Milton Berle

 Milton Berle (July 12, 1908 – March 27, 2002)

As the host of NBC's Texaco Star Theater (1948–55), he was the first major American television star and known to millions of viewers as "Uncle Miltie" and "Mr. Television". He started in Broadway in 1920 on a musical called "Floradora," then worked vaudeville for awhile. His mother, Sandra, was a great influence on him, and guided him in his early days of show business. His first credited film was "The Perils of Pauline" (1914), but he was in over 70 films over the course of his lifetime. He successfully made the transition to television in 1948, with The Milton Berle Show, which ran for nearly ten years. He last acted in 1994, but still made cameo appearances for the last several years. In April 2001 Berle announced that a malignant tumor had been found in his colon, but he had declined surgery. Berle's wife said the tumor was growing so slowly that it would take 10 to 12 years to affect him in any significant or life-threatening way. Less than one year after the announcement, Berle died at age 93. He is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, CA.