DON RICKLES

(8 May 1926 - 6 April 2017)

The American stand-up comedian Don Rickles joined the US Navy after high school and served in World War II. After discharge he studied acting but took up comedy instead, becoming known as an ‘insult comic’ who would send up his audience, earning the name The Merchant of Venom. He made his film debut in Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), with Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, followed by The Rabbit Trap, The Rat Race, The Man With X-Ray Eyes, Beach Party and its sequels, Enter Laughing, The Money Jungle, Kelly’s Heroes, Innocent Blood, Casino, Dirty Work, Quest for Camelot and Toy Story and its sequels (voicing Mr Potato Head) plus a few others along the way. Most of his career outside of stand-up in Las Vegas was spent on TV in The Thin Man, The Twilight Zone, Wagon Train, The Addams Family, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Burke’s Law, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Munsters and various chat shows. He was married to Barbara Sklar and they had two children.

MICHAEL DARVELL