Curtain Falls: George Burns Dies At 100

George Burns - a beloved comedian who launched his show-business career at age 7, became a movie star at 79 and dreamed of playing London's Palladium Theater at 100 - died yesterday less than two months after reaching the century mark.

Burns, whose health had been declining, died at 10 a.m. at his Beverly Hills home, said his manager, Irving Fein. He was with his son, Ronnie Burns, a nurse and a housekeeper, Fein said.

Burns had turned 100 on Jan. 20, but he was forced to cancel the Palladium date in 1994, after a fall that ended his career. Ailing with the flu, he was unable to attend his birthday gala in January.

In the days before his death, Fein said, Burns had been doing fine. He had been to his office, lunched at his country club and played bridge there on Wednesday.

For 90 years, Burns had the world laughing at his antics on stage, radio and TV. His knack for wordplay and coy understatement made him a hit in movies, nightclubs and concert halls, while his comic autobiographies placed him on best-seller lists.

His success was all the more remarkable in light of the dire poverty into which he was born, the ninth of 12 children, in 1896 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Young Nathan Birnbaum learned early to fend for himself.

"None of us ever let school get in the way of our education," he wrote. "We knew that there were only two ways to make enough money to be able to move uptown and wear spats: become a gangster or an entertainer. And both of them were considered equally respectable."

Burns never regretted his choice.

"Let me tell you something, kid," Burns once told an interviewer. "If you can fall in love with what you're going to do for a living, you got it made.

"I fell in love with show business about 90 years ago, and I love it just as much today. And that's the truth."