Art Carney’s many noteworthy achievements as an actor will always be overshadowed by one role: Ed Norton. Carney made his reputation as the loyal but dopey neighbor, Ed Norton, opposite Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden in the classic sketches and series The Honeymooners. So complete was Carney’s transformation into the loose-limbed, bumbling sewer worker that he won five Emmy Awards for his work with Gleason, including three consecutive awards as Best Supporting Actor from 1953 to 1955.

Carney got his start in show business doing imitations and comedy bits with Horace Heidt’s orchestra. Stints in radio and bit parts in films led to Carney’s first regular role on television on The Morey Amsterdam Show. When Jackie Gleason took over as host of the DuMont network’s Cavalcade of Stars, Carney became a principal supporting player. He moved with the show to CBS in 1952, where it was rechristened The Jackie Gleason Show and “The Honeymooners” became a regular sketch.

Ed Norton may have been second banana to Ralph Kramden, but Carney’s performance never took a backseat to Gleason’s. Indeed, the pair created a symbiosis of comic styles so unique that when Carney left the show in 1957 “The Honeymooners” went on hiatus until his return almost ten years later. In contrast to Gleason’s broad, blustery Kramden, Carney’s Norton was the personification of nonchalance. His casual delivery could make any statement sound vacuous. Even his typical greeting, “Hey-hey, Ralphie boy,” announced Norton’s childlike amicability as well as his lack of intelligence. Carney’s face drooped into a slack-jawed expression that was perpetually blank. Coupled with his feebleminded manner was a body like a rubber band. It could be as slouched as the hat that was always perched on his head at one moment, then snapping into improbable contortions the next. Carney seemed to make up for Ed’s lack of intelligence by investing the character with a host of broad physical tics that could turn a game of pool, a few moments on a pinball machine, or a mambo step, into a comic ballet. Much like the great silent comedians, Carney created a wholly original character who was recognizable at a glance. In Ed Norton we find the pathos of Chaplin, the earnestness of Lloyd, and the physical grace of Keaton.

Even though the Gleason Show and the role of Ed Norton cemented Carney’s success as a comedian, he was never content to be known as merely a comic actor. When the program moved to CBS, Carney’s agent negotiated for the actor to have three out of every 13 weeks off to perform in noncompetitive shows. Carney built up a solid background as a dramatic performer on episodes of Studio One, Suspense, Kraft Television Theatre, and Playhouse 90, and in special events such as a telecast of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. By the latter part of the decade, critics had come to take the excellence of Carney’s dramatic performances for granted. When he appeared in the lead in Rod Serling’s teleplay “The Velvet Alley” on Playhouse 90, the Variety review of January 28, 1959, commented, “Carney achieved considerable stature as a dramatic actor with his remarkable performance.”

In 1966 Carney returned to The Jackie Gleason Show, and the role of Norton. That same year, he captured one of the coveted slots as a guest villain (“The Archer”) in ABC’s wildly popular Batman series. He had achieved success on Broadway, creating the role of Felix Unger in the original run of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. And he was maturing as an actor. Lacking any formal training in the profession, Carney drew from his own life to build performances. Overcoming battles with alcoholism and depression seemed to add depth and wisdom to his characterizations. His ability to convey a sense of loneliness and world-weary resignation tended to belie his relative youth. This was evident in his film work, including his Academy Award–winning portrayal as an old man traveling across the country with his cat in Harry and Tonto (1974), and as the aging hardboiled detective in The Late Show (1977). He also had impressive performances in television movies, such as his low-key portrayal of Robert Stroud, “the Birdman of Alcatraz,” in Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story (1980). Despite a flourishing career for theatrical features, Carney continually returned to the medium that made him a star. He took the lead in the short-lived series Lanigan’s Rabbi (1977), did guest appearances on shows such as Alice and Fame, and was featured in specials and telefilms. He won a sixth Emmy in a heartfelt performance as the loyal caretaker of an elderly boxing champion (played by Jimmy Cagney in his last role) in Terrible Joe Moran (1984).

Constant reruns of The Honeymooners and the packaging of the so-called lost “Honeymooners” sketches from The Jackie Gleason Show have guaranteed Art Carney’s place in the pantheon of television comedians. But to be given his full due, Carney must be recognized as one of the most accomplished and multifaceted actors to emerge during television’s “golden age.”