Jesse was born on a farm in Morgantown, West Virginia in 1924.
His father was a schizophrenic alcoholic who threatened young Jesse with a knife.
When the father contracted pneumonia and died in the midst of the Great Depression, Jesse’s middle-aged mother had to raise four sons on her own.
Jesse taught himself ventriloquism and entertained as a teenager.
He entered the US Army during World War II and spent most of his military service entertaining troops with his ventriloquist dummy named Danny.
He earned multiple medals for his service including a badge for marksmanship.
After the war, he married for the first time, moved to New York City, and did stand up comedy.
His first TV appearances were on a soap opera called Search for Tomorrow.
His fame grew, though, when he appeared as a recurring character actor on the Tonight Show with Steve Allen.
By the late 1950s, he was on Broadway appearing in a play called No Time for Sergeants. He was featured in the film version, too.
Starting in 1960, he became a television legend and received his first Emmy Award a year later.
At age 40, he was the lead actor in a film for the first of several times.
In old age, he became a hypochondriac and eventually lost his eyesight due to macular degeneration.
Jesse was his true first name, but most people remember him as...
Have you guessed yet?
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Don Knotts (Jesse Donald Knotts, 1924 – 2006)
MORE PECULIAR TRUTHS:
Don Knotts went to high school with another person also named Don Knotts (no relation).
I went to high school with another person named Dan Spencer (also no relation), and both of our mothers were named Anne.
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