Actor Harvey Korman dies in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) - May 29, 2008 Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications
from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago,
his family said. He had undergone several major operations.
"He was a brilliant comedian and a brilliant father," daughter
Kate Korman said in a telephone interview with The Associated
Press. "He had a very good sense of humor in real life. "
A natural second banana, Korman gained attention on "The Danny
Kaye Show," appearing in skits with the star. He joined the show
in its second season in 1964 and continued until it was canceled in
1967. That same year he became a cast member in the first season of
"The Carol Burnett Show."
Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their
burlesques of classic movies such as "Gone With the Wind" and
soap operas like "As the World Turns" (their version was called
"As the Stomach Turns").
Another recurring skit featured them as "Ed and Eunice," a
staid married couple who were constantly at odds with the wife's
mother (a young Vickie Lawrence in a gray wig). In "Old Folks at
Home," they were a combative married couple bedeviled by Lawrence
as Burnett's troublesome young sister.
Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show's success in
a 2005 interview: "We were an ensemble, and Carol had the most
incredible attitude. I've never worked with a star of that
magnitude who was willing to give so much away."
Burnett was devastated by Korman's death, said her assistant,
Angie Horejsi.
"She loved Harvey very much," Horejsi said.
After 10 successful seasons, Korman left Burnett's show in 1977
for his own series. Dick Van Dyke took his place, but the chemistry
was lacking and the Burnett show was canceled two years later.
"The Harvey Korman Show" also failed, as did other series
starring the actor.
"It takes a certain type of person to be a television star,"
he said in that 2005 interview. "I didn't have whatever that is. I
come across as kind of snobbish and maybe a little too bright. ...
Give me something bizarre to play or put me in a dress and I'm
fine."
His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr
(who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel
Brooks' 1974 Western satire, "Blazing Saddles."
"A world without Harvey Korman - it's a more serious world,"
Brooks told the AP on Thursday. "It was very dangerous for me to
work with him because if our eyes met we'd crash to floor in comic
ecstasy. It was comedy heaven to make Harvey Korman laugh."
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."
In television, Korman guest-starred in dozens of series
including "The Donna Reed Show," "Dr. Kildare," "Perry
Mason," "The Wild Wild West," "The Muppet Show," "The Love
Boat," "The Roseanne Show" and "Burke's Law."
In their '70s, he and Tim Conway, one of his Burnett show
co-stars, toured the country with their show "Tim Conway and
Harvey Korman: Together Again." They did 120 shows a year,
sometimes as many as six or eight in a weekend.
Korman had an operation in late January on a non-cancerous brain
tumor and pulled through "with flying colors," Kate Korman said.
Less than a day after coming home, he was re-admitted because of
the ruptured aneurysm and was given a few hours to live. But he
survived for another four months.
"He fought until the very end. He didn't want to die. He fought
for months and months," said Kate Korman.
Harvey Herschel Korman was born Feb. 15, 1927, in Chicago. He
left college for service in the U.S. Navy, resuming his studies
afterward at the Goodman School of Drama at the Chicago Art
Institute. After four years, he decided to try New York.
"For the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on
off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway," he told a reporter in
1971.
He had no luck and had to support himself as a restaurant
cashier. Finally, in desperation, he and a friend formed a
nightclub comedy act.
"We were fired our first night in a club, between the first and
second shows," he recalled.
After returning to Chicago, Korman decided to try Hollywood,
reasoning that "at least I'd feel warm and comfortable while I
failed."
For three years he sold cars and worked as a doorman at a movie
theater. Then he landed the job with Kaye.
In 1960 Korman married Donna Elhart and they had two children,
Maria and Christopher. They divorced in 1977. Two more children,
Katherine and Laura, were born of his 1982 marriage to Deborah
Fritz.
In addition to his daughter Kate, he is survived by his wife and
the three other children.
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Associated Press Writers Alicia Chang and Raquel Maria Dillon
contributed to this report.