As with fellow "professional drunks" Jack Norton and Foster Brooks, he was a nondrinker in private life.
On the commentary of The Simpsons (1989) Season Five DVD, the show writers
admit that Barney Gumble was based in part on Fontaine's Crazy
Guggenheim.
Father of 11 children.
Parents were circus performers: father Ray Fontaine - strong man and
mother Anna McCarthy - trapeze artist.
He had a good singing voice when not in character, something he proved
both on Jackie Gleason: American Scene Magazine (1962) and in the best-selling album "Songs
I Sing on 'The Jackie Gleason Show'". The latter went to number one on
the Billboard Album Charts in 1962.