Hope died in his Toluca Lake, Calif., home Sunday evening, with his family at his bedside, his longtime publicist Ward Grant told the Associated Press.

He said the cause of death was pneumonia.

A towering star of stage, screen, TV and radio, Hope was also a tireless supporter of American soldiers, taking countless tours abroad entertaining American and British troops, from World War II to Operation Desert Storm. The U.S. Navy honored Hope with the christenings of the USS Bob Hope, a sea lifter-class vessel, and the Spirit of Bob Hope, a cargo plane.

President Bush reacted to early reports of Hope's death, saying the nation had lost a "great citizen."

"We mourn the passing of Bob Hope. Bob Hope made us laugh. He lifted our spirits," Bush said.

In recent years, his advanced age prevented him from entertaining, but America let him know it had not forgotten the veteran comic, marking his 100th birthday in May 2003 with dozens of celebrations, capped by Bush announcing the establishment of the Bob Hope American Patriot Award, to be given to a civilian who has "demonstrated extraordinary love of country and devotion to the personnel of the United States Armed Forces."

Hope was said to have taken the festivities in his typical self-effacing manner. "I'm so old, they've canceled my blood type," the entertainer is said to have remarked to his family.

On the Road to Stardom

"Golf is my real profession," Hope once quipped. "Show business pays my green fees."

But the truth is that Hope was a tireless worker, who brought himself up from poverty to become one of the most famous entertainers the world has known.

Born Leslie Townes Hope, he was the fifth of seven sons. His family emigrated from Eltham, England, to Cleveland, Ohio, when he was 4 years old. Three years later, he made his first excursion into show business by winning a Charlie Chaplin imitation contest.

During his teen years, Hope tried his hand at several occupations, including soda jerk, pool hustler and shoe salesman, but entering amateur talent contests proved to be his true passion.

After graduating from high school, Hope enrolled in dance classes given by entertainer King Rastus Brown and vaudevillian Johnny Root. He caught on quickly and soon took over teaching some of the lessons. Hope even took his fancy footwork into the amateur boxing ring under the fighting name “Packy East,” but eventually opted to learn the less bruising ropes of vaudeville instead.

He teamed up with his friend Lloyd Durbin, and the pair soon landed an opening gig for The Fatty Arbuckle Show at Cleveland’s Bandbox Theater. After a year performing with Durbin, Hope paired with George Byrne. Hope & Byrne was a successful collaboration — the pair played major houses in New York and landed on Broadway in Sidewalks of New York — but Hope clearly outshined his partner, and set out as a single player.

In 1932, Hope began a five-year run on Broadway in a string of productions, enjoying the most notable success as the wisecracking Huckleberry Haines in the musical Roberta. The role brought him critical plaudits and public recognition, as well as an introduction to the woman who would become his wife. George Murphy, who appeared alongside Hope in the musical, introduced him to a young singer named Dolores Reade who was appearing in a show down the street. After a brief courtship, Hope and Reade married in February 1934.

Hope continued his stage career in Say When and in the 1935 edition of the Ziegfeld Follies with Fanny Brice, an assignment that led in turn to a starring role opposite Ethel Merman in Cole Porter’s Red Hot and Blue. At the peak of his stardom, in 1938, Hope abandoned Broadway to try his luck in Hollywood.

Hollywood Bound

Hope made his big-screen debut in The Big Broadcast of 1938, in which he crooned “Thanks for the Memory,” the song that would become his signature. The start of his film career coincided with his emerging radio career; Hope was named host of NBC’s The Pepsodent Show, a gig he kept in one form or another well into the 1950s. His dual careers played off of and fed one another, as his movie co-stars became his guests on the radio show.

Over the course of his career, Hope starred in more than 50 films and made cameos in 15 others. But he is best remembered for the seven Road pictures he headlined with Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour. In the popular series, Hope played the role of a waggish coward thrown into adventurous circumstances who rises to the occasion and wins the hand of the woman he loves. Variations on this theme kept Hope on Hollywood’s list of top 10 box-office stars throughout the 1940s and ’50s.

Although Hope never won an Oscar for his acting, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has honored him five times, with two honorary Oscars, two special awards and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. (His failure to win an Academy Award for acting wasn’t a total loss: It provided Hope with endless fodder for sly one-liners in his live and television variety shows.)

G.I. Bob

Hope’s place in the Guinness Book of World Records as Most Honored Entertainer (with more than 2,000 awards and citations to his credit) was likewise not a result of his acting skills, but for his distinguished service entertaining troops abroad.

His first performance to boost military morale came in May 1941 at March Field in California. Hope so enjoyed putting on the show that he booked every base in the state for similar performances. After the United States declared war that December, he spent the bulk of the next four years traveling with his celebrity U.S.O. troupe to entertain military units abroad.

In 1948, Hope commenced a Christmas tradition when he performed in Germany for troops involved in the Berlin Airlift. For the next 44 years, he put on a Christmas show at a military base, veterans hospital or battleground. He entertained troops throughout the Korean, Vietnam and Persian Gulf conflicts as well.

Edward Powell, the president of the USO, today called Hope a "true American hero."

"For more than five decades, through four wars and years of peacekeeping missions, Bob Hope came to symbolize, for every man and woman in uniform, the idea that America cared for and supported its troops," Powell said in a statement after the entertainer's death.

A Life Filled With Honors

Of the innumerable honors Hope earned, the one he held most dear was the Congressional Gold Medal awarded him by President Kennedy. Kennedy called Hope “America’s most prized ambassador of goodwill throughout the world” when he presented the medal.

From 1953 through 1994, Hope aired a Christmas special on NBC, many of which were broadcasts of his U.S.O. shows. He fulfilled his long-standing contract with NBC (another Guinness record, at 61 years) with The Bob Hope Show, Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater and popular variety specials. In late 1996, he ran an open letter in the Hollywood trades announcing that he was ending his NBC contract to become a “free agent.”

A staunch Republican who nonetheless had the ear of every U.S. president since Roosevelt, Hope was once approached by two Republican senators about making a bid for the U.S. presidency when a survey in Washington state revealed that 83 percent of those polled would vote for him. His response: “The money’s not right, and my wife wouldn’t want to move to a smaller house.”

Hope is survived by his wife Dolores, sons Anthony and Kelly, and daughter Nora.