Bert Lahr (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967) was a Tony Award-winning American actor and comedian. Lahr is best remembered today for his role as the Cowardly Lion and the farmworker Zeke in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, but was well known during his life for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway.
Born Irving Lahrheim in New York City, Lahr grew up in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. Dropping out of school at the age of 15 to...
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Bert Lahr (August 13, 1895 – December 4, 1967) was a Tony Award-winning American actor and comedian. Lahr is best remembered today for his role as the Cowardly Lion and the farmworker Zeke in the classic 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, but was well known during his life for work in burlesque, vaudeville, and Broadway.
Born Irving Lahrheim in New York City, Lahr grew up in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. Dropping out of school at the age of 15 to join a juvenile vaudeville act, Lahr worked his way up to top billing on the Columbia Burlesque Circuit. In 1927 he debuted on Broadway in Harry Delmar's Revels. Lahr played to packed houses, performing classic routines such as "The Song of the Woodman" (which he later reprised in the film Merry-Go-Round of 1938). Lahr had his first major success in a stage musical playing the prize fighter hero of Hold Everything! (1928-29). Several other musicals followed, notably Flying High (1930), Florenz Ziegfeld's Hot-Cha! (1932) and The Show Is On ...
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