Greene had planned to become a gym teacher. From there, he went on to showrooms in Miami, Chicago, and
Reno/
Lake Tahoe before an agent persuaded him to move to Las Vegas and open in 1954 for
Dorothy Shay, "the
Park Avenue Hillbillie", at
the Last Frontier. His act was held over for 18 weeks, a first for that venue. He began performing at the
Tropicana Hotel in 1957, remaining there for five years as one of their headliners. Greene played
Carnegie Hall and appeared on TV variety show
The Ed Sullivan Show, which he said he hated because "They'd rush you on and off". He played Pvt. Braddock for a year on
Combat! and guested on
The Joey Bishop Show,
The Love Boat, and played Lou Carnesco in two episodes of
The Fall Guy. He appeared in "Members Only", a fourth-season, 1985 episode of the action TV show
The A-Team. Greene was widely respected by his peers, including
Johnny Carson who was a longtime fan. Greene made 40 appearances on
The Tonight Show on which he also served as a guest host. He appeared on
The Merv Griffin Show and also served as a guest host there upon occasion. He noted that he gave
Arnold Schwarzenegger and
Luciano Pavarotti their first national television exposure. Furthermore, he also appeared on
Match Game and
Tattletales (with his first wife Nalani Kele) in the 1970s. In December 1977, he appeared in
The Love Boat S1 E11 vignette "Divorce Me, Please" as Paul Baynes, who discovers newfound appreciation for his wife Audrey, played by
Florence Henderson. When the
MGM Grand Hotel opened in 1975 with
Dean Martin as headliner, the second headline act was Greene whose salary at one point climbed to $150,000 a week; he quipped that $125,000 went to "my
bookmaker". Beginning in 2003 and lasting for six years, Greene suffered from
panic attacks and
stage fright that rendered him unable to perform. In 2009, in Las Vegas, Greene returned to performing. Greene owned several nightclubs over the years and in different cities, including New Orleans. ==Personal life and death==