Bob Hope, comedian, film star, king of the one-liner, entertainer of troops and presidents, and part of the tapestry of American life for nearly three-quarters of a century, has died at the age of 100. The man whose signature tune was Thanks for the Memory died of pneumonia at his North Hollywood home with his wife, Dolores, and his family by his side.
As an indication of the place Hope occupied in American public life, one of the first people to pay tribute was President Bush, with whose grandfather, Prescott, Hope used to play golf. "Today America lost a great citizen," said Mr Bush, pausing on his way to a meeting to pay his respects. "We mourn the passing of Bob Hope. Bob Hope made us laugh and he lifted our spirits. Bob Hope served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations. We extend our prayers to his family and we mourn the loss of a good man. May God bless his soul."
As a mark of respect for Hope's memory, Mr Bush ordered that, on the day of his interment, the US flag will be flown at half-staff at the White House, public buildings, American embassies, military posts, naval stations and US ships.
Less than an hour after the announcement of his death, television camera crews and neighbours had gathered at the gates of the Hope estate at Toluca Lake. Radio and television programmes broke off from their normal coverage to run clips of Hope's many Road films, and recordings of the countless one-liners that hundreds of joke writers had helped to craft for him.
His wife of nearly 70 years, Dolores, 94, issued a statement from the family, in which they asked "friends and fans" to celebrate Bob Hope's life. "It was a life that Bob loved and lived to the full," said the statement. The couple had four adopted children, Linda, Anthony, Nora and Kelly.
There will be private family service and mass at the nearby St Charles parish church on August 27 followed by a celebration of his life at the Television Academy in LA by members of the entertainment community.
His granddaughter, Miranda Hope, said yesterday her grandfather had died peacefully. She recalled he had been in good spirits at his 100th birthday two months earlier and had still enjoyed jokes. He had wanted to carry on performing as long as possible and had been entertaining the troops into his old age. "At 84, he was still dedicated to those troops and to bringing happiness to them," she said.
Frail
The comedian's long-time publicist and friend, Ward Grant, said Hope had been frail for a number of years. He had not been able to appear in public for his centenary. His biographer, Lawrence Quirk, said that Hope told him not long before his death that he knew his time was coming. But when asked shortly before his death where he wanted to be buried, Hope was able to quip: "Surprise me". Golfer Arnold Palmer, an old friend and former golf partner of Hope, said it was hard to think of anyone who equalled him as an entertainer. "He dedicated himself so much to the world of entertainment, it would be difficult to come close to it."
Hope, who was born in London and emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, with his family at the age of three, "as soon as I realised that I couldn't become king", started his career in vaudeville and with a brief stint as a boxer. After breaking into radio, in 1940 he made Road to Singapore, first of the Road films that were to secure his reputation as a comic and took him and co-stars Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour from Morocco to Rio and even Utopia.
His work for the United Service Organisations (USO) as an entertainer to the American troops, a role which continued from the second world war to Desert Storm in 1991, further established him as a part of the American landscape. He had volunteered to fight but was told he would be more useful as a morale booster for the troops, who nicknamed him "GI Bob." A US navy ship and plane have since been named after him.
A sign of the longevity of his career entertaining troops can be gauged from the lyrics of his theme song, which initially contained the lines: "Thanks to our brave allies/You gallant Russian bear/You British everywhere ..."
Another indication of his staying power, recognised yesterday by President Bush, was that he entertained no fewer than 11 US presidents, some of whom provided him with his best one-liners. In honour of Hope's 100th birthday, the famous intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street - Hollywood and Vine - was renamed Bob Hope Square. President Bush then announced the creation of the Bob Hope American Patriot Award.
But despite appearing in 50 films, Hope never won an Oscar, which provided him with a running gag that his family described the academy awards ceremony as "Passover." As a consolation, he was given two honorary Oscars.
His success made him wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of a stonemason's son, not least because of his investments in real estate in the nearby San Fernando Valley and Palm Springs, where his other home was. In 1983, Forbes magazine estimated his wealth at more than $200m, although Hope angrily denied it.
Hope's universal appeal did not survive the more political sixties and seventies and he alienated many with his ill-considered response to the assassination of Martin Luther King: "The Moguls shared something with that man in Atlanta - they had a dream." His association with the prosecution of the war in Vietnam - he made nine trips there and on one occasion his hotel in Saigon was bombed five minutes before he was due to arrive - turned him into a figure of the conser vative establishment. His angry reaction to feminist protesters when he was hosting the Miss World contest in 1970 in London further cast him as a comedian no longer in tune with the times.
In a New Yorker profile, John Lahr portrayed a more driven character than the one presented to the public. But Hope acted as a reminder of simpler times, as evidenced by the outpourings of affection from servicemen past and present throughout the US on the announcement of his death yesterday.