Biography for
Allen Funt More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

16 September 1914, New York City, New York, USA

Date of Death

5 September 1999, Pebble Beach, California, USA (stroke)

Spouse

Marilyn Funt	(24 September 1964 - 1978) (divorced) 2 children
Evelyn Michael	(22 May 1946 - August 1964) (divorced) 3 children

Trivia

Suffered a stroke in 1993; never fully recovered.

Father of Peter Funt

Father of actress Juliet Funt.

Once helped to avert a potentially disasterous situation simply by being in the right place at the right time. In the early 1970s, a plane on which Funt was a passenger was hijacked to Cuba. The passengers, having seen Funt board the plane, assumed that it was all an elaborate "Candid Camera" gag, thoroughly confounding the hijackers by laughing at and, in one case, applauding their actions. After the incident, in which no one was hurt, the FAA offered to give Funt a citation for bravery. Funt turned it down, claiming that he was just a passenger like anyone else, and more nervous than anyone else because he knew the situation WASN'T a joke.

Invented hidden camera style comedy programming.

In fall 2005, his show's franchise, Candid Camera, now hosted by his son Peter Funt, actress Suzanne Somers, and Dina Eastwood, will be aired and distributed under Tribune Entertainment Company's roster.

Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 221-222. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Father of Bill Funt.

He graduated from Cornell University with a B.A. in Fine Arts. In later life, he amassed a collection of works by the Victorian painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema, but was forced to sell them just before the painter's reputation revived and the prices of the paintings shot up.