In the run-up to his big day, the performer - who is famous for entertaining US troops worldwide during the 20th Century - urged Americans to think of their armed forces over the Memorial Day holiday.

"Take time out to say 'thanks' to the heroes who have defended our freedoms with their lives over the years," he said.

"The men and women who served the ultimate price so we can have and enjoy a three-day weekend to eat hot dogs, hamburgers... And while you are at it, acknowledge those who perished during and after the 9/11 terrorist attack on our nation."

At the same time, the US congress announced it was approving plans to name a veterans' chapel at the Los Angeles National Cemetery after him.

Congressional approval was needed for the move, as Hope is not a veteran, and is still alive.

Hope at the golf tournament which bears his name in 2000

His popularity remains undiminished - prime-time specials featuring archive clips of him helped NBC win the recent TV ratings battle.

War veterans - led by former President Gerald Ford - are also aiming to raise $2.5m (�1.7m) towards a $10m (�6.8m) monument to celebrate his morale-boosting achievements in San Diego, California.

Ill-health

But ill-health has kept Hope - who was born in London, but emigrated to the US as child - away from the public eye since the turn of the century.

Most recently, Hope was taken to hospital in August 2001 suffering from pneumonia.

Upon his release, asked what he wanted for dessert for his first lunch at home, he answered: "I don't care... as long as it's coffee ice cream."

He was also hospitalised two years earlier, with gastrointestinal bleeding, although the condition is not thought to have been life-threatening and he was released with a clean bill of health a week later.

With US troops in Vietnam in 1970: Hope contemplated retirement then

Before then, though, Hope had stayed active well into his 90s - despite telling troops in Vietnam in 1972 that his Christmas show for them would be his last.

In 1983 he went to Beirut, and in 1991 he went to Saudi Arabia to perform for service personnel involved in Operation Desert Storm.

Despite becoming frail, in 1994 he travelled to Normandy to mark the anniversary of D-Day, and then went to London for a Royal Albert Hall concert.

In 1998 the UK Government awarded him an honorary knighthood, while he and his wife Dolores were given a papal knighthood in the same year.

In the same year, he donated his archive of jokes - written by an army of up to 13 writers at a time - radio and TV broadcasts, photographs and film scripts to the US Library of Congress.

Legacy

His concern for his legacy has continued, despite his failing health - in March he also donated money to the organisation behind the Emmys to help create an archive of classic US TV comedy.

Few critics dare attack his reputation - but Woody Allen accused him of failing to make the transfer to television properly in a 1998 interview featured in the New Yorker.

"In television, he was lazy, and nobody cared," he said.

"He would come out and do these old-fashioned sketched, and after a while he was unashamedly reading from cards. It was just awful."

Veterans want to raise $2.5m for a monument to him

But Hope's reputation still shines on - and he even survived his own death in 1998, after the Associated Press news agency accidentally published his obituary, prompting politicians in Congress into making premature tributes.

"He had a good laugh about it," his daughter Linda said at the time.

The golf-lover had planned to go out onto his course, but she said he had decided against it, saying:

"There are all these news choppers flying around."