Birdy Birdy in the sky.... Why did you do that in my eye?

I was born September 21, 1935, the 6th of 7 kiddos to Edmund and Dorothy.  They sent me to Saint Joseph's Preparatory School, where I was, surprise surprise, president of the Drama Club.  I am a mixture of English, Irish, German and Dutch.

At the ripe age of 8, I began my acting career, where I worked as a tourning performer for the Mae Desmond Theatre for nine years.  You there, reading this?  You paper boy kinda person. Did your first gig approach anything resembling NINE years?

There was a stint in the Air Force where I was an intelligence officer...  there, I also sharpened my comedy act, as well as poetry

Between 1957 and 1962 I was on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar..WHO? Jack Paar.  If you remember, you're old too.  I did comedy and a lotta poetry, and it was there, The Tonight Show... Jack wasn't feeling up to Paar (haha) and Jerry Lewis was the guest host.  Jerry took a liking to me and gave me my first real gig in the Movie The Nutty Professor.

Rolled on to a role as the poetry reciting cowboy on The Beverly Hillbiillies (Quirt Manly) and, bugged My Favorite Martian's show oncer..  

Then, on to Laugh In.  OOOHHHHH, OOOOHHHHHH, MR COTTIERRREEEE I KNOW I KNOW! Calm down brother, not yet.  

Sometimes plagiarism ain't enough, ya gotta bite the bullet and give in to copy/paste... this, from Wiki :

"He often played "The Poet", reciting poems with "sharp satirical or political themes". ______ would emerge from behind a stage flat, wearing suit and tie and holding an outlandishly large artificial flower. He would bow stiffly from the waist, state "[Title of poem] — by _____ ______" in an ironic Southern U.S. accent, again bow stiffly from the waist, recite his poem and return behind the flat.

I had a fun time.  I think I counted 39 movies... I was in 107 different TV shows... it was always fun doing my taxes...  W-2's all lined up...  Most everything I did surrounded fun. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Nashville, The Blues Brothers, Wedding Crashers.  Not a bad life too eh?

Oh, I worked in animation too.  I was the voice of Wilbur the pig in Charlotte's Web.. My wife Lois and I were fortunate to have three boys who all went on to work in the Entertainment industry.  Jonathan, and Executive with Universal Pictures, Charles, a director and visual arts supervisor , and James, a screenwriter.

I passed in September in 2009.  What I, James Bateman, wouldn't give to write and perform a political satire poem on the state of affairs of today.  I would sign it with......

By Henry Gibson

Love, Victurd