John Conte (actor)
| John Conte | |
|---|---|
Conte in 1955 as the host of Matinee Theater
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| Born |
September 15, 1915 Palmer, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | September 4, 2006 (aged 90) Rancho Mirage, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1932–1972 |
| Spouse(s) |
Marilyn Maxwell (m. 1944; div. 1946) Ruth Harris Conte (m. 1954; div. 1964) (1 child) Sirpuhe Philibosian (m. 1965) |
| Children | 1 (2 stepdaughters) |
John Conte (September 15, 1915 – September 4, 2006) was a stage, film and TV actor, and television station owner.
Conte was born in Palmer, Massachusetts. His mother was Italian and his father was French-Italian. The family moved to Los Angeles, California when John was 5. While a student at Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, Conte focused on classes in drama and, for three years, was the school's top entrant in Shakespearian competition. After graduating, he joined the Pasadena Playhouse and "took every role offered to him – juvenile, leading man, character." He later got jobs as a radio actor and singer.
Conte entered broadcasting with a job at KFAC in Los Angeles. Two years later, he had become a network announcer. He was MC for the Maxwell House program that featured Fanny Brice and Frank Morgan, and he was announcer for Silver Theater on CBS radio. One of his first regular roles was on the Burns and Allen radio show in the 1940s.
In 1947, he appeared in Rodgers and Hammerstein's short-lived Broadway musical Allegro. He returned to Broadway in 1950 to appear in the musical Arms and the Girl.
His television career began as Master of Ceremonies on the 1951 late Sunday afternoon comedy hour, Star Time, co-starring Frances Langford and Lew Parker as John and Blanche Bickerson ("The Bickersons"), as well as sound-effects master stand-up comedian Reginald Gardner. His own weekly solo skit on Star Time was as an hilarious, heavily accented Italian-American chef ( in an all-white uniform, complete with huge muffin-shaped chef's hat) preparing bumbled recipes as he recited them along with frequent tangential references to "the homemade-a wine" fermenting in his bathtub visible from the kitchen. This led to a featured guest appearance with Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows about a year later. He then hosted Matinee Theater, a live-drama series on NBC (one of the first daytime shows on network television).
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