--- title: Bob Hope: Classic Photos of an American Wisecracker description: He didn't amuse everyone, but Bob Hope rattled off endless (and hokey) one-liners with comedic timing that other jokers could only envy. canonical: https://time.com/3557127/bob-hope-life-magazine/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-06T21:27:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:07:10.650Z og:title: Classic Photos of Bob Hope, American Wisecracker og:description: He didn't amuse everyone, but Bob Hope rattled off endless (and hokey) one-liners with comedic timing that other jokers could only envy. og:url: https://time.com/3557127/bob-hope-life-magazine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaad00f24da51080f/6987641c3c1639579d44f6de/141104-bob-hope-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Bob Hope with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in 1950 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Classic Photos of Bob Hope, American Wisecracker twitter:description: He didn't amuse everyone, but Bob Hope rattled off endless (and hokey) one-liners with comedic timing that other jokers could only envy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaad00f24da51080f/6987641c3c1639579d44f6de/141104-bob-hope-11.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Classic Photos of Bob Hope, American Wisecracker > Sponsored content. 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Howard Sochurek—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Nov 6, 2014 9:27 PM UTC [Bob Hope ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%5FHope)was a man of contradictions. One of the most popular and best-loved American comedians of the 20th century, he was, in fact, born in England. (He became a U.S. citizen in 1920.) A model of “wholesome entertainment” during the glory days of his career, he was reportedly an [incorrigible womanizer](http://www.examiner.com/article/comedian-bob-hope-portrayed-as-a-womanizer-new-biography), bedding some of the most famous actresses in Hollywood (including Lucille Ball, Paulette Goddard, Jane Russell, Dorothy Lamour and others) while married to his wife of 69 years, Dolores. Alternately slick and bumbling onscreen and in his countless stage acts, Hope was enough of an athlete to enjoy a brief boxing career in his teens, fighting under the name “Packy East” and winning more bouts than he lost. Throughout it all, Hope rattled off endless — and often painfully hokey — one-liners with a sense of timing that most comedians could only envy. His style, of course, didn’t suit everyone. Christopher Hitchens, for example, wrote a withering assessment for Slate in 2003, titled [“Hopeless,”](http://www.slate.com/articles/news%5Fand%5Fpolitics/fighting%5Fwords/2003/08/hopeless.html) in which he raked the Hope, who had recently died at age 100, over the coals. “Eye-rolling and wolf-whistling,” Hitchens wrote, “are among the weakest forms of crowd pleasing. . . . \[A\]nd Hope never stretched or challenged an audience in his life. For him, the safe and antique moves were the best, if not the only. The smirk was principally one of risk-free self-congratulation.” And those were among the kinder of Hitchens’ criticisms. But for so many others — and especially, perhaps, the countless men and women he entertained during his [shows for American troops](http://www.bobhopeuso.org/about-us/bob-hope.html) around the world across six decades — the man born Leslie Townes Hope in London in 1903 was a quintessential funnyman. In fact, if he’d never done anything but the hugely popular series of “Road” pictures that he made with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour, Hope’s place in the Hollywood pantheon would still have been secure. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Bob Hope, 1941. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope, 1942. John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope entertaining troops during WWII, 1943. David E. Scherman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Columnist Sidney Skolsky catching a ride on Bob Hope's bicycle on Hope's way from his dressing room to a sound stage, 1943. John Florea—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope wielding a sword in scene from the movie, Monsieur Beaucaire, 1945. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope in the motion picture, Paleface, 1945. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope with his family, 1948. Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope (seated) performing in a skit on his own TV show, 1950. Thomas D. McAvoy—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope, 1950. Thomas D. McAvoy—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope, 1950. Thomas D. McAvoy—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis at a golf tournament, 1950. Howard Sochurek—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope watches dancers rehearsing for his show on the Colgate Comedy Hour, 1952. Ed Clark—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Bob Hope and David Niven share a laugh during a break from rehearsals for the 30th Academy Awards, 1958. Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope on the set of Roberta, 1958. Francis Miller—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope rehearse for The Bob Hope Show, 1962. Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Bob Hope posing in a Native American headdress presented to him by Oklahoma State University, 1962. 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