Durante, Jimmy
(1893–1980)> SINGER · COMEDIAN
Jimmy Durante Singer and comedian James Frances Durante, New York City, February 10, 1893; Santa Monica, California, January 29, 1980. Durante began his career as a pianist at Coney Island in Brooklyn, where he was known as “Ragtime Jimmy.” He also organized a five-piece jazz band there. While he is best known as a comedian, first with the team of Clayton, Jackson, and Durante in the mid-1920s and later as a single in radio , movies, and television, he composed his own specialty numbers (“Inka…