Bob Hope Biography

Name at birth: Leslie Townes Hope

Bob Hope was a triple-threat superstar of radio, film and television during the 1940s and 1950s. Primarily a comedian, Hope also acted, sang and danced a little, hosted his own radio and television shows, and carried on a famous comic feud with his friend and fellow star, crooner Bing Crosby. Hope spent much of World War II travelling the world to entertain Allied troops, a service he also performed with gusto during later wars in Korea, Vietnam, and the Middle East; his entertain-the-troops tours became one of his enduring signatures. Though his superstar years ended in the 1960s, Hope continued to make appearances well into the 1990s. In May of 2003 he celebrated his 100th birthday with a typical wisecrack: "I'm so old they've cancelled my blood type." He died a few months later, in July 2003.