Gleason (2002 film)

Gleason is a 2002 television film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Brad Garrett as Jackie Gleason. The film premiered on CBS on October 13, 2002.

Cast

 * Brad Garrett as Jackie Gleason
 * Saul Rubinek as George "Bullets" Durgom
 * Gretchen Egolf as Genevieve Halford
 * Kristen Dalton as Audrey Meadows
 * Michael Chieffo as Art Carney
 * Danny Wells as Jack L. Warner
 * Mark Camacho as Sammy Birch
 * Jason Blicker as Sol Friedman
 * Vlasta Vrána as Toots Shor
 * Shawn Lawrence as William S. Paley
 * Kevin Dunn as Jack Philbin
 * Terry Farrell as Marilyn Taylor
 * Johanna Nutter as Joyce Randolph
 * Lisa Bronwyn Moore as Pert Kelton

Production
Back in 1997, Garrett was set to portray Gleason in a television biopic for CBS, with the script written by Everybody Loves Raymond creator Philip Rosenthal, but it never came to fruition.

When he learned that CBS acquired the rights to Gleason's life story, Garrett personally lobbied to the network to portray the role. Initially, CBS offered the part of Gleason to Mark Addy. However, Addy dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, thus Garrett was officially cast as Gleason.

Garrett reportedly disapproved of the script written by Rick Podell and Michael Preminger. With assistance from Deutch, Garrett and his writer friend Dave Boone wrote an uncredited rewrite of the script.

Garrett and Deutch paid Greg Cannom with their own money for him to apply for the makeup needed for Garrett to look like Gleason. It took Garrett three hours to put on the makeup and an hour and a half to take it off.

Unlike Gleason, who was 5 feet 11 in real life, Garrett was 6 feet 8 at the time of filming; in order for Garrett to appear as if he were 5 feet 11, the other cast members wore boots with seven-inch lifts and the doorways on the set were built at 8 feet rather than the usual 6 feet 9.

The film was shot in Montreal.

Accolades
For his performance, Garrett was nominated for both the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie. Deutch was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Miniseries or TV Film.