Jules Munshin

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Jules Munshin was an American actor, comedian and singer. He was born in 1915 in New York and began in entertainment right after high school. He performed in the resorts of the Catskills, in vaudeville and as a singer with George Olsen's orchestra. During the Second World War he played in army shows, including a tour in which the boxer Joe Louis also appeared.

Music and breakthrough

His breakthrough came in 1946 on Broadway, in the revue Call Me Mister about soldiers returning to civilian life. The show ran for 734 performances. In 1948 he moved over to film. He appeared in the MGM musicals Easter Parade (1948), Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), On the Town (1949) and Silk Stockings (1957). He is best known for On the Town, in which, together with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, he was one of the three sailors spending a day's shore leave in New York. Later he also appeared on the stage in London, in 1958 in the play Brouhaha with Peter Sellers.

Influence

Munshin belongs to the generation that shaped the classic Hollywood musical. He was not a singer of hits, but a comic talent who drew the laughs to himself within the ensemble. He died in 1970 of a heart attack, three days before his fifty-fifth birthday.

Listening