Lou Costello life and biography

Louis Francis Costello was an American actor and comedian famous for his bumbling, chubby, clean-cut image that has appealed to many Americans over the decades, and for his shouted line of "HEEEEYYY ABBOTT!!."
Working with Bud Abbott, Lou Costello was part of one of most popular comedy duos of the twentieth century. He had to struggle for a number of years before making it big, however. A mediocre student, Costello dropped out of high school. He worked a series of jobs, including a stint as a boxer, before heading to Hollywood in the late 1920s.

Unfortunately, Costello's dreams of becoming a film star didn't quite pan out. He worked at some of the movie studios as a laborer and later spent some time as a stuntman. Disappointed, Costello turned to comedy and began touring on the vaudeville circuit. He eventually paired up with Bud Abbott.
Tall and lean, Abbott played the straight man in the act. The stout Costello was the less astute clown. Abbott and Costello made one of their first radio appearances on The Kate Smith Show in 1938. Soon they built up a following with their humorous verbal volleys back and forth. One of their most famous skits was the baseball bit known as "Who's on First?"
In 1939, Costello finally had a taste of Hollywood success as he and Abbott signed a contract with Universal Pictures that year. Their first film, One Night in the Tropics (1940), featured several of their famous skits, including "Who's on First?" and "Two Tens for a Five." Starring with the Andrews Sisters, Abbott and Costello played accidental army recruits in Buck Privates (1941). By this time, the comedic duo had become hugely successful with audiences who enjoyed their broad humor and slapstick physicality.
Abbott and Costello remained popular box office stars throughout the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1950s, the pair took their act to the emerging medium of television where such comedians as Phil Silvers, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, and Jack Benny were enjoying some success. They filmed more than 50 episodes of The Abbott and Costello Show, which were shown in syndication for decades.

In 1956, the final Abbott and Costello film, Dance with Me Henry, premiered, and the comedic duo decided to end their partnership the following year. They had made about 36 films together. Over the years, Costello struggled with the limitations of being perceived as the funny fatman in the oversized suits and with the lack of critical recognition for his work. He wanted to take on more dramatic roles and did so in an episode of the western adventure series Wagon Train in 1958.

His final role, however, was the comedic lead in The Thirty-Foot Bride of Candy Rock (1959). He died of a heart attack on March 3, 1959, in Los Angeles, California.
Costello had been married to wife Anne since 1934 and together they had four children. He had been predeceased by his only son, Lou Jr., who had drowned in 1943. In his honor, Costello had established the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Foundation. One of his three daughters, Chris, wrote a biography of her father entitled Lou's on First (1982).

After making one solo film, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Costello died of a heart attack at Doctors' Hospital in Beverly Hills on March 3, 1959, three days before his 53rd birthday. A funeral Mass was said at his parish, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church in Sherman Oaks. He is interred at the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His last words as reported in the March 4, 1959 Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Evening Mirror News were "I think I'll be more comfortable," according to a private nurse who was the only person in the room with him at the time. The widely reported claim that he died in the presence of friends and that his last words were actually "that was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted" appears to have been fabricated some time after the event, possibly as a dig against Costello's weight. Anne, his wife of 25 years, was at his side most of the day, but was sent home by her assuring husband only an hour before his death at 3:55pm.

That same year on December 5, Lou's wife Anne died at age 47.
Costello's sister, Marie Katherine Cristillo (1912-1988) was married to the actor Joe Kirk (Nat Curcuruto) who portrayed the character of Mr. Bacciagalupe on the Abbot and Costello radio and television shows.
Lou and Anne's second daughter, Carole, appeared in uncredited baby roles in several Abbott and Costello films. She went on to become a contestant coordinator for the game show Card Sharks as well as a nightclub singer. She died of a stroke on March 29, 1987 at age 48.
Carole's daughter, Marki Costello, is an actress, director, and producer in film and television.

On June 26, 1992, the city of Paterson, New Jersey in conjunction with the Lou Costello Memorial Association erected a statue of Costello in the newly named Lou Costello Memorial Park in the city's historic downtown section. The statue has had brief appearances in two episodes of The Sopranos: "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Cold Stones".

In 2005, Madison Street, in the Sandy Hill section of Paterson, where Costello was born, was renamed Lou Costello's Place.
The centennial of Costello's birth was celebrated in Paterson on the first weekend in March 2006.

Between June 24, 2006 and June 26, 2006, the Fort Lee Film Commission of Lou Costello's native state of New Jersey held a centennial film retrospective at the Fine Arts Theatre in Hollywood. Films screened included the premiere of a digital film made by the teenagers of the present day Lou Costello Jr. Recreation Center in East Los Angeles. Also premiered was the 35mm restored print of the Lou Costello produced 1948 short film 10,000 Kids and a Cop, which was shot at the Lou Costello Jr. Youth Center in East Los Angeles.

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