Pop charts for a couple of weeks in 1958 with his novelty recording, "Delicious!" on Jubilee Records featuring instrumental backing from Appleknocker and His Group. The female voice was actress Lenore Kingston. It was basically the two of them taking a drink of champagne and exclaiming "Delicious!". As the record progresses, they get drunker and giddier, slurring the word and laughing hysterically.

In November 1957, Eva Gabor was his landlady - he sublet her New York City apartment.

He was typecast in roles as "rich types" but broke the mold when he portrayed James Dean's father in the classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955). With his career in full swing, Backus also tackled two roles that he would be best known for, Mr.

He provided the voice of Wally the Bird on the Western Airlines commercials of the 1950s. His one-liner was simply "Western Airlines, the O-O-ONLY way to fly." He repeated this line in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).

Had appeared with Natalie Wood in four films: Father Was a Fullback (1949), The Rose Bowl Story (1952), Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Girl He Left Behind (1956).

One of his teachers in grade school was Margaret Hamilton, who would later play the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Alumnus of the AADA (American Academy of Dramatic Arts), Class of 1933.

Jim Backus was born James Gilmore Backus on February 25, 1913 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was one of the few actors to do it all: radio, Broadway, movies, television and cartoons. After attending preparatory school in his hometown Cleveland, Backus enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Art, to ply his trade. While waiting for parts, he did radio and became friends with such future notables as Garson Kanin and Keenan Wynn. Backus stuck it out and soon was doing motion pictures in addition to radio.