JOE E. ROSS BIOGRAPHY
3/15/14    8/13/82
68 years old.

Joe E. Ross was born in Manhattan. He attended Seward Park High School. He left school at age 16 to become a singing waiter at the Van Cortlandt Inn, in the Bronx. When the cafe' added a girl dancer and singer Joe was promoted to announcer to which he added some jokes and became a comedian.

He worked as announcer-comic in other small clubs and then appeared at the Queens Terrace, near Jackson Heights, NY. This was in 1938 and Jackie Gleason had been playing there for 16 weeks. The manager was about to ask
Jackie to stay a while longer. Joe heard of the opening, auditioned for it, got  the contract and also stayed 16 weeks.

Joe then turned  burlesque comic on the Schuster circuit out of Chicago. His career was interrupted by the war, and he served in the Army Air Corps at Camp Blanding, Florida, and later was sent to England.

After the war, Ross took up his stand as announcer-comic at Billy Gray's Bandbox in Hollywood. In 1956, Joe worked at a night club in Miami Beach called Club Ciro. It was there that he was spotted by Nat Hiken and Phil Silvers. They were planning a show called "You'll Never Get Rich" and immediately loved Joe's comedic talent. He was hired on the spot and cast as Mess Sgt. Rupert Ritzik. After the "Phil Silvers Show" ended, Nat Hiken went on to produce "Car 54" and cast Joe in his most famous role as Patrolman Gunther Toody of New York's 53rd Precinct.

Click Here for a list of Joe's other acting Credits!

photo courtesy of www.findagrave.com

This plot is located at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Hollywood Hills),
Los Angeles, CA