Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton (July 18 1913 - September 17 1997) was an American comedian who was best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, clubs and casinos, while pursuing another career as a painter.

The Red Skelton Show was a staple of American television for almost two decades, from the early 1950s through the early 1970s. (It was second to Gunsmoke (1955-1975) and third to The Ed Sullivan Show (1948–1971) in the ratings during that time.) Skelton, who had previously been a radio star, had appeared in several motion pictures as well. Although his television series is largely associated with CBS, where it appeared for over 15 years, it actually began and ended on NBC. During its run, the program received three Emmy Awards, for Skelton as best comedian and the program as best comedy show during its initial season, and an award for comedy writing in 1960.

Red Skelton had a reputation among comedy writers as being extremely difficult to work with, since he didn't like writers in general and resented CBS for insisting that he use them on his show; he wanted to write all the sketches himself, his reasoning being that no one knew his characters as well as he did. Sherwood Schwartz, prior to taking the position as head writer on the show, had it written into his contract with CBS that Skelton was under no circumstances allowed to discuss anything about a show's script with him before he was given it prior to taping, which often resulted in Skelton not knowing what a sketch was about or even what character he would be playing until shortly before airtime. That's why Skelton would often break character in the middle of a skit and turn to the audience and say something like, "Don't blame me, folks, I don't write this stuff."

The son of a former circus clown turned grocer and a cleaning woman, Red Skelton was introduced to showbiz at the age of seven by Ed Wynn, at a vaudeville show in Vincennes. At 10, he left home to travel with a medicine show through the Midwest, and joined the vaudeville circuit at 15. At 17 he married Edna Marie Stilwell, an usher who became his vaudeville partner and later his chief writer and manager. He debuted on Broadway and radio in 1937 and on film in 1938. His ex-wife/ manager negotiated a seven-year Hollywood contract for him in 1951, the same year "Red Skelton Show, The" (1951) premiered on NBC. For two decades, until 1971, his show consistently stayed in the top twenty, both on NBC and CBS. His numerous characters, including Clem Kaddiddlehopper, George Appleby, and the seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe delighted audiences for decades. First and foremost, he considered himself a clown, although not the greatest, and his paintings of clowns brought in a fortune after he left television. His home life wasn't completely happy--two divorces and a son Richard who died of leukemia at age nine-- and he didn't hang around with other comedians. He continued performing live until illness, and he was a longtime supporter of children's charities.