The boy helped out by selling newspapers and working in a shoe store, a drug store and a meat market. He also worked as a caddy and developed a lifelong fondness for golf.
Hope changed his name to Bob when classmates ridiculed his English schoolboy name.
He boxed for a time under the name Packy East -- ``I was on more canvases than Picasso'' -- and tried a semester in college before devoting himself to show business. He quickly veered from song and dance to comedy patter, and his monologue routine was born.
By 1930, he had reached vaudeville's pinnacle -- The Palace -- and in the 1930s he played leading parts in Broadway musicals. During Roberta, he met nightclub singer Dolores Reade and invited her to the show. They married in 1934.
After a few guest radio spots, Hope began working regularly on a Bromo Seltzer radio program. In 1938, he was hired by Pepsodent to create his own show, and that led him to Hollywood.
Paramount signed him for The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which he introduced the song that became his trademark, Thanks for the Memory.
Soon he was teaming with Bing Crosby in the seven ``Road'' pictures -- Road to Bali, Road to Morocco, and so on -- playing best friends who lie, cheat and make fun of each other in comedic competition for glory and Dorothy Lamour.
In all, he made 53 films from 1938 to 1972. In 1950, he entered television, and his successes continued. He also appeared more than 20 times at the Academy Awards between 1939 and 1978.
Hope started playing to troops well before the US entered World War II. He tried to enlist, but was told he could be of more use as an entertainer. He played his first camp show in California in May 1941, seven months before Pearl Harbor.
His traditional Christmas tours began in 1948 in Berlin. His 1966 Vietnam Christmas show, when televised, was watched by an estimated 65 million people, the largest audience of his career. But his initially hawkish views on Vietnam opened a gap between the comedian and young Americans opposed to the war, who sometimes heckled him.
Hope's awards included scores of honorary degrees and awards, including the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson and an honorary knighthood in England in 1998.
He was the author or co-author of 10 books, including his 1990 autobiography, Don't Shoot, It's Only Me.
In the mid-1990s, Hope played charity dates but slowed his schedule. In recent years, his hearing eroded, although he refused to wear a hearing aid. He suffered recurring eye problems, and in recent years was unable to communicate.
Until increasing frailty slowed him down, Hope repeatedly pledged never to quit entertaining.
``I'm not retiring until they carry me away,'' he said. ``And I'll have a few routines on the way to the big divot.''
Hope is survived by his wife, sons, daughters and four grandchildren.
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