Joey Faye

Joey Faye, born Joseph Antony Palladino on July 12 in either 1902, 1909, or 1910, in New York City, was an American comedian and actor whose career spanned vaudeville, Broadway, film, and television. He died on April 26, 1997, in Englewood, New Jersey, at the age of 87.

Faye built his early reputation as a comic in vaudeville, where he claimed credit for originating two of the form's celebrated routines: "Floogle Street," also known as "Susquehana Hat Company," and "Slowly I Turned." He was also known for what admirers called the "fastest sneeze in the West." During World War II, he traveled to Africa and Europe to entertain Allied military personnel as part of a troupe led by Marlene Dietrich.

His Broadway career ran from the late 1930s to the early 1990s, encompassing 17 productions in total. He made his New York stage debut at the Republic Theatre at age 21, appearing in Room Service. Subsequent credits included Boy Meets Girl, Strip for Action, The Milky Way, The Tender Trap, the 1965 revival of Guys and Dolls, and Neil Simon's musical Little Me. Faye played second banana to Phil Silvers in both High Button Shoes and Top Banana, and he also starred in the comedy productions Boy Meets Girl and Strip for Action.

His film work included a reprise of his Top Banana role in the 1954 film adaptation, as well as an appearance in the 1955 movie version of The Tender Trap. Among his other screen credits were Close-Up (1948), The Grissom Gang (1971), The Front (1976), and Once Upon a Time in America (1984), which marked his final film role. He also served as a body double for the deceased Bert Lahr in select scenes of The Night They Raided Minsky's (1967).

On television, Faye appeared as a guest in numerous programs between 1949 and 1984, including The Danny Thomas Show and Late Night with David Letterman. He co-starred with fellow burlesque comedian Mickey Deems in Mack & Myer for Hire (1963), a series of 15-minute television comedies in which the two played a pair of bumbling handymen who traveled by motorcycle and sidecar and hired themselves out for jobs including carpentry, plumbing, and bricklaying. In the 1980s, he worked with Benny Hill in a series of sketches produced for home video, and he appeared throughout that same decade in Fruit of the Loom underwear commercials as the green grapes.

Faye was married three times, to Eileen Jenkins, Ginna Carr, and Judy Carlin. He lived at one point in Great Kills, Staten Island.