Steve Allen

Acting

Biography

Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen was an American television personality, radio personality, musician, composer, actor, comedian, writer, and advocate of scientific skepticism. In 1954, he achieved national fame as the co-creator and first host of The Tonight Show, which was the first late night television talk show. Though he got his start in radio, Allen is best known for his extensive network television career. He gained national attention as a guest host on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. After he hosted The Tonight Show, he went on to host numerous game and variety shows, including his own The Steve Allen Show, I've Got a Secret, and The New Steve Allen Show. He was a regular panel member on CBS's What's My Line?, and from 1977 until 1981 wrote, produced, and hosted the award-winning public broadcasting show Meeting of Minds, a series of historical dramas presented in a talk format. Allen was a pianist and a prolific composer. By his own estimate, he wrote more than 8,500 songs, some of which were recorded by numerous leading singers. Working as a lyricist, Allen won the 1964 Grammy Award for Best Original Jazz Composition. He also wrote more than 50 books, including novels, children's books, and books of opinions, including his final book, Vulgarians at the Gate: Trash TV and Raunch Radio. In 1996 Allen was presented with the Martin Gardner Lifetime Achievement Award from the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSICOP). He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a Hollywood theater named in his honor.

Filmography Movies

Acting

MOVIE

Mitzi & 100 Guys

Not rated yet

Mitzi Gaynor in a song and dance hour with an all-male, star-studded ensemble featuring her main guests Michael Landon (Little House on the Prairie) and Jack Albertson (Chico and the Man), plus 28 celebrities as her "Million Dollar Chorus." Songs performed include: "I Got the Music in Me," "The Most Beautiful Guy in the World," and "You Are the Sunshine of My Life."

The Movie Orgy

6.6(0.0K)

Clips from assorted television programs, B-movies, commercials, music performances, newsreels, bloopers, satirical short films and promotional and government films of the 1950s and 1960s are intercut together to tell a single story of various creatures and societal ills attacking American cities.

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The Movie Orgy

Self (archive footage)

MOVIE

The Player

7.2(1.0K)

A Hollywood studio executive is being sent death threats by a writer whose script he rejected - but which one?

Allen in Movieland

4.5(0.0K)

TV goes Hollywood when Steve Allen visits Universal-International to prepare for his upcoming title role in "The Benny Goodman Story."

Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

5.3(0.0K)

When the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965 hit, millions of people were left in the dark, including Waldo Zane, a New York executive in the process of stealing a fortune from his company, and two people whose paths he's destined to cross, Broadway actress Margaret Garrison and her husband, Peter.

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Where Were You When the Lights Went Out?

Radio Announcer

MOVIE

The Benny Goodman Story

6.4(0.0K)

Young Benny Goodman is taught clarinet by a music professor. He is advised to play whichever kind of music he likes best, but to make a living, Benny begins by joining the Ben Pollack traveling band.

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The Benny Goodman Story

Benny Goodman

MOVIE

Laurel and Hardy: A Tribute to the Boys

7.0(0.0K)

Modern comedians share their thoughts about Laurel and Hardy. Also includes archival footage of contemporary comedians. Hosted by Dom DeLuise.

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Laurel and Hardy: A Tribute to the Boys

Self

MOVIE

Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title

5.3(0.0K)

A man is mistaken by foreign agents for a defecting cosmonaut and must prove his identity while evading capture.

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Don't Worry, We'll Think of a Title

Bookstore Customer with Little Boy (uncredited)

MOVIE

Rodney Dangerfield's The Really Big Show

8.8(0.0K)

Rodney Dangerfield wants the hottest up-and-coming comedians for his new HBO special, but as always, he gets no respect.

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Rodney Dangerfield's The Really Big Show

Self

MOVIE

Lenny Bruce: Without Tears

5.0(0.0K)

The outrageous, groundbreaking comic Lenny Bruce, whose iconoclastic material in a conservative era got him into tragic trouble, is profiled by a close friend, Fred Baker, who prefers to remember the laughs Lenny Bruce's memory evokes instead of the tears. By presenting Bruce's landmark skits on the Steve Allen Show, his failed TV pilot episode and a candid interview with Nat Hentoff, Bruce's genius and anguish show through the dramatic and tragic trajectory of his career from aspiring artist to hunted "lawbreaker".

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Lenny Bruce: Without Tears

Self / DJ (archive footage)

Production

MOVIE

Down Memory Lane

7.0(0.0K)

This film is a compilation, with narration by Steve Allen, of comedies from the old Mack Sennett silent studio. Sennett, himself, appears in a cameo at the end of the film.

College Confidential

6.5(0.0K)

Sociology professor Steve MacInter is conducting a survey at Collins College about the mores and lifestyles of the young people. Some of the good citizens begin to find exception to his sociological survey when they find out it includes questions about sex. Reporter Betty Ducayne receives an anonymous tip that the good professor is engaging in corruption of youth and when Steve's past comes up to haunt him, all heck breaks loose.

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College Confidential

Songs