Oswald George Nelson
Ozzie Nelson
Television Category Star
- Ceremony was on February 8, 1960
Ozzie Nelson
Aware of fatal illness
Nelson knew he had liver cancer
Los Angeles Times
HOLLYWOOD - Eight months ago, doctors told Ozzie Nelson he had cancer of the Liver.
"Isn't that odd for a guy who never drank or smoked?" he said
Nelson, 68, the former bandleader who, with his singer-wife, Harriet, and their two sons, became a radio and television fixture of more than two decades, died in his Hollywood home yesterday.
Nelson underwent liver surgery and, for the last month, was confined to his home, no longer able to take his daily two-mile ocean swim
[Harriet Hillard Nelson, who joined his band in 1932 and married him in 1935, was at his bedside when he died. Their two sons, David, 38, and Eric (Ricky), 35, had visited almost daily.
Oswald George Nelson was born March 20, 1907, in Jersey City From boyhood, he projected the wholesome image that was to make The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" such a long-staying radio and TV favorite.
At 13, Nelson was the youngest Eagle Scout in the nation. He became an honor student at Rutgers University, where he starred in football and boxing.
But show business had touched him in the form of amateur theatricals in which his parents were active. From playing banjo and singing with a high school band, he took up the saxophone and a popular vocal style.
From Rutgers, Nelson went to New Jersey Law School, but the Depression prompted him to form an orchestra for a livelihood. Before long, with sax and megaphone, he and the band were playing in hotels and ballrooms around the country.
The Ozzie Nelson Band became more popular with the addition of a Des Moines singer named Harriet Hilliard.
In 1933, Ozzie and Harriet began a radio series, appearing with comedian Joe Penner, "Believe It or Not" man Robert Ripley and eventually with Red Skelton.
In 1944, they started "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" on radio.
The show was a phenomenon, enduring 10 seasons on radio and 14 on television, with two years overlapping. Ozzie became the producer and director as well as portrayer of the nice-guy dad whose profession was never made quite clear to the viewers.
He later directed other TV series episodes and appeared in a 1968 film, "The Impossible Years." He and his wife toured in several plays.
Their family television series finally came to an end in 1966, with Ricky and David grown and married.
The two boys at first had been portrayed by actors but eventually took their own parts. Ricky later achieved fame as a rock singer.
A family friend was quoted as saying that Nelson knew his illness was terminal and "viewed it philosophically." working on a book until the end.
Nelson also leaves six grand children and two brothers.
Funeral services will be held Friday in the Church of the Hills in Forest Lawn Cemetery.
