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Robert Lewis Bell was born on January 18, 1922, in Flint, Michigan. His father worked as an assembly line worker at General Motors, and his mother was a homemaker. He had two older brothers. After finishing high school, a friend's family invited him to Arizona, where he worked various jobs including ditch digging, carhop, lumberjack, and construction laborer. His entertainment career began as a U.S. Cavalryman extra in the 1940 film Arizona, during which he also helped build the "Old Tucson" village set.
Despite being blind in his right eye, Bell passed the Marine Corps physical in 1941 by memorizing eye charts. However, he was medically discharged less than a year later. Undeterred, he tried again and, with assistance from a sympathetic Navy doctor, was accepted into the Navy. He served in San Francisco and the Philippines until 1946.
After his military service, Bell returned to Flint and joined a community theater production, which led to a job as an announcer and disc jockey at WMRP Radio. A year later, he moved to WHOT Radio in South Bend, Indiana, where he met and married copywriter Carol Atkinson. In 1950, they relocated to Indianapolis, where Bell began working in television at WFBM-TV.
Bell's talent for comedic character acting emerged in 1953 when he paired with variety and talk show host Wally Phillips at WLWT-TV and WLW Radio in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1956, Ward Quaal, the stations' Executive Vice President, left to become General Manager of WGN Continental Broadcasting in Chicago and brought Bell, Phillips, and the show's writer/director/producer Don Sandburg with him. Over the next four years, Phillips and Bell starred in variety shows such as "The Wally Phillips Show" and "Midnight Ticker," with Bell also serving as a staff announcer. From 1959 to 1968, he hosted "The Three Stooges" weekday afternoon showcase as "Andy Starr," the elderly custodian of the Odeon Theater. However, it was in 1960 that WGN-TV cast him as the character that would make him a Chicago television icon: "Bozo the Clown."
Created by Alan Livingston for Capitol Records in 1946, Bozo was originally voiced by Pinto Colvig, a former circus clown, who also portrayed Bozo on the first television series, "Bozo's Circus," on KTTV in Los Angeles in 1949. In the late 1950s, Livingston and Capitol briefly parted ways, selling licensing rights to Larry Harmon, whose partner Jayark Films Corporation distributed limited-animation Bozo cartoons to TV stations, allowing each to hire their own live Bozo host.
Chicago's Bozo debuted on June 20, 1960, starring Bob Bell in a live 30-minute weekday noon show featuring comedy sketches and Bozo cartoons. The program paused in January 1961 for WGN-TV and Radio's relocation from Tribune Tower to the northwest side of Chicago. It returned expanded to an hour as "Bozo's Circus" on September 11, 1961, with added cast members, a 13-piece orchestra, comedy sketches, circus acts, cartoons, games, and prizes before a studio audience of over 200. The show and Bell's portrayal reached unprecedented popularity for a local children's program. His improvisational skills, double entendres, and mannerisms reminiscent of Jackie Gleason also drew a large adult audience. Beginning in 1978, the program aired nationally via cable and satellite, with studio audience reservations exceeding a decade-long wait. In 1980, the series moved to weekday mornings as "The Bozo Show," airing on tape delay.
Bell retired in 1984 while the show remained number one in its timeslot. Following his retirement, the Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences honored him with their Governors' Award. His fellow cast members during his 24-year tenure as Bozo included Ned Locke as Ringmaster Ned, Bob Trendler as Mr. Bob, Don Sandburg as Sandy the Tramp, Ray Rayner as Oliver O. Oliver, Roy Brown as Cooky the Cook, Marshall Brodien as Wizzo the Wizard, and Frazier Thomas. Joey D'Auria succeeded him in the role until 2001.
After raising four children, Bell and his wife Carol moved from Deerfield, Illinois, to Lake San Marcos, California, a place he had visited during his Marine Corps service in World War II. There, he led the Kiwanis Club of Lake San Marcos and served on the board of a community educational association that raised funds for local schools.
In 1986, Bell received a lengthy standing ovation when he made a special guest appearance as himself during a live broadcast of "The Bozo 25th Anniversary Special" at Chicago's Medinah Temple. Ten years later, he became the first actor portraying Bozo to be inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in Wisconsin.
Bob Bell passed away from heart failure on December 8, 1997, at age 75 in San Marcos, California. In honor of his legacy, Illinois Governor Jim Edgar and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley declared April 18, 1998, as "Bob Bell Day" in Illinois and Chicago, respectively, and Addison Street near the WGN-TV studios was renamed "Bob Bell Way." In 1999, Chicago native and actor Dan Castellaneta, known for voicing Homer Simpson and Krusty the Clown on "The Simpsons," revealed in a national interview that his Krusty voice was inspired by Bell's Bozo. Given Bell's clever sense of humor, he undoubtedly would have been proud.
