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Bud Abbott
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American comedian Bud Abbott was the tall, bullying member of the popular comedy team Abbott and Costello. The son of circus employees, Abbott entered show business as a burlesque show producer, then took to the stage himself as straight man for a number of comedians, finally teaming with fledgling comic Lou Costello in 1936. After working in burlesque, in radio, and on Broadway, Abbott and Costello made their movie debut in One Night in the Tropics (1940). Their first starring picture was Buck Privates (1941), a box-office bonanza which catapulted the team to "top moneymaker" status for the next 15 years; in all, Abbott and Costello made 36 feature films. In 1951, they made their TV debut on Colgate Comedy Hour, and later that year starred in a widely distributed 52-week, half-hour situation comedy series, The Abbott and Costello Show. After the team broke up in 1957, Abbott retired, but was compelled to revive his career due to income tax problems.
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American comedian Bud Abbott was the tall, bullying member of the popular comedy team Abbott and Costello. The son of circus employees, Abbott entered show business as a burlesque show producer, then took to the stage himself as straight man for a number of comedians, finally teaming with fledgling comic Lou Costello in 1936.
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Over these same years, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello's off-screen relationship had became more and more strained. Their partnership nearly dissolved before in the late 1940's and early 1950's -- a rift that was healed by Bud Abbott's suggestion for a name for the organization that the two had been building for underpriviliged children in Los Angeles - the "Lou Costello, Jr., Youth Foundation, for underprivileged children." Lou was truly touched by Bud's willingness to honor Lou's dead son, but the underlying tensions remained, and led to an eventual dissolving of their partnership in 1957. Their partnership had been strained for many reasons -- Lou's increasing attempts at control, the stress of Bud trying to hide his lifelong epilepsy, and Bud's increasing drinking (partly due to an attempt to control his epilepsy through alcohol) -- but this time the break was permanent. In that same year, both Bud and Lou became officially bankrupt, after tax issues with the IRS.
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Bud Abbott succumbed to cancer on April 24, 1974 at his home in Woodland Hills, California. Although his age was reported to be 78, he was actually 76. In the years before his death, Bud had suffered two strokes, a broken hip, and a broken leg. Then, late in 1973, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He and his wife Betty celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary before he died.
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When cab driver Lou Costello accidentally kills an old man's horse by feeding it candy, he and pal Bud Abbott try to find a replacement steed. The animal they "pick up" at a racetrack... is a champion racer named Tea Biscuit, in this riotous comedy based on a Damon Runyon story. With Cecil Kellaway, Eugene Pallette, Shemp Howard. 79 min.
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In 1959, soon after the death of comedian partner Lou Costello, Bud Abbott was socked by an IRS audit that claimed he owed the government about $750,000. He had to sell his Encino estate, a ranch in Ojai, and the residual rights to most of his films to clear up the debt.
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Bud Abbott