The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Dick Van Patten, famously known as the TV dad on Eight is Enough in the late 1970s, died on Tuesday. Van Patten was 86. Van Patten started as a child actor on stage productions in his native New York City He really began to show off his comedic touch, though, …
At 100 years old, Jack Rollins survived and thrived through all of the comedy booms, and rightly could take at least partial credit for the great talents of at least two peak periods in the funny business as a manager and producer. Starting in the 1950s, Rollins represented and fostered …
Rick Ducommun began and ended his life in Canada, but in between, the comedian became one of those character actors you’d see in many movies and sitcoms through the late 1980s and early 1990s. Ducommun died June 12 in a Vancouver hospice, surrounded by family, due to complications from diabetes. …
Anne Meara, an actress and renowned comedian nominated for Emmys, Golden Globes and Tonys who started performing comedy with The Second City’s parent troupe, The Compass Players, and enjoyed a six-decade run as comedy and life partner with Jerry Stiller as Stiller and Meara, has died. Meara was 85. Meara …
The first time I met Harris Wittels, he was all of 21, and baring it all onstage at a naked comedy show. The next time I saw Wittels, he was a New Face at Montreal’s prestigious Just For Laughs festival. The third time? It could have been any number of …
Taylor Negron — stand-up comedian, actor, painter, poet and muse — died Saturday from cancer. Negron was 57. Born Brad Stephen Negron on Aug. 1, 1957, in Glendale, Calif., young Taylor already was performing stand-up comedy and appearing in episodes of The Dating Game by the time he matriculated at …
Longtime Chicago improv actor and teacher Jason R. Chin died suddenly Thursday night. Chin was 46. Improv Olympic founder Charna Halpern passed along the devastating news overnight. “I am heart broken. Our Jason Chin passed away,” Halpern wrote to friends. “He was a wonderful friend and a huge part of …
Sudden, sad news. Jan Hooks, who starred alongside one of Saturday Night Live‘s best casts ever from 1986-1991, has died. Hooks was 57. Her reps confirmed the news today. TMZ also reported that Hooks recently was battling with serious illness. More details are not yet available. Born April 23, 1957, …
The Kathy Griffin we all know today would not have existed as such without her. Same goes for hundreds of other comedians, male and female, straight and gay. The multiple hours of red carpet TV coverage devoted to celebrity gabbing and fashion gawking at every awards show would not exist …
You want to be able to quote his inspirational movie lines back to him, to step on a desk and shout to him, “O Captain! My Captain!” You want to be able to hug him close and tight and never let go, telling him, “It’s not your fault.” And then …
