46 American clowns

James H. Allen was an American actor who portrayed the clown character Rusty Nails and was the host of various children's television shows in the Portland, Oregon television market from 1957–1972. His program on KPTV was the second-longest running children's program in Portland, second only to Ramblin' Rod Anders.

Avner Eisenberg "Avner the Eccentric" is an American vaudeville performer, clown, mime, juggler, and sleight of hand magician. John Simon described him in 1984 as "A clown for the thinking man and the most exacting child."

Edward Phillips Birchall (1923–1988) was known to generations of Oklahomans as HO-HO the Clown.

Blinky the Clown, also known as Russell Scott, and simply Clown, was an American clown, television personality and presenter who starred in a Denver, Colorado television program called Blinky's Fun Club. Having spent 41 years on television in character, Scott holds the record as longest-running television clown in history, as well as the longest running children's television host in the United States.

Lew Bloom was an American vaudeville performer and stage actor who popularized the comical tramp character. After retiring from the stage in the 1910s, he became a prolific art collector and dealer and also painted his own original works.

David Magidson is an American professional clown. As his character Boswick the Clown, he has performed for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and Make A Circus. He has appeared as a clown in the movies Milk and Dr. Dolittle, as well in commercials for the Pacific Bell Yellow pages, Nissan, and BMW. Since 2010, Magidson has written a blog on Blogger "designed to help family entertainers with all aspects of their performing." As David Magidson, he performed as a member of the comedy-troupe "The Kloons" and in the San Francisco Fringe Festival. As the character Boswick the Clown, Magidson appears at over 300 events each year, including schools and libraries, specializing in large juggling, magic, and comedy clown shows for children 4 years old to 8 years old.

Bozo the Clown – sometimes billed as "Bozo, The World's Most Famous Clown" – is a clown character created for children's entertainment, widely popular in the second half of the 20th century. He was introduced in the United States in 1946, and to television in 1949, later appearing in franchised television programs of which he was the host, where he was portrayed by numerous local performers.

Roy Thomas Brown was an American television personality, puppeteer, clown and artist known for playing "Cooky the Cook" on Chicago's Bozo's Circus.

Gisela Antonia Brož (Brosch), also sometimes referred to as Gisela Madigan, was an Austrian-American circus performer, tightrope dancer, and clown. Her parents were shoemaker Joseph Brož and his wife Maria. She went to convent school in Siebenbürgen and at the age of 15 she got to know the Madigan circus family, including John and Laura, who at that time toured with Circus Krembser in Vienna. Gisela became their foster child and got to learn tightrope dancing, along with the couple's two-year-younger daughter Elvira Madigan, on the slack wire.

Clarabell the Clown is a clown character who was part of the main cast on the 1947-1960 series The Howdy Doody Show. Clarabell, who wore a baggy, striped costume, communicated through mime and by honking a horn for "yes" or "no". Clarabell would also spray fellow cast member Buffalo Bob Smith with seltzer.

Clownvis Presley is a character who combines musical parody and comedy, created and portrayed by Michael Leahy, and partly based on Elvis Presley.

Courtney Ryley Cooper was an American circus performer, publicist and writer. During his career he published over 30 books, many focusing on crime; J. Edgar Hoover considered him at one time "the best informed man on crime in the U. S." He was also an expert on circuses, and was the chief publicist for Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Circus at the time of his death.

Ralph Dewey, also known as Dewdrop the Clown, is one of the pioneers in not only gospel balloon twisting, but balloon twisting in general, and is known as the "grandfather of all twisters". He started twisting balloons in 1975, and in 1976 published his first book, Dewey's New Balloon Animals. Since then he has published 30 books, numerous videos and DVDs, and dozens of magazine articles.

Quail Dobbs was a famous rodeo clown and performer, inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2002.

Doink the Clown is a professional wrestling character originally and most popularly portrayed by Matt Osborne, who debuted the Doink persona in the World Wrestling Federation in 1992. He is a clown wearing traditional clown makeup and brightly colored clothes. In addition to Borne, Doink has been portrayed by many other wrestlers both in the WWF and on the independent circuit.

Jango Edwards is an American clown and entertainer who has spent most of his career in Europe, primarily in France, Spain, Netherlands, and England.

John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender known as the Killer Clown who assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised. He was also active in his local community as a Democratic Party precinct captain and building contractor.

Michael Geier, known as Big Mike Geier, is a singer, entertainer, and leader of the band Kingsized, which is based in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Geier's most critically acclaimed act is his alter ego: a Pagliacci-type clown named Puddles Pity Party. As Puddles, Geier has appeared in YouTube videos since 2013, including some with Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox. Geier now performs almost exclusively as Puddles, marketing himself as nothing more than a delivery man.

Otto Griebling was a German-born circus clown who performed for many years with the Cole Brothers and Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circuses. He was one of four clowns given the title Master Clown by Irvin Feld.

Frederick Roger Imhof was an American film actor, vaudeville, burlesque and circus performer, sketch writer, and songwriter.

William Mills Irwin is an American actor, clown, and comedian. He began as a vaudeville-style stage performer and has been noted for his contribution to the renaissance of American circus during the 1970s. He has also made a number of appearances on film and television, and he won a Tony Award for his role in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf on Broadway. He is also known as Mr. Noodle on the Sesame Street segment Elmo's World, has appeared in the Sesame Street film short Does Air Move Things?, and regularly appeared as a therapist on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Jack Box is the primary mascot of the Jack in the Box fast food restaurant chain. In television commercials, he is the founder, CEO and ad spokesman for the chain. His appearance is that of a typical male, with the exception of his huge spherical white head, blue dot eyes, conical black pointed nose and curvilinear red smile. He is most of the time seen wearing his trademark yellow clown cap and business suit.

Johann Ludwig Jacob, professionally known as Lou Jacobs, was a German-born American auguste clown who performed for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for more than 60 years. He was inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame in 1989. He is credited with popularizing the clown car, which has been a staple of circus clown acts ever since. He is also often cited as the originator of the red rubber ball nose, which is used by many clowns today. He was the first living person to have his portrait appear on an American postage stamp.

Robert James Keeshan was an American television producer and actor. He created and played the title role in the children's television program Captain Kangaroo, which ran from 1955 to 1984, the longest-running nationally broadcast children's television program of its day. Keeshan also played the original Clarabell the Clown on the Howdy Doody television program.

Emmett Leo Kelly was an American circus performer, who created the clown figure "Weary Willie", based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s. According to Charles W. Carey, Jr.:Kelly’s creation of Weary Willie revolutionized professional clowning and made him the country’s most familiar clown. The sad-sack, shuffling antics of his unkempt, downtrodden hobo offered a complete contrast to the madcap cavorting of brightly colored, white-faced conventional clowns and has served as an alternate model for professional clowns ever since.

Glen Gordon "Frosty" Little was a circus clown who served with the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for over 20 years. He was one of only four clowns ever to have been given the title "Master Clown" by the Ringling organization.

Barry Lubin is an American circus performer best known for his Grandma character. His Grandma character was a headline act at the Big Apple Circus in New York City for 25 seasons from 1982 until his 2012 retirement and relocation to Sweden. Lubin's return to the Big Apple Circus in late 2017 was cut short in January 2018 when he admitted to having pressured an underaged, sixteen-year-old circus performer to pose for pornographic pictures in 2004.

Bello Nock, often known simply as Bello, is an American daredevil clown and circus performer. Nock has been listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for his highwire walk over a cruise ship. He has performed several stunts in New York City, including rappelling off of Madison Square Garden and hanging from a helicopter over the Statue of Liberty. He has been included in a Time magazine list of "America's Best Artists and Entertainers".

Richard Martin "Rick" Hader, better known as Myron Noodleman, was an American clown who performed at Minor League Baseball games and other public events.

Vladimir Olshansky is a performing artist, director, composer, sculptor, graduate of the Moscow State Circus School, together with clown Slava Polunin, he is the founder of the clown theatre company Litsedei (Лицедеи). He creates numerous one man shows and performs at the Leningrad's State Variety Theatre, In parallel he studies directing at the Leningrad's State Theatre and Cinema Institute (ЛГИТМИК)

Matthew Wade Osborne, known professionally as Matt Borne, was an American professional wrestler. Osborne was a second generation wrestler, the son of Tony Borne, and is best known as being the first wrestler to portray the character of Doink the Clown.

Julius Pierpont "J. P." Patches was a clown and the main character on The J. P. Patches Show, an Emmy Award-winning local children's television show on Seattle station KIRO-TV, produced from 1958 to 1981. J.P. Patches was played by show creator and Seattle children's entertainer Chris Wedes. When the show ended in 1981, The J. P. Patches Show was one of the longest-running locally produced children's television programs in the United States.

Max Patkin was an American baseball player and clown, best known as the Clown Prince of Baseball.

Louis Burton Lindley Jr., better known by his stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor. For much of his career Pickens played mainly cowboy roles; he is perhaps best remembered today for his comic roles in Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles and 1941, and his villainous turn in One-Eyed Jacks.

Michael Polakovs, born in Riga, Latvia, was a circus clown who performed in the US under the name of Coco the Clown, a moniker that his father, Nicolai Poliakoff, had made famous in Europe.

Dan Rice was an American entertainer of many talents, most famously as a clown, who was pre-eminent before the American Civil War. During the height of his career, Rice was a household name. Dan Rice was also an innovator, as he coined the terms "One Horse Show" and "Greatest Show" whilst becoming the pacesetter for the popularization of the barrel-style "French" cuff. He was a leading personality in the new American "pop culture", brought on by the technological changes of the Industrial Revolution and resultant mass culture. Rice became so popular he ran for President of the United States in 1868. With changes in circus venues and popular culture after the Civil War, his legendary talents under the big top have gradually slipped into almost total historical obscurity such that in 2001, biographer David Carlyon called him "the most famous man you've never heard of".

Joseph William Utsler, known by his stage name Shaggy 2 Dope, is an American rapper, record producer, DJ, podcast host Shaggy and the creep show, and professional wrestler. He is part of the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse. He is the co-founder of the record label Psychopathic Records, with fellow Insane Clown Posse rapper Violent J and their former manager, Alex Abbiss. Along with Bruce, Utsler is the co-founder of the professional wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling, where he currently acts as color commentator.

David Shiner is an American actor, clown, playwright and theater director.

Richard Red Skelton was an American comedy entertainer. He was best known for his national radio and television shows between 1937 and 1971, especially as host of the television program The Red Skelton Show. He has stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in radio and television, and also appeared in burlesque, vaudeville, films, nightclubs, and casinos, all while he pursued an entirely separate career as an artist.

Stephen Gilchrist Glover, known professionally as Steve-O, is a British-born American television personality, stunt performer, comedian, and entertainer. His entertainment career is mostly centered on his performance stunts on the American television series Jackass (2000–2002) and its related movies, including Jackass: The Movie (2002), Jackass Number Two (2006), and Jackass 3D (2010), as well as its spin-off series Wildboyz (2003–2006).

Mark Stolzenberg is an American film and stage actor, screenwriter, producer, physical comedian and Circus Artist. He is considered by Oscar Talent Search as among the top ten acting teachers on the east coast. He has appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and All My Children, and acted in several films. He has also published several books - including Be a Clown and Be a Mime, which give advice on performing as a clown and mime respectively.

Joseph Francis Bruce, known by his stage name Violent J, is an American rapper, record producer, professional wrestler, and part of the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse. He is co-founder of the record label Psychopathic Records, with fellow ICP rapper Shaggy 2 Dope and their former manager, Alex Abbiss. Also along with Utsler, Bruce is the co-founder of the professional wrestling promotion Juggalo Championship Wrestling.

Hugh Nanton Romney Jr., known as Wavy Gravy, is an American entertainer and peace activist best known for his role at Woodstock, as well as for his hippie persona and countercultural beliefs. He has reported that his moniker was given to him by B.B. King at the Texas International Pop Festival in 1969.

Willie Whistle was a local Boston children's television character of the late 20th century. He hosted a local children's show from 1967 to 1987.