Discovery Channel's Greatest American # 17: Bob Hope

Bob Hope is a fairly odd choice for the list. There are certainly more influential comedians, more influential performers, and better known amateur golfers than Hope. Even in his Oscar-hosting heyday, Hope wasn't quite the comedy A-lister.

Hope was a classic American character, though, and perhaps the reason he made the list and not Groucho Marx or Milton Berle is that one cannot imagine any list of Americans without him.