After serving for three months as an ensign in the Navy, Lemmon graduated from Harvard and decided to pursue acting full time.

"When I told my father I wanted to borrow $300 from him, go to New York and try crashing into show business, there was a long silence," says Lemmon, according to his press biography.

"Finally, he asked, 'I s that what you really want to be--an actor?' And I told him it was what I had to be. Dad smiled and nodded O.K."

But Lemmon's comfortable lifestyle was about to end.

In New York, Lemmon worked various odd jobs, including a food checker and an emcee in a music hall.

In looking back at his life in New York, Lemmon notes that the difficulty in getting a start is something inherent to the medium of acting.

"A writer can write, a painter can paint, but an actor cannot act unless there is an audience," Lemmon told the Eliot audience.

After making his radio debut in several soap operas, including "The Brighter Day" and "Road to Life," Lemmon began to work in America's newest medium--television.

Lemmon acted in over 500 episodes of television shows, including "Studio One" and "Suspense."

But the one performance that was critical to launching his success was not on radio or television, but rather in the theater. Lemmon made his Broadway debut in a revival production of "Room Service."

Although the show was a complete failure, it was there that Lemmon was first noticed by Hollywood scouts.

Harry Cohn, the czar of Columbia Pictures, asked Lemmon to come to California in 1953.

Lemmon's first film was It Should Happen to You, starring Judy Holliday.

After only five picture, Lemmon had already become an Academy Award winner, as best supporting actor, for his 1955 performance as Ensign Pulver in John Ford's Mr. Roberts.

Lemmon's career had taken a turn for the better. Within five years, Lemmon had already been nominated three times for the Oscar for best actor.