RIP Dom DeLuise
The world has lost a very funny man. Dom DeLuise – actor, comic, author – died last night at a Los Angeles hospital after a long illness.
DeLuise was a classic comic foil, always recognizable as his own personality yet fitting seamlessly into any scene. He appeared in many films with friends Burt Reynolds and Mel Brooks, and will forever be remembered as the musical director in “Blazing Saddles”. He appeared as a regular in the “Dean Martin Roasts,” often delivering the most scathing insults, but with his roly-poly self-decepreciating style, you just couldn’t be mad.
Later in life, DeLuise – never one to pass good food – turned to authoring cookbooks and children’s tales. His own three children all followed him into the business and are successful actors.
As his friend Reynolds put it, “As you get older you think about this more and more, I was dreading this moment.” Another good one has gone. Dom Deluise, who had been fighting cancer for over a year, was 75.
UPDATE: Courtesy of YouTube and the good folks at LAObserved, here’s Dom’s aforementioned turn as the director of “The French Mistake”:
