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.
Inducted into the Haverhill [Massachusetts] Citizens Hall of
Fame.
The character and voice of "Pete Puma" in the Warner Brothers cartoon
Rabbit's Kin (1952) was based on Fontaine's character of "Crazy
Guggenheim." Pete's voice was provided by Stan Freberg. Freberg
reprised this voice in another Warners cartoon and in 1990 on Tiny Toon Adventures (1990).