Comedic Actor Harvey Korman Dies 81
Comedic actor Harvey Korman has died in Los Angeles at the age of 81. Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago.
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Korman was the actor on the Carol Burnett Show, where he parodied soap opera As the World Turns in As the Stomach Turns. He was also put in Mel Brooks’ movies including High Anxiety and History of the World. Later, however, Korman left the Carol Burnett Show for his own show, which failed and ,as a result, Korman worked on a number of other series.
TIME reports that Korman had an operation in late January on a non-cancerous brain tumor and pulled through “with flying colors.”
He also appeared in the Brooks comedies High Anxiety, The History of the World Part I and Dracula: Dead and Loving It, as well as two Pink Panther moves, Trail of the Pink Panther in 1982 and Curse of the Pink Panther in 1983. Korman’s other films included Gypsy, Huckleberry Finn (as the King), Herbie Goes Bananas and Bud and Lou (as legendary straightman Bud Abbott to Buddy Hackett’s Lou Costello). He also provided the voice of Dictabird in the 1994 live-action feature The Flintstones.
According to the Los Angeles Times, on the Burnett show, which steadfastly stayed in television’s top 10 during its run, Korman showcased his versatility — playing a robust Yiddish matron in one skit, then reappearing as a comic Rhett Butler while sending up “Gone With the Wind” with the show’s star.
He scored as the big-bosomed Mother Marcus and hapless Ed, who was a member of the incredibly dysfunctional “Mama’s Family,” one of the more popular skits that became a series in the 1980s.
The actor is survived by his wife and four children.
Photo: © Sarcasmo