Lou Costello

He married burlesque dancer Anne Battler on January 30, 1934, and they had four children - Patricia "Paddy" Costello, Carole, Lou Jr. and Christine.

The funny man with baggy clothes who cheered the audience with his famous catchphrases ‘Heeeeyyy, Abbott!’ and ‘I'm a baaaaad boy!’ succumbed to a heart attack on March 3, 1959, at Doctors Hospital in Beverly Hills.

Funeral Mass of this legend was held at his parish, St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, Sherman Oaks, and on March 8, his remains were interred at the Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles.

Lou Costello was born Louis Francis Cristillo on March 6, 1906, in Paterson, New Jersey, US to an Italian father, Sebastiano Cristillo, and an American mother, Helen Rege of French, Italian and Irish descent.

He studied at School 15 in his hometown. According to sources, the otherwise mediocre student, Costello was a talented athlete who was particularly good in basketball and became the New Jersey state free throw champion once. He also had a stint as a boxer with the adoptive name of ‘Lou King’.

He was inspired by the famous English comic legend Charlie Chaplin and wanted to make a mark as an actor. With such passion, Costello, a high school dropout, hitchhiked to Hollywood in 1927.

He, however, failed to get any acting assignments in Hollywood and ended up working as a labourer and an extra at Warner Bros and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He also worked as a stuntman in the silent drama film, ‘The Trail of '98’ (1928).

As his Hollywood plans didn’t work out well, in 1929, he went to St. Joseph, Missouri, where he had a stint in burlesque and then moved to New York later that year. As the Great Depression set in, he started working in burlesque on the Mutual Burlesque Wheel. Inspired by noted stage and film actress Helene Costello, he changed his professional name to ‘Costello’.

Following the collapse of Mutual Burlesque Wheel, he worked with Minsky's Burlesque. Here, he met Bud Abbott for the first time when the latter was producing and performing in Minsky's Burlesque shows. The two appeared together for their first show at the Eltinge Theatre in 1935 when Costello's regular partner failed to show up.

In 1936, Abbott and Costello teamed up formally, and thus began the journey of a new comedy duo performing in burlesque, stage shows, minstrelsy and vaudeville.