The real Jonathan Winters was born in Dayton, Ohio on November 11, 1925. After attending public school in Springfield, he joined the Marine Corps at the age of seventeen. After serving two-and-a-half years in the South Pacific, he returned to Ohio and attended Kenyon College.
His interest in art led him to Dayton Art Institute where he studied for over two years and met the girl who would become his wife, Eileen.
Eileen encouraged Jonathan to enter a local talent contest in Dayton, which he did, and he won a wrist watch, but the performance led him to a job as an early morning disc-jockey on radio station WING in Dayton (1946).
This job led him to WBNS-TV in Columbus where he worked for three years. In 1953, Jonathan headed for New York for the "big time" with $56.46 in his pocket. As a performer at Manhattan\'s Blue Angel nightclub, his reputation as a comic began to grow. Gary Moore, who was substituting for Arthur Godfrey on the TV Show "Talent Scouts", presented Jonathan on the show. Then came the Jack Paar Show, The Steve Allen Show, and The Tonight Show, where Jonathan was able to demonstrate his comic genius and he became a top name in American Comedy.
TV provided Winters with his greatest exposure and opportunities. Younger audiences may remember him as the son of Mork (Robin Williams) on "Mork and Mindy" during the final season (1981-82) of that popular sitcom. This was an apt (if perversely role reversed) casting choice for a father and son team in light of Williams\' status as the heir apparent to Winters\' free associative, agile-brained humor.
He finally received long overdue formal recognition from his peers with an Emmy award for his role as Randy Quaid\'s gruff father on the short-lived sitcom "Davis Rules" (ABC, 1991; CBS 1991-92), induction into the Comedy Hall of Fame alongside such other luminaries as Milton Berle, George Burns and Walter Matthau and the receipt of the second annual Mark Twain Prize in Humor.
Winters appeared in several memorable 60s films including Stanley Kramer\'s star-studded mess "It\'s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963), Tony Richardson\'s black comedy "The Loved One" (1965, as twins) and Norman Jewison\'s "The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming" (1966, as a deputy). He also appeared in "Moon Over Parador" (1988), "The Shadow" (1994) and "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" (2000).
A versatile vocal performer, Winters has also provided voices for many children\'s cartoons including "The Smurfs" (as Papa Smurf), "Yogi\'s Treasure Hunt," "The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley,".
