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In 1929 Burns and Allen appeared in their first movie short, and went on to a string of films, among them International House, The Big Broadcast of 1932 and A Damsel in Distress (in which they tap-danced with Fred Astaire). But radio was their real metier: beginning in 1932 their CBS show was among the most popular in the country. Switching to TV in 1950, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show ran for eight years as a quaint mixture of vaudeville and sitcom: Burns would speak directly to the camera, narrating each week's story, which typically involved Gracie, their fictional neighbors the Mortons and the show's announcer, Harry Von Zell. Each program ended with a stand-up routine, brought to a close with Burns' inevitable "Say good night, Gracie." The series ended in 1958 when Allen retired; six years later she died of heart disease.
Forced to reinvent himself as a solo performer, Burns tried a couple of TV sitcoms, which failed to catch on, but soon found new life as a performer in nightclubs and on TV variety shows. Wielding his cigar as a silent straight man--a puff between punch lines--he regaled audiences with show-biz anecdotes and obscure songs, which he frequently left unfinished. He launched an improbable third career in 1975, when he got the role--originally to be played by Jack Benny, who died just before filming--of an aging vaudevillian in Neil Simon's The Sunshine Boys. Burns' droll performance opposite Walter Matthau won him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and led to other roles, most notably the wisecracking, down-to-earth deity in Oh, God! and its two sequels.
As he outlived most of his contemporaries, Burns' age, like Benny's stinginess, became a surefire running gag. "I get a standing ovation just standing," he quipped. Or, about his dating life: "I would go out with women my age. But there are no women my age." Only near the end did a hint of melancholy creep in. In the introduction to his last book, 100 Years, 100 Stories, he noted that "things haven't been the same" since his bathtub accident. "I'm still an optimist," he added. "But I'm not stupid. That nurse isn't watching me all day to see if my toupee is on straight."