No Laughs, Please: Our Greatest comedians as Dramatic Actors

“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

This timeless quote has been most often attributed to 19th Century British actor Edmund Kean, who supposedly uttered it on his deathbed (although Larry Gelbart insisted the actor in question was Edmund Gwen, of Miracle on 34th Street fame). Regardless of who actually said it, our finest and funniest comedy legends of the past hundred years or so have been of the same opinion; that few dramatic actors through the years have been able to handle comedy believably, but most comedians can give a…