Bob Hope Getting Oscar                in The Ghost Breakers (1940)            Barbara Eden and Bob Hope honor the Apollo 7 astronauts

Bob Hope KBE (May 29, 1903–July 27, 2003) was an English-born, Academy Award-winning entertainer who
appeared in vaudeville, on Broadway, in radio, television, movies, and on numerous USO tours for U.S.
military personnel.

Hope was the fifth of seven sons. His English father, William Henry Hope, was a stonemason from Weston
super-Mare and his Welsh mother, Avis Townes, was a light opera singer who later had to find work as a
cleaning woman. The family lived in Weston-super-Mare, then Whitehall and St. George in Bristol, before
moving to Cleveland, Ohio in 1908. The family traveled to the United States as passengers on board the SS
Philadelphia. They were inspected at Ellis Island on March 30, 1908. Hope became a U.S. citizen in 1920 at
the age of seventeen.

Hope is noted for his work with the US Armed Forces and his renowned USO tours. Hope always incorporated
a handful of talented performers and celebrities to accompany him on these tours. Most of the time he was
flanked by beautiful television and film actresses such as Marilyn Monroe and Betty Grable. Throughout his
career he was decorated by many presidents for his humanitarian work.

Hope celebrated his 100th birthday on May 29, 2003, joining a small group of notable centenarians in the
field of entertainment (including Irving Berlin, Hal Roach, Senor Wences, George Abbott, and George
Burns.) To mark this event, the intersection of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, California was named
Bob Hope Square and his centennial was declared Bob Hope Day in 35 states. Hope spent the day privately
in his Toluca Lake, Los Angeles home where he had lived since 1937. Even at 100, Hope was said to have
maintained his self-deprecating sense of humor, quipping, "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type."

On July 27, 2003, Bob Hope died at his home in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles, at 9:28 p.m. According to one of
Hope's daughters, when asked on his deathbed where he wanted to be buried, he told his wife, "Surprise me"
After his death, Roger Cardinal Mahony, Archbishop of Los Angeles, confirmed that Hope had converted to
Roman Catholicism years before he died and added that he had died a Catholic in good standing. He was
interred in the Bob Hope Memorial Garden at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Los Angeles, where his mother
is also buried. Bob Hope was 100 years old.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. has a wing funded by
Dolores and Bob Hope in memory of his mother. It is dedicated to a miracle in Pontmain, France.
  
Bob Hope and golf club, Lackland Air Force Base, 1990          Hope (left) with President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan in 1981