Word: straightman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Born. To Dean Martin, 39 (born Dino Crosetti), limp-tonsilled songbird and ex-straightman for Cinemoron Jerry Lewis, and Jeanne Biegger Martin, 30, onetime Miami model, his second wife: a daughter, their third child (his seventh). Name: Gina. Weight...
...becomes an apopleptic ship-captain, and loses some of his charm. Similarly, devil-may-care medical school comrades are supplanted by an equally devil-may-care but less interesting ship's crew. They provide a slightly flimsy background for the doctor, Dirk Bogarde, who is essentially an innocuous straightman, requiring the accompaniment of characters more fully developed in their wiliness...
Niven, the suave, debonair Lover, is suave and debonair, but it is largely as a foil for Miss Swanson and Alan Webb that his role has signicance. He is the befuddled straightman and, as such, he hands the show to Webb on a silver platter...
...Vaudevillians Burns & Allen are not likely to disappoint their fans. Pointing up Gracie's gags, Straightman George uses a slow-burn delivery and purse-mouthed pauses ("A man drowned once while I was pausing"). Compared to the machine-gun patter of most TV comics, his style gives the show a relaxed, almost leisurely pace. A high point of the program: Gracie's dubious plugs for Carnation Milk ("I don't see how they get milk from carnations...