Top Funniest People Of All Time

John Marwood Cleese (/kli?z/ KLEEZ; born 27 October 1939) is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter, and producer. Emerging from the Cambridge Footlights in the 1960s, he first achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report. In the late 1960s, he co-founded Monty Python, the comedy troupe responsible for the sketch show Monty Python's Flying Circus. Along with his Python co-stars Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, Cleese starred in Monty Python films, which include Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983).

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Leslie William Nielsen OC (11 February 1926 – 28 November 2010) was a Canadian-American actor, comedian and producer.[1][2] With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.

Nielsen was born in Regina, Saskatchewan. He enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force and later worked as a disc jockey before receiving a scholarship to study theatre at the Neighborhood Playhouse. He made his acting debut in 1950, appearing in 46 live television programs a year. Nielsen made his film debut in 1956, with supporting roles in several drama, Western, and romance films produced between the 1950s and the 1970s.

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George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, social critic, and author. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comics of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians". He was known for his dark comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and taboo subjects. His "seven dirty words" routine was central to the 1978 United States Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to censor indecent material on the public airwaves.

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Carol Creighton Burnett (born April 26, 1933) is an American actress, comedian, singer, and writer, whose career spans seven decades of television. She is best known for her groundbreaking comedy variety show, The Carol Burnett Show, originally aired on CBS. It was one of the first of its kind to be hosted by a woman. She has achieved success on stage, television and film in varying genres including dramatic and comedic roles. She has also appeared on various talk shows and as a panelist on game shows. She would later have several daughters joining her in a variety of American television series and films. She is the mother of Carrie Hamilton, an actress, Jody Hamilton, a producer and actress, and Erin Hamilton, a singer.

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John William Ferrell (/?f?r?l/; born July 16, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, producer, and writer. He first established himself in the mid-1990s as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, and has subsequently starred in comedy films such as Elf (2003), Kicking & Screaming (2005), Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006), Semi-Pro (2008), and Land of the Lost (2009). He founded the comedy website Funny or Die in 2007 with his writing partner Adam McKay. Other notable film roles include The Other Guys (2010), The Campaign (2012), Get Hard (2015), Holmes & Watson (2018), and the animated films Curious George (2006) and Megamind (2010).

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Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, model, studio executive, and producer. She was the star and producer of sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Here's Lucy, as well as comedy television specials aired under the title The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. She was also the first female head of a major Hollywood studio, Desilu Productions, which she also owned.

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Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, comedian, writer, singer, and dancer, whose award-winning career has spanned seven decades in film, television and the theatre.

Van Dyke began his career as the host of the CBS Morning Show in 1955 for a year. He started his entertaining career on radio and the Broadway stage. In 1961 he starred in the original production of Bye Bye Birdie alongside Chita Rivera. A role which earned him the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Carl Reiner then cast him as Rob Petrie on the CBS television sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-1966), which made him a household name. He went on to star in the musical films Bye Bye Birdie (1963), Mary Poppins (1964), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and the comedy The Comic (1969).

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Jesse Donald Knotts (July 21, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and comedian. He was widely known for his role as Deputy Sheriff Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, a 1960s sitcom for which he earned five Emmy Awards.:18 He also played Ralph Furley on the highly rated sitcom Three's Company from 1979 to 1984. He starred in multiple comedic films, including the leading role in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966) and The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964). In 1979, TV Guide ranked him #27 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list.

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Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian, and director. He is known as a creator of broad film farces and comedic parodies. Brooks began his career as a comic and a writer for Sid Caesar's variety show Your Show of Shows (1950–1954) alongside Woody Allen, Neil Simon, and Larry Gelbart. Together with Carl Reiner, he created the comic character The 2000 Year Old Man. He wrote, with Buck Henry, the hit television comedy series Get Smart, which ran from 1965 to 1970.

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Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks's films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America.

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Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE (16 April 1889 – 25 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, The Tramp, and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of the film industry. His career spanned more than 75 years, from childhood in the Victorian era until a year before his death in 1977, and encompassed both adulation and controversy.

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Stephen Glenn Martin (born August 14, 1945) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. Over his distinguished career he has earned five Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and was awarded an Honorary Academy Award at the Academy's 5th Annual Governors Awards in 2013. Among many honors, he has received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center Honors, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Martin at sixth place in a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comics.

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Robin McLaurin Williams (July 21, 1951 – August 11, 2014) was an American actor and comedian. Known for his improvisational skills and the wide variety of characters he created on the spur of the moment and portrayed on film, in dramas and comedies alike, he is often regarded as one of the best comedians of all time. Williams began performing stand-up comedy in San Francisco and Los Angeles during the mid-1970s, and rose to fame playing the alien Mork in the ABC sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978–1982).

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William James Murray (born September 21, 1950) is an American actor, comedian and writer. Known for his deadpan delivery,[2] he first rose to fame on Saturday Night Live, a series of performances that earned him his first Emmy Award, and later starred in comedy films—including Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980), Stripes (1981), Tootsie (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), What About Bob? (1991), Groundhog Day (1993), and Kingpin (1996). His only directorial credit is Quick Change (1990), which he co-directed with Howard Franklin.

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Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential stand-up comedians of all time.

Pryor's body of work includes the concert movies and recordings: Richard Pryor: Live & Smokin' (1971), That Nigger's Crazy (1974), ...Is It Something I Said? (1975), Bicentennial Nigger (1976), Richard Pryor: Live in Concert (1979), Richard Pryor: Live on the Sunset Strip (1982), and Richard Pryor: Here and Now (1983). As an actor, he starred mainly in comedies such as Silver Streak (1976), but occasionally in dramas, including Paul Schrader's Blue Collar (1978), or action films, like Superman III (1983). He collaborated on many projects with actor Gene Wilder. Another frequent collaborator was actor/comedian/writer Paul Mooney.

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