Jack E. Leonard

Paul M. Bruun

Jack E. Leonard died Friday morning. I knew he was in a N.Y. hospital. It is difficult to express the void his passing has caused, but when I learned of it I said, "Oh my God." I said "Oh my God" because I felt not only great personal loss and grief, but because I was angered — yes, that's the word — angered, by his too-soon death at age 62. Which says, I think, a great deal, but not enough. Indeed his demise is a tragedy not only for his family but for all the people who ever knew him.

I was among those privileged to know Jack E. Leonard, and I say privileged because those who knew this sincere, free-spirited, fantastic man were indeed privileged.

I knew him over a long period of rich and active years when he first found fame in movies, on Broadway and on television. His nonconformist, outrageous wit brightened the lives of people all over the world wherever he performed. Indeed, many (I for one) could not get enough of his incomparable brand of humor.

Born Jack Lebitsky in New York City, Jack spent his childhood in Chicago. One of five children, he became an expert swimmer during high school years, working summers on Michigan beaches as a lifeguard. Initially considering a career as a physical education instructor, he became attracted to vaudeville.

Discovering his ability to overwhelm audiences with the Jack E. Leonard style of humor, he soon branched out on his own, became one of the all-time comic "greats" and made television history by starring on hundreds of shows.

Leonard relished the challenge of life, and yet he was uncommonly gentle, decent and considerate. One of the more recent examples of his compassion for others is the fact that his wife, Gladys, gave permission for Jack's eyes to be donated to a patient in Mt. Sinai Hospital awaiting a cornea transplant, and has requested that expressions of condolence be in the form of blood donations — because Jack wanted it that way.

An aside to that which typifies the great Jack E. Leonard is told by longtime friend Jerry Lester, who, as well as anyone, knew that the whole "insult" thing was a mere facade and that Jack was a warm, wonderful, helpful human being. Jack and Jerry once both donated blood to Jerry's hospitalized father, and for years afterwards Jerry remembers Jack telling him: "If your father ever says anything funny, it's from my blood, not yours."

Jack probably lost a ton of weight during his many personal campaigns of dieting. Whenever he saw me in his audience, in addition to making me the target of his many barbs,' he would state, "I give my old clothes to Paul M. Bruun." Everybody who knows me knows that I too have lost considerable weight over the years, so we had much in common. I once spent a week in Las Vegas where Jack was working at the Flamingo Hotel. We never met the first time in the morning if it wasn't in the coffee shop. We often shared the same coffee shop table several times during the day. Jack liked the first table nearest the door so he could "insult" all his friends as they entered and departed.

Yes, Jack E. Leonard had a wit that conquered millions. Moreover, he had the wings of an eagle, the heart of a lion, and the compassion of a shepherd. He soared like an eagle, and now he has fallen. His life was all too short for those millions of us who knew and loved him, and his presence will be missed sorely. Somehow, we must accept it, consoling ourselves that his life was long and full in terms of living, and a man's life, after all, is measured in real terms of how he lived, what he gave, and the legacy that he left his fellow man.

At funeral services today they'll play "Bye Bye Birdie" and "I'll See You In My Dreams" (two songs long associated with Jack), and his ever-present hat will lie on his plain, unadorned casket.

"Live your life, do your work, and take your hat." (Henry David Thoreau).

In addition to his second wife Gladys (Olmstead), whom he married five years following the death of his first wife Kathleen, Leonard leaves three adopted daughters (from his first wife's previous marriage) — Wanda 11; Brenda 10; and Linda, 8 — an older brother, Joseph Lebit of Cleveland, and two widowed sisters in Chicago, Etta Savit and Ester Jackson.

Burial will be by cremation, which was Leonard's wish, and services will be held at Campbell's Funeral home in New York. In lieu of flowers, the family requests expressions of condolences be in the form of blood donations.

As all my Jewish friends say, "God rest Jack Leonard's soul."

BACK TO TOP