http://s11.lucyphotos.com/images/orig/n/r/nrpa41plwfawap1w.jpg
- These photos don't do him justice, especially in a tuxedo.
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2007/319/22928877_119523328933.jpg
- I can think of a few reasons why lusting after dead guys is creepy, OP, can you?
- No different than enjoyng James Dean or Elvis Presley or Montgomery Clift. Just appreciating an image or personality from a bygone day.
- Completely on board with you, OP. Ronnie is very cute, and looks better on screen than in his pictures.
I was sad to see Ronnie passed away in 2007. I think his sister Sandra passed away last year.
Mr.%20Vanderlip
- Ronnie Burns had the exact shaped head that George Burns had. I think he was George Burns' real son from an extra-marital affair.
- He did not emerge from Gracie Allen's loins.
Bea Benadaret
- Here's a pic showing Ronnie and George sporting the same head shape.
http://waiteswebworld.com/oldsite/burns2a.jpg
- Another photo showing head shape resemblance.
Ronnie was George's son, probably by a beautiful showgirl.
- Forgot the link
http://georgegracie.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/c10.jpg%3Fw%3D450%26h%3D338
- Was this gossip at the time or is it a new theory?
- Discussing all things Burns and Allen, was what we always heard Gracie's natural speaking voice or was it a put-on?
- I think it's her natural voice, although she had a brogue until she started her act with George Burns in about 1925.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZoNJrP0FQk
- Please. Ronnie was not George's son. They picked him up at the orphanage, and chose him because he was the most sickly of the kids there and Gracie said he needed them the most.
The adopted daughter, Sandy, is still alive.
- I recall Ronnie on the B&A Show stopping by with his good friend Dick Chamberlain (before anyone knew who he was) and my TV nearly burst into flames with those two. Ronnie was the gay, no?
- Gracie was just adorable, such a national treasure. How sad that she died so young and is totally forgotten today.
The Burns and Allen Show was really cleverly written, dare I say far better written than I Love Lucy. Glad to hear it's getting a little revival on Antenna....whatever that is.
- [quote]Gracie was just adorable, such a national treasure. How sad that she died so young and is totally forgotten today.
Well not so forgotten as Burns & Allen is shown multiple times a week on Antenna TV (a channel that TV Land and Nick @ Nite used to be)and broadcast all over the country.
- AntennaTV is a goldmine for discovering long lost B list actors. Just like MeTV!
- I remember watching that show as a teenage girl back in the 70s (it used to run late at night on PBS, I believe) and just being smitten with Ronnie Burns.
If it's true that he was gay, then I was batting 1.00 since I always fell for the gays back in my teens and early 20s.
- Ronnie was gay?! I watched the reruns when I was a kid as well back in the 80's. I thought he was so handsome! You know? even though George and Gracie went to the orphanage to adopt Ronnie,it could have been made up to halt a child out of wedlock scandal. Look at Loretta Young claiming her daughter was adopted when in reality she was the illegitimate child she had with Clark Gable. I think anything is possible.
- Sandra (Burns) Luckman passed away in December 2010.
I've never heard of any gay rumors about Ronnie until this thread. He was married twice, both were long marriages; the second ended upon his death. He had six children. Yes, I realize that doesn't mean he *wasn't* gay.
As for whether Ronnie was George's real son, I would vote no. Burns admitted to one brief affair during his marriage (see below), but he was never really a womanizer.
[quote]In later years Burns admitted that, following an argument over a pricey silver table centerpiece Allen wanted, he had a very brief affair with a Las Vegas showgirl. Stricken by guilt, he phoned one of his best friends, Jack Benny, and told him about the indiscretion. However, Allen overheard the conversation and Burns quietly bought the expensive centerpiece and nothing more was said. Years later, he discovered that Allen had told one of her friends about the episode finishing with "You know, I really wish George would cheat on me again. I could use a new centerpiece."
- I can see, & hear, Gracie Allen saying that to a friend. Smart girl, & funny.
- I always figured the Burns' marriage was loving but sexless, much like their BFFs the Bennys, who also adopted, I think.
Harry Von Zell
- I'm so sorry that Sandra is gone, now, too. I wanted to write and tell her howmuch I enjoyed her parents work, and that I've read most of her father's books.
- R20 could have cited Wikipedia like a good "researcher."
- R20, I found that out right after posting about her still being alive. They sure didn't publicize it much, and I couldn't find out anything about dates or circumstances - only that she had lived in San Diego. Both of the Burns kids dies pretty young, really.
Thanks for the correction and update.
R13
- Ronnie actually had just three children, all sons, all by his first marriage. He has six grandchildren. S
Sounds like he really led a charmed life, got out of show business pretty quickly and happily and just invested the family money in real estate and raised and raced a fleet of Arabian horses.
- Sandra Burns-Day died on August 12, 2010 in Newton Massachusetts
http://georgegracie.wordpress.com/2009/05/25/a-full-family-life-for-mrs-burns/#comments
- Another vote for the hotness that is Ronnie.
And after seeing their similiar jawlines, I do wonder if he is George's natural son. There is an awful lot of obvious love between the two on ther TV show.
- I think it's funny how so many of those sit- coms that had been around for years, realized by the late 50s that they could bring in a whole new teen audience by exploiting the charms of the young male actors who'd been hired originally as young kids.
Ozzie and Harriet was the ultimate in this case, of course with son Ricky.
Ronnie was also constantly parading a slew of gorgeous and curvy young starlets as his prospective girlfriends on Burns and Allen, as well.
Va va va voom!
- George Burns appearantly was indeed, "a womanizer".
Burns' love for and loyalty to Gracie has never been questioned. Rather, he appeared to have been swept up in a culture of Hollywood-style entitlement in which spouses, wives in particular, 'knew', but looked the other way. They may have considered such dalliances a small price to pay for living the privileged lifestyle offered by their husband's celebrity. Some speculate that Hollywood wives might have welcomed such outsourcing, as if sparing them of submission to the demands of husbandly perogatives.
The most compreshensive expose available on Burns is "George Burns and The Hundred-Year Dash", by Martin Gottfried. Published shortly before Burns' death, the book cites son Ronnie's memories of the infamous condom incident. A housekeeper had emptied the pockets of Burn's clothing, preparing them for dry cleaning. Finding the condoms, and naively assuming they were intended for use with Gracie, she removed the rubbery accessories, discreetly placing them on a bedroom night stand. Imagine Gracie's shock upon discovering them, since she and George were by then believed to be living a celibate lifestyle.
Still, Gottfried's book offers testimony from friends and associates that Burns' appetite for the company of other women had been on-going, and often in cohoots with pal Jack Benny, whose own suspected affair with actress Ann Sheridan was one of Hollywood's worst kept secrets.
Whether Gracie ever knew the depth of George's alleged philandering is anyone's guess. But the condom fiasco must have tipped her off to at least one of his indiscretions.
John Pastirchak
- On Antenna, there was recently an episode with Ronnie in a bathing suit and he looked fine. Later in the episode, George Burns was shown in the pool and I was surprised how hairy he was (I know, most people have never thought about what Burns looked like shirtless).
- Was Ronnie really the son of George from an affair and or was Ronnie gay? Did it bother Ronnie to be known as the adopted son of so in so?
As for him being biological son of George no. There is proof he was adopted by both. Was he gay? It seems very likely to me that he was in fact gay and as the normal thing back then to get married to a female for public reasons but many gay men today are married and in the closet for other reasons; mostly men in the States over age 40 since science proves homosexuality is natural and done deal before birth but it was not always that way in science. I'm sure he had a good life and many lovers if not just one guy he spent most of his time with. To say he was not gay would go against my gaydar and my gaydar has never failed.
I think it logical that he felt bad being known as the adopted son of so and so. That should have been a private matter but not in Hollywood those days. Being gay; everything that could be done to cover it up was done but being adopted, was front page news as if the Stars had done the most wonderful of all things.
- Jack Benny was a 'mo.
George Burns was straight and couldn't have kids as he suffered from mercury abuse. This is what they treated syphilis and gonorrhea with before antibiotics.
Gracie always had a bad heart and didn't want to risk child birth.
Jack Benny was a big ol' 'mo
- [quote]To say he was not gay would go against my gaydar and my gaydar has never failed
Honestly, I can never tell whether some of you are joking or not.
- [31]: what episode was that with George in the pool? I remember as a kid being turned on to how hairy he was.
Anonymous
- Was Ronnie very hairy, too? That might just prove something.
- I saw the pool episode. I don't know what the title was but the plot was Ronnie and his friend arrange to get lifeguard jobs at a Mexican resort and they have to brush up on their swimming and lifeguard duties before the resort owner shows up. For some reason, George and Harry pretend to be the boys when the owner arrive.
- Because of this thread, I went over to Amazon to order a dvd of the Burns and Alen shows.
Well, much to my dismay, it sounds from the reviews like all the various dvd collections are poorly made junk! What a disappointment.
Is there a good collection? Any advice?
- Massive pussyhound.
Big Dewey supporter.
- Bangged Lucy.
- Ronnie Burns then, in the 50s and early 60s was VERY fuckable and spankable with that nice ass of his. It could have been that it was set up so that Ronnie, as an "orphan", was conceived by George with Gracie's consent involving a woman who was paid to have George's child, but who was this woman and how much did they have to pay her to have the pregnancy and to keep her mouth shut? The orphanage from which he was adopted is called "The Cradle" and is a Catholic institution (he was raised as a Catholic, his adopted mother's religion; George was a lukewarm Jew) in Illinois. I'm wondering if The Cradle would have the record of Ronnie Burns' biological parents and if his offspring have the right to find out.
anonymous
- Ronnie certainly looked a lot like George. As others have said, their heads were the same shape and they had the same hairlines, among other features. Who knows, maybe George did the same thing Loretta Young did with her "adopted" daughter, who was the spitting image of Clark Gable.
- Are there any photos out there of Ronnie Burns after he retired from show biz? I'm curious to see if he remained handsome or if he started resembling George even more.
And yes, I googled!
- He certainly DID NOT bang Lucy, R40. Lucy was game, but Gary talked her out of it.
- Here
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2007/319/22928877_119522596891.jpg
- Here he is playing Aussie Footie
http://image2.findagrave.com/photos/2007/319/22928877_119522596891.jpg
- Oops
http://cache2.asset-cache.net/gc/1344503-ronnie-burns-for-geelong-changes-his-jumper-at-gettyimages.jpg%3Fv%3D1%26c%3DIWSAsset%26k%3D2%26d%3DOCUJ5gVf7YdJQI2Xhkc2QI8WEhkN8PW2jxnPMb1wyh98X1wpKH889FfFgnKLuge2bF5xgXMNJ+9NEWVgg/eRcQ%3D%3D
- Here's when he got arrested for possession.
http://florida.arrests.org/Arrests/Ronnie_Burns_3064172/
- Well, he certainly didn't age like George but thanks for posting.
