Flip Wilson - Overview

Date of Birth: Dec 08, 1933 Date of Death: Nov 25, 1998

Place of Birth: Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

Nationality: United States

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Full Biography

The hip and irreverent Flip Wilson, who got more mileage out of wearing a dress than any entertainer since Milton Berle, made television history as the first black to headline a hit variety show. At its height, "The Flip Wilson Show" (NBC, 1970-1974) was one of TV's hottest hours, No. 2 in the Nielsen ratings its first two seasons, and enabled its star to walk away a very wealthy man after only four seasons. Debuting not long after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and Robert Kennedy, the show cut across racial lines, clicking with people of all backgrounds. Audiences loved the musical guests--the Jackson Five, James Brown, Louis Armstrong and Lena Horne, for example--but the real draw was Wilson's comedy characters. Vamped out as the outrageous, miniskirted Geraldine, Wilson delivered lines that entered the nation's vocabulary like, "The devil made me do it!" and "What you see is what you get!" The Reverend LeRoy of the Church of What's Happening Now and Herbie, the Good Time ice cream man, were two of his other popular creations.

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Filmography (3)

Skatetown U.S.A. (1979)

The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (1979)

Uptown Saturday Night (1974)

Milestones (19)

1997
Reruns of "The Flip Wilson Show" debuted on Nick at Nite and then moved to sister channel Nick at Nite's TV Land

1996
Made another appearance as himself in ABC's "The Drew Carey Show"

1993
Appeared as himself on Fox's "Living Single"

1990
Portrayed God in "Zora Is My Name!", a PBS "American Playhouse" drama about African-American writer, oral historian and folklorist Zora Neal Hurston

1984
Hosted NBC's short-lived "People Are Funny", an updated version of the 1950s series hosted by Art Linkletter

1981
Dropped as commercial spokesman for 7-Up when he was arrested for possession of a small amount of cocaine

1976
Played The Fox in CBS's musical adaptation of "Pinocchio"

Photos From Last Movie