If you are the kind of person who likes to laugh … I mean, really laugh from deep down in your gut, then you should probably know Tim Conway.
Born and Raised in Ohio
Tim Conway was born on December 15, 1933, in the Cleveland suburb of Chagrin Falls, except his name wasn’t Tim, but Tom. But,we’ll get to that discrepancy later.
His father, Daniel, groomed ponies used in the sport of polo. His mom, Sophia, well, it was the 1930s so of course she was a housewife. The family lived a modestly humble life. When “Tom” was born, he liked to be called “Toma” on account of his mother’s Romanian American ancestry.
As a young man, “Tom” attended Bowling Green State University in whatever town that was in and joined the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. Between high school and college, he also got involved in various school sports, doing very well but never reaching any high status. Little did he know at the time, but this athletic background would come in very handy later down the line.
After he graduated college, he enlisted in the army, serving from 1956-1958.
Starting A Funny Career
After being discharged from the Army, Tom returned to Cleveland and began working at WKYC TV working with a man named Ernie Anderson. Both men proved to be decent enough on their own, but when the two got together, they seemed a bit greater than the sum of their parts.
Part of what the duo did was telvision commercials, many of which became the talk of the town, mostly noted for their unique brand of humor. The two would not stay long at WKYC, however. Anderson left for WJW-TV, and did everything he could to bring “Tom” along with him. Unfortunately, to do that, Anderson claimed that Conway had chops as a director, but it fairly quickly became apparent that he did, in fact, not – so Conway was ultimately let go.
Anderson would go on to do bigger and better things, most notably he became the host of a show called Shock Theater and created an alter-ego named Ghoulardi – quite possibly becoming the inspiration for things like Svenghouli and Cassandra Peterson (or, Elvira, as you might also recognize her.)
Around this time, Tom Conway became Töm Conway, partly to honor his mother’s heritage, but also because there was already a british actor named Tom Conway and he wanted to clear up any confusion. I don’t know how many people confused him for the other Tom Conway, but soon he’d change his name, at least professionally, to Tim Conway and that name stuck
Actor and Funnyman
Tim Conway got his first lucky break after being released from Cleveland television and (to no surprise to anybody) got a job on a television show playing naive Ensign Charles Parker in McHale’s Navy. Because of this show, he finally found a national audience.
After this, Tim Conway’s luck seemed to have run out, appearing on shows that didn’t stick around for very long. Some shows, such as Rango (1967) wasn’t perceived to be all that great, however ABC’s Turn On, a dumpster fire disaster of a show that was set to compete with the likes of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In easily could have killed his career. Thankfully it did not. Seriously, the show was so bad that Conway’s hometown station in Cleveland pulled the show while the first episode was still being aired. Oops.
Conway struggled to find a regular show for a short time, but did manage to make guest appearances on shows, including Laugh-In.
Another show he appeared on as a guest was The Carol Burnett Show, quickly becoming an audience favorite. When Lyle Wagoner left the show (for Lyle Wagoner reasons, I guess) Tim Conway stepped in and became a regular. Through this show, he earned four Primetime Emmy Awards (one for writing, three for performing).
While Conway did appear on the sketch show with a few memorable characters (such as The World’s Oldest Man and businessman Mr. Tudball) Conway had a way of turning any sketch he was involved with into comedic gold.
Some of the funniest moments on the show illustrate this perfectly. For example, during a humorous skit about a dentist, Conway began stabbing himself with Novocain, which he had not done in rehearsals, completely changing the tone and direction of the skit. Another example is the (now infamous) Elephant Story, which broke the entire cast while filming live (and caused veteran funnyman Dick Van Dyke to fall off the couch).
After Carol
Looking back, his appearance on Carol Burnett’s show was the highlight of his career. He did continue working on television and the movies (including some direct to video movies, such as his Dorf series) the world was always happy to see Tim Conway appearing, but he never seemed to gain the same type of following as he did before.
Conway continued to perform on television (both in guest and regular appearances) almost up to the very end. While he was filming his part of The Sponge Bob Movie Spnge Out of Water, he had difficulty working with the director later commenting on his illness.
A few years later, on May 14, 2019, 85 year old Tim Conway passed away after a period marked by health concerns leading up to his diagnosis with dementia caused by excess cerebral fluid.
Tim Conway was laid to rest in Los Angeles’ Westwood Memorial Park in the Sanctuary of Prayer.
