Joyce Randolph, the last surviving cast member of the sitcom The Honeymooners, has passed away at the age of 99. Randolph played Trixie, the wife of Art Carney’s goofy sewer worker Ed Norton, on the show. The show, which follows the lives of New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden, was based on Jackie Gleason’s childhood and starred Gleason as Ralph Kramden, his wife Alice as his wisecracking wife, and Art Carney as the cheerful sewer worker Ed Norton.
Art Carney, an Academy Award-winning comic actor, gained fame as Ed Norton in the early 1950s television series The Honeymooners. He was known for his comic-timing skills and earned respect and admiration from his contemporaries, including Gleason. The show, which grew in popularity after Gleason switched networks with “The Jackie Gleason Show,” was an affectionate look at Brooklyn tenement life, based in part on Gleason’s childhood.
Randolph’s character, Trixie, was married to Art Carney’s Ed Norton, who was Ralph’s best friend and upstairs neighbor. They were the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden. Randolph’s character was a perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, Ed Norton.
Art Carney passed away in 2003, and her son confirmed her death of natural causes. The show continues to be a favorite of television comedy, with its characters and characters enduring through the years.
📹 How Each Honeymooners Cast Member Died
Do you know how each The Honeymooners Cast Member Died?The Honeymooners was a hilarious sitcom that followed two …
What happened to the original Trixie on The Honeymooners?
Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie, the wife of Art Carneys goofy sewer worker Ed Norton, on the classic sitcom The Honeymooners, has died. She was 99.
Randolph, the last surviving member of the famous foursome that also included the stars Jackie Gleason (as Brooklyn bus driver Ralph Kramden) and Audrey Meadows (as Ralphs level-headed wife, Alice), died Saturday at her home in New York, her son, Randy, told TMZ.
Gleason spotted Randolph doing a commercial for Clorets and hired her to play Trixie on his DuMont network variety show Cavalcade of Stars, which premiered in 1951 and featured the Kramdens and the Nortons — neighbors in a rundown Bensonhurst apartment building — in a recurring skit.
Who was Trixie married to on The Honeymooners?
Randolphs character was married to Art Carneys Ed Norton on “The Honeymooners.” They were the neighbors of Ralph and Alice Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason and Audrey Meadows.
Born Joyce Sirola to a Finnish American family in Detroit, she got her start in show business when she joined a touring production of “Stage Door” while working at a department store, then moved to New York where she acted in theater and on television in shows such as “Buck Rogers.”
Gleason noticed her in a commercial and cast her in “The Honeymooners” in 1951. It first appeared as a sketch on “Cavalcade of Stars” and “The Jackie Gleason Show,” then ran as a standalone sitcom in 1955 and 1956 on CBS. Though the show produced just 39 episodes, its popularity has endured and it influenced generations of sitcoms with its portrayal of squabbling working class families.
Why was The Honeymooners cancelled?
In 1955 the Buick Motor Company offered Gleason six million dollars to produce The Honeymooners as a weekly situation comedy for two years. The corpulent comedian formed his own production company and used a new film technology, the Electronican process, to record the series live on film. The program was shot two times a week before an audience of 1,100 people. During the first season Gleason was disturbed by the amount of rehearsal time and felt that these recorded episodes lacked the spontaneity and originality of the live sketches. He discontinued the series after 39 programs and decided to return to the live, variety format. He sold the films and syndication rights to CBS for a million and half dollars.
The Honeymooners remained a prominent part of Gleasons succeeding variety series with the writers trying to do something unusual with the trusted material. During the 1956-1957 season of The Jackie Gleason Show, the Kramdens and the Nortons took a live musical trip to Europe. At the end of the season, Carney left the series, and Gleason did not revive the sketch until his 1960s extravaganza, The American Scene Magazine. When Carney was available, Gleason revived the sketch on videotape, often with new cast members. Sue Ane Langdon and Sheila MacRae played Alice, while Patricia Wilson and Jean Kean were recruited for Trixie. Despite the changes, the familiar catchphrases remained: One of these days…Pow! Right in the kisser!; and Bang! Zoom, Ralphs stock phrases to Alice as well as Eds greeting to Kramden, Hiya there, Ralphie boy.
After his variety series ended in 1970, Gleason produced four more Honeymooner specials with Carney and the returning Meadows. But Ralph Kramden remained fixed in the popular imagination because the 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were a perennial success in syndication. For over 20 years a local station in Manhattan played them every night. There was great celebration among fans when The Museum of Broadcasting and Jackie Gleason unearthed thelive sketches during the mid-1980s. Those lost episodes found another life on cable television and the home video market.
What happened to Joyce Randolph?
Death. Randolph was the last surviving cast member of The Honeymooners. She died of natural causes at age 99 at home in Manhattans Upper West Side on January 13, 2024.
Joyce Randolph (née Sirola; October 21, 1924 – January 13, 2024) was an American actress of stage and television, best known for playing Trixie Norton on The Jackie Gleason Show and the television sitcom The Honeymooners.
Early life and careeredit. Randolph was born in Detroit on October 21, 1924, and was of Finnish descent.123 As a teenager, she acted with the Wayne University Workshop. After she finished high school, she began working in retail sales for a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Detroit. When a touring company of Stage Door played in Detroit, she auditioned, got a part, and performed for the rest of the tour.4 She moved to New York City in 1943 to pursue an acting career. She took roles on Broadway and landed various television roles.3.
In 1951, she was seen in a Clorets commercial by Jackie Gleason and was asked to appear in a skit on Cavalcade of Stars, Gleasons variety show on the DuMont Television Network. Soon after, she was cast as Trixie in The Honeymooners.3 Several New York columnists referred to her as the Garbo of Detroit. Thats still a mystery… I was a nobody in Detroit. Why Garbo? Well, she was Scandinavian—and so was I, responded Randolph.3.
Why was The Honeymooners canceled?
In 1955 the Buick Motor Company offered Gleason six million dollars to produce The Honeymooners as a weekly situation comedy for two years. The corpulent comedian formed his own production company and used a new film technology, the Electronican process, to record the series live on film. The program was shot two times a week before an audience of 1,100 people. During the first season Gleason was disturbed by the amount of rehearsal time and felt that these recorded episodes lacked the spontaneity and originality of the live sketches. He discontinued the series after 39 programs and decided to return to the live, variety format. He sold the films and syndication rights to CBS for a million and half dollars.
The Honeymooners remained a prominent part of Gleasons succeeding variety series with the writers trying to do something unusual with the trusted material. During the 1956-1957 season of The Jackie Gleason Show, the Kramdens and the Nortons took a live musical trip to Europe. At the end of the season, Carney left the series, and Gleason did not revive the sketch until his 1960s extravaganza, The American Scene Magazine. When Carney was available, Gleason revived the sketch on videotape, often with new cast members. Sue Ane Langdon and Sheila MacRae played Alice, while Patricia Wilson and Jean Kean were recruited for Trixie. Despite the changes, the familiar catchphrases remained: One of these days…Pow! Right in the kisser!; and Bang! Zoom, Ralphs stock phrases to Alice as well as Eds greeting to Kramden, Hiya there, Ralphie boy.
After his variety series ended in 1970, Gleason produced four more Honeymooner specials with Carney and the returning Meadows. But Ralph Kramden remained fixed in the popular imagination because the 39 episodes of The Honeymooners were a perennial success in syndication. For over 20 years a local station in Manhattan played them every night. There was great celebration among fans when The Museum of Broadcasting and Jackie Gleason unearthed thelive sketches during the mid-1980s. Those lost episodes found another life on cable television and the home video market.
How old was Trixie from The Honeymooners when she died?
NEW YORK (AP) — Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actor whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” provided the perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, has died. She was 99.
NEW YORK (AP) — Joyce Randolph, a veteran stage and television actor whose role as the savvy Trixie Norton on “The Honeymooners” provided the perfect foil to her dimwitted TV husband, has died. She was 99.
Randolph died of natural causes Saturday night at her home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, her son Randolph Charles told The Associated Press Sunday.
She was the last surviving main character of the beloved comedy from television’s golden age of the 1950s.
Who gets royalties from The Honeymooners?
Meadows was the only member of the Honeymooners cast to earn residuals after the Classic 39 episodes of the show from 1955 to 1956 started airing in reruns. Her brother Edward, a lawyer, had inserted a clause into her original contract whereby she would be paid if the shows were re-broadcast, thus earning her millions of dollars.8 When the lost Honeymooners episodes from the variety shows were later released, Joyce Randolph, who played Trixie Norton, received royalty payments.9.
For her work on the show, Meadows was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series (then for In a Regular Series) at the 8th Primetime Emmy Awards. She lost to Nanette Fabray in Caesars Hour.
Career outside The Honeymoonersedit. Meadows appeared in a 1960 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents titled Mrs. Bixby and the Colonels Coat, one of the 17 episodes in the 10-year series directed by Hitchcock himself, and a rare light-hearted one.
How old was Trixie when she died?
Joyce Randolph, best known for her role as Trixie Norton in the hit classic sitcom The Honeymooners, has died at age 99, her son confirmed Sunday to CBS News.
Randolph died on Saturday evening, her son Randolph Charles said in a statement to CBS News.
The Broadway and TV actress starred in the 1950s sitcom which chronicled the comedic misadventures of New York City bus driver Ralph Kramden, played by Jackie Gleason, and his wife Alice, played by Audrey Meadows.
Why do Trixie and Matthew break up?
Last Sunday (25th February)s penultimate episode of the shows 13th series showed the couple – still reeling from the moment Matthew (Olly Rix) admitted his bankruptcy – split further apart, as Matthew suggested they leave the UK and move to New York in order to try and solve his financial problems.
Call the Midwife fans have been left distraught and in some cases disappointed with the latest twist in Trixie and Matthew’s relationship story.
Last Sunday (25th February)’s penultimate episode of the show’s 13th series showed the couple – still reeling from the moment Matthew (Olly Rix) admitted his bankruptcy – split further apart, as Matthew suggested they leave the UK and move to New York in order to try and solve his financial problems.
Trixie (Helen George) wasn’t sold on the idea, especially as it would mean having to leave her career as a midwife at Nonnatus House – a livelihood which she loves. Fans were also upset about the concept of Trixie departing Poplar, as the much-loved character has been in her role at Nonnatus since the show’s very first episode in 2012.
What happened to Trixie’s husband?
Matthew heads to New York to fix his financial troubles, leaving his wife Trixie in London to figure out if she wants to join him or not. Whether Matthew returns to the series as a regular or guest star remains unclear.
Add comment