The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Bill Dana, the comedian who pretended to be an astronaut and became a fan of America’s original astronauts, has died. Dana was 92. Dana was born William Szathmary on Oct. 5, 1924, into a Hungarian Jewish family in Quincy, Mass., adopting a variation on his mother’s name for his stage …
Voice-over actor and improviser Tino Insana, who got his start in Chicago with a comedy trio with John Belushi, has died. Here is The Second City’s obituary for Insana: Tino Insana, improviser, actor, writer, award-winning voice-over artist, best remembered as Mr. Grouper in “Bubble Guppies,” for which he was nominated …
Singer. Songwriter. Comedian. Rabbi. Cantor. Gary Shapiro touched many lives in and around Los Angeles in ways a typical comedian never did. Shapiro died unexpectedly on Thursday. More details on that as they become available. Shapiro was born July 1, 1964. He was only 52. Memorial services will be held …
Charlie Murphy, a Navy vet and comedian who broke out from his younger brother’s shadow by telling outrageously true stories on Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show, died today from leukemia. He was 57. The last time I saw Charlie Murphy performing live was in October 2015, while he toured with The …
Dorothy Hofert Letterman Mengering was 72 when she first began appearing on her son’s late-night television show, and delighted millions in the 1990s with her reports from the Olympics, her pies from the kitchen and her advice for her son. Mengering died Tuesday peacefully at home, a day before David …
Don Rickles, the legendary comedian and actor who could roast President Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra and just about everyone else, has died. Rickles was 90. Rickles died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles from kidney failure, his publicist confirmed. He hadn’t stopped performing even in old age. Just a …
Lashonda Lester, a Detroit native named 2016’s Funniest Person in Austin, was supposed to record her first half-hour comedy special for Comedy Central two weeks from tonight in New Orleans. Instead, Lester has died. From Martha Kelly, Austin resident and co-star on FX’s Baskets: “Lashonda was one of the most …
Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, there were two places to go to find the best sketch comedians and improvising funny people in America: The Second City in Chicago and The Groundlings in Los Angeles. Gary Austin put The Groundlings on the map, founding the sketch and improv troupe …
Last year feels so much farther away than two months ago, doesn’t it? At the end of 2016, so many of us felt melancholy, lamenting the losses of so many icons. Not only in comedy but everywhere else in the world, role models seemed to be swept up almost as …
He may be remembered today as the one man who kept Sean Hannity in check for 13 years, or even as a radio talk-show giant before and after that, but Alan Colmes was at heart a stand-up comedian. Colmes died today, after recently taking a hiatus at the end of …
