Jackie Gleason

[Jadssons]

Gleason shot all of his own shots in The Hustler. Mosconi shot a lot of shots for Newman.

 

[philw]

I met Gleason through a long time friend in NY (John Byner the comedian). I played Gleason two games to 125 each and he won both by about 20 balls if I remember correctly. I was a "B" player on the 9' tables in 14.1. He was a fun guy to be around. Drank like a fish, as did I. I never saw him play anything but 14.1. Johnnyt

What ever happened to John Byner? He was a huge comedian in the 70's

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Gleason on 60 MINUTES!

 

[Johnnyt]

What ever happened to John Byner? He was a huge comedian in the 70's

He moved to Canada. Not sure where he is now. He is 72 yo now. He had four wifes. I have to look him back up before we both bite the dust. Johnnyt

 

[cuesblues]

I hate to add this but my partner John Hacsi played him. Said the same as what most of you guys are saying, 40-50 ball runner. Worse than that though, John says he had him stuck for hundreds......and jackie walked out on him with his crowd(without paying).

Be sure and get him added to the "bad action" list

 

[master_cueist]

That's actually false. Mosconi shot some shots for both of them. If you watch the commentary on the hustler they even say that Mosconi was shooting shots for Gleason and even point out that on some of the shots that "Gleason" was shooting, you can notice that when the camera cuts out the face and is just on the hands and shot, it goes from Gleasons fat fingers to Mosconi's skinny fingers.

Gleason shot all of his own shots in The Hustler. Mosconi shot a lot of shots for Newman.

 

[3kushn]

Just to put some perspective in this I've read Mosconi's World Record Grand Average in tournament play was 18.34 balls/inning.

Yes I've heard in exhibition he would run 100 balls but I'd suspect his first shot was not a full rack break. And of course the pressure was absent.

 

[rich337]

seen this

seen this thread before about a month ago

 

[George Fels]

I have to say I find it hard to believe Orbach was ever a 100 ball runner. I saw him play several times at Amsterdam Billiards in NYC in the 90's. Now granted, he was old and his eyesight may not have been so great (he missed a lot of long shots) but even still he looked to be at that time maybe a C+ player. His shot selection wasn't that good and he didn't have much finesse with the cueball. I never saw him run more than a rack of straight pool in the 5 or 6 times I saw him play.

He claimed a long run of 64. When his career was beginning here in "The Fantasticks", we were all happy to see him at Bensinger's, where we called him Jerry the Actor. He would lose his $12 to $18, whatever he had, in gentlemanly fashion. Terrific guy, though, who never missed a pool fundraiser in NYC. GF