Favorite comic actors in movies or television series.
 

Mine are Lou Costello and Sid Caesar.

The Marx Brothers
Abbott & Costello
Dick Van Dyke
Gene Wilder

Re: Favorite comic actors in movies or television series.
 

Jack Lemmon
Walter Matthau
Steve Martin
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Leslie Nielsen
Gene Wilder
Madeline Kahn
John C. Reilly

Jack Lemmon should be included on my list too.

Re: Favorite comic actors in movies or television series.
 

I've been looking for a place to post this thought for a while (and this thread looks like it's right on track especially since the OP mentions Sid Caesar).

Upon watching "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (1963) again, I was thinking... could we ever have such a movie again?

https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w500/5S8V...rFitTS5Jpw.jpg

And my thought-answer back was a resounding "No."

We just don't have that level of celebrity these days... especially in comedy. (Maybe that's a good thing... I've never been into the whole "cult of celebrity" thing, but I can't deny that Mad, Mad World was like a literal royalty of comic geniuses all collected on one screen.)

Personally, I don't think the movie is really that great as a movie - but what is great about it is the sheer spectacle of so many comedy stars assembled in one picture. And there were dozens! It seemed like it was an era where you could have an extreme number of kings of comedy.

The cast list is really quite unbelievable...
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057193...?ref_=tt_cl_sm

When I compare to today, I can think of maybe 5 or 6 really big comedian movie stars who are world renown... but it's nothing like in the 60's.

Just wondering; if anyone here were to try to remake Mad, Mad World today, who would you have in it?

I think we have the same level of comedy that we had back then, but the type of humor is just different. If that type of movie was made today, the comedy stars would be people like Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Owen Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, etc.

It would probably do well at the box office, but I would have no interest in seeing it.

Re: Favorite comic actors in movies or television series.
 

Captain Steel

You make some really interesting points.

The following have been the only 'comedies' that have won Best Picture:

It Happened One Night (1934)
You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Going My Way (1944) - a musical comedy.
Tom Jones (1963, UK) - an historical epic/comedy.
The Sting (1973)
Annie Hall (1977)
The Artist (2011, Fr./US)

As you can see, MAD WORLD did not make the list despite its valiant attempt.

Comedy and comic actors rarely get the recognition that dramatic actors get, especially by the Academy.

Should there be two categories of best actors and actress, one for drama and one for comedy?

I think Vince Vaughan might have won an Oscar for his hilarious performance in WEDDING CRASHERS.