[Previous entry: "Back To The Finals!"] [Next entry: "Purple and Gold Eye Candy"]

05/30/2008: "Happy Trails, Harvey Korman"

Man, it's been a tough week to be a classic TV comic. Coming on the heels of the death of Laugh-In star Dick Martin, we learned last night that Harvey Korman has passed away. Korman was the classic second banana / straight man, able to deliver the lines needed to get the star the big laugh but also capable of creating his own funny moments. He'll be remembered as a key part of the classic ensemble, along with Tim Conway, Lyle Waggoner and Vicki Lawrence, on the long-running Carol Burnett Show. To me, though, he'll always be the sneering Hedley Lamarr, the deliciously evil villian in Mel Brooks' film, "Blazing Saddles".

Korman continued to perform until the end, touring recently with Conway in a reunion tour. He suffered an abdominal aneurysm in January that ought have killed him outright, but he fought the odds for months before succumbing. Harvey Korman was 81 years old.

Replies: 1 Comment

On Tuesday, June 3rd, RavTan said:

while his name was not as well known as his face over on the East side of "the pond", he was remembered and loved for his Hedley Lamarr portrayal - so much that the Guardian newspaper printed the

"I want you to round up every vicious criminal and gunslinger in the west. Take this down.

"I want rustlers, cut throats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers . . . . and Methodists. "

speech (sadly, not in full) in his obituary.

Allright - the line was written by Mel, but delivered perfectly by Harvey.