John Byner

Short-statured, pokerfaced nightclub comic John Byner rose to fame during the 1966 edition of TV's The Garry Moore Show. Byner went on to join the supporting ensemble on the 1967 summer-replacement weekly The Steve Allen Comedy Hour, and five years later headlined his own five-week summer series. He has appeared as a regular on the TV sitcoms The Practice (1976) and Soap (1977), and can be spotted in such lampoonish theatrical films as Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). An accomplished impressionist -- he provided the voice for the Jackie Mason-ish aardvark in DePatie-Freleng's Ant and the Aardvark cartoon shorts -- one of Byner's most enduring routines concerns a bad impressionist, whose concept of Walter Brennan consists of kicking the left leg in the air and screeching "Luke, the barn! Luke, the barn!" A Las Vegas headliner into the 1990s, John Byner's TV contributions have included a stint as host of a series of Bowery Boys films on the A&E cable network. ~ Hal Erickson Full Biography »