Willie was born William Levkowitz in Neustadt, Germany, evidently a brief stopping place in the migration of his Jewish parents, Leopold Levkowitz and Pauline (Glass) Levkowitz, from Russia to New York City. The father, a cantor, settled his family of three sons and two daughters in Harlem. The oldest son, Eugene, was to lead the others into show business.
Willie, manifesting his showman's talents too soon, was expelled from public school at the age of eleven.
He promptly got a job as a boy soprano, singing refrains of popular hits from the wings or balcony at Proctor's 125th Street Theatre. For many months he sang such melodies as "Sweet Sixteen" in support of the great ladies of vaudeville, Anna Held, Louise Dresser, and Bonnie Thornton. Between engagements he acted as a "song plugger, " singing in the aisles during intermissions for $5 a week. When his voice began to change, he turned to low comedy at Huber's Museum, doing slapstick imitations of his stage idols, David Warfield, Sam Bernard, and Joe Welsh.
His famous partnership with his brother Eugene began in 1903. At first they emphasized singing over comedy and introduced a number of popular hits, among them "Sweet Adeline. " But broad humor became the staple of their act. It was in joining the partnership that Willie assumed the name Howard, under which Eugene was already performing. From the start, it was clearly Willie who was the comic genius and the darling of the audiences. The scenario would cast him invariably as the "little man, " the servant of classic comedy, who revenges himself for the boorishness and arrogance of his partner, a stuffy upper-class type or business tycoon. From a huge repertoire of gibes, insults, impersonations, and slapstick humiliations, Willie would endlessly improvise and ultimately prevail over his straight man.
Touring the Keith and Orpheum circuits, the partnership steadily increased in popularity; by 1912 they were receiving $450 a week. By this time they had firmly established themselves on Broadway, signing with the Shubert organization to perform in The Passing Show of 1912 and in a Sigmund Romberg revue, The Whirl of the World (1914). During the years that followed they appeared at the Winter Garden in The Show of Wonders (1916) and in other editions of The Passing Show, returned for a time to vaudeville, and played in several of George White's Scandals. On his own, Willie acted during the 1930's in Ballyhoo of 1932, the Ziegfeld Follies, and in occasional films, including Millions in the Air (1935) and Rose of the Rancho (1936). In the 1940's, still brimming with energy and with his brother Eugene as his manager, he appeared in Crazy with the Heat (1941), My Dear Public (1943), and Star and Garter (Chicago, 1944).
Howard died in Polyclinic Hospital, New York City, of a liver ailment at the age of sixty-two. He was buried at Cedar Park Cemetery, Emerson, N. J.
Small in stature, with large brown eyes set in a round, boyish face and a mischievous Cheshire-cat grin that appeared on cue, he had a gift for mimicry and an infinite vitality that was as poised as it was unpredictable.
Quotes from others about the person
His friend and producer George White once said of him, "Anybody who don't like Willie, don't like children. "
Willie Howard married Emily Miles of Chicago, a singer and dancer, on July 2, 1918. They lived at Great Neck, L. I. , until her death in 1947. The couple had no children.
