Allen, Gracie (1895-1964), was a popular American comedian on radio and television and in motion pictures. She formed a famous comedy team with her husband, George Burns. Allen played a scatterbrained character, and Burns served as the straight man.
Grace Ethel Cecile Rosalie Allen was born on July 26, 1895, in San Francisco. Her parents were vaudeville entertainers, and she entered show business as a child. She met George Burns in 1923, and they teamed up as a vaudeville comedy act. They married in 1926.
Burns and Allen appeared in the first of many short film comedies in 1929. They were all based on Allen as a zany character and Burns as her long-suffering partner trying to understand her. Burns and Allen appeared in their first feature-length movie, The Big Broadcast, in 1932. Allen appeared in 16 motion-picture features, all but three with her husband. Those were The Gracie Allen Murder Case (1939), Mr. and Mrs. North (1942), and Two Girls and a Sailor (1944). Burns and Allen also starred in a popular weekly radio series from 1932 to 1950 and continued their characters on television from 1950 to 1958, when Allen retired. Allen died on Aug. 27, 1964.
