Former Broadway performer and playwright who began regular screen appearances, usually in hard-boiled comic character parts, in the late 1920s. The invaluable Gleason, often in acid comedy roles with more than a touch of Damon Runyonesque New Yorkness about them, justly received an Oscar nomination for his delightful Max Corkle in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" (1941), and graced dozens of films before his death in 1959. He often worked with his wife Lucille Gleason; with their son, actor Russell Gleason they made a series of Higgins family comedies for Republic in the late 30s and early 40s.