Great entertainers like Bob Hope come around once a century.

When Hope died July 27 from pneumonia — two months after his 100th birthday — President Bush ordered flags lowered to half-staff.

"America has lost a great citizen," Bush said.

Hope's seven-decade career spanned Broadway, radio, television and movies. He hosted or co-hosted the Academy Awards 18 times and received several honorary Oscars. He never won an Oscar for his own work.

His first big-screen starring role was The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which Hope first sang Thanks for the Memory. It became his career theme song.

He went on to star in dozens of movies. He teamed with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour in the long-running "road" series movies, among them 1942's Road to Morocco and 1946's Road to Utopia.

Beyond his ski-jump nose and his golf fanaticism, Hope was best known as the master of the one-liners. His wiseguy, no-nonsense style was simple yet effective. About 100,000 of his gags and memorabilia are enshrined at the Library of Congress.

Hope had an enormous soft spot in his heart for the American G.I. He entertained troops on the front lines of every American conflict from World War II to Desert Storm.

"The kids were laying their lives on the line for us. That was good enough for me," Hope said in 1993.

In 1997, Congress named him an honorary veteran. It was a title he said was the most cherished of his 2,000 lifetime awards.

Born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, England, Hope was one of seven sons of a British stonemason. When he was 4, the family immigrated to Cleveland.

At age 16 he quit school to become a boxer, calling himself Packy East. When that didn't pan out he tried his luck as a butcher, taking dancing lessons on the side. He was a struggling vaudevillian until he was cast in the Broadway revue Ballyhoo of 1932.

In 1933, Hope met his future wife, Dolores Reade, at a club where she was singing. Two months later they wed in a marriage that would endure until his death. The couple adopted four children.

Hope began another long-term relationship in 1938 — with NBC. That was the year Hope launched his radio show. He went on to host hundreds of television specials for NBC.

Hope was also a best-selling author. He wrote or co-wrote 10 books including My Life in Jokes;Dear Prez, I Wanna Tell Ya!; and Confessions of a Hooker: My Lifelong Love Affair With Golf. He was a sharp businessman as well. His fortune was once estimated at $200 million.

One of Hope's last public appearances was in May 1998 in Washington, D.C., where he was awarded an honorary British knighthood and donated his papers to the Library of Congress's Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment.

Thanks for the memories, Bob.