'Tonight Show' Comic Pat McCormick Dies

[bossradio93]

Note: I was going to post this article in the Game Shows Forum here but after reading the article it failed to mention Pat's contributions to the genre but I will always remember him as a semi-panelist on "The Gong Show" (NBC Daytime/syndicated). I have to say, Pat was brilliant and had a great comic mind. If this post should be in the Game Show Forum, it's fine with me.


'Tonight Show' Comic Pat McCormick Dies

Sat Jul 30,10:57 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Pat McCormick, a walrus-mustachioed comedy writer for Phyllis Diller, Red Skelton and others who also appeared on "The Tonight Show" and had a role in three "Smokey and the Bandit" movies, has died. He was 78.

McCormick died Friday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's hospital in Woodland Hills, spokeswoman Jennifer ***en said Saturday.

He was admitted to the facility in 1998 after a stroke left him partially paralyzed.

McCormick dropped out of Harvard Law School to pursue advertising work in New York but abandoned that career when he began earning money writing jokes for television and nightclub performers.

McCormick eventually became a writer for "The Jack Paar Show." Over a five-decade career, he wrote for the 1960s comedy series "Get Smart" and "The Danny Kaye Show." He also wrote and appeared on "Candid Camera" and was an announcer and straight man on Don Rickles' short-lived TV variety show in 1968.

He was a regular on "The New Bill Cosby Show" in 1972.

McCormick wrote for and made scores of appearances on "The Tonight Show." He played characters in sketches, dressing up as turkeys, squirrels and the shark from "Jaws." In one 1974 show, he streaked naked across the stage behind Carson during the opening monologue.

McCormick, who was more than 6 1/2 feet tall and weighed more than 200 pounds, also appeared in small roles in movies. He played Big Enos in the 1977 movie "Smokey and the Bandit" and two sequels.

Yahoo! News/AP-July 30, 2005