Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Sid Caesar - # 72

He was number 72 on the list.


Sid Caesar, Yonkers native and TV comedy  pioneer, dead at 91


Sid Caesar, the prodigiously talented pioneer of TV comedy who paired with Imogene Coca in sketches that became classics and who inspired a generation of famous writers, died early Wednesday. He was 91. Caesar, a Yonkers, N.Y., native, died at his home in the Los Angeles area after a brief illness, family spokesman Eddy Friedfeld said.

In his two most important shows, "Your Show of Shows," 1950-54, and "Caesar's Hour," 1954-57, Caesar displayed remarkable skill in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy. And he gathered a stable of young writers who went on to worldwide fame in their own right - including Neil Simon and Woody Allen. "The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar," said critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary "Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy," which first aired in 2001.
While best known for his TV shows, which have been revived on DVD in recent years, he also had success on Broadway and occasional film appearances, notably in "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World." If the typical funnyman was tubby or short and scrawny, Caesar was tall and powerful, with a clown's loose limbs and rubbery face, and a trademark mole on his left cheek. But Caesar never went in for clowning or jokes. He wasn't interested. He insisted that the laughs come from the everyday.
"Real life is the true comedy," he said in a 2001 interview with The Associated Press. "Then everybody knows what you're talking about." Caesar brought observational comedy to TV before the term, or such latter-day practitioners as Jerry Seinfeld, were even born. In one celebrated routine, Caesar impersonated a gumball machine; in another, a baby; in another, a ludicrously overemotional guest on a parody of "This Is Your Life." He played an unsuspecting moviegoer getting caught between feuding lovers in a theater. He dined at a health food restaurant, where the first course was the bouquet in the vase on the table. He was interviewed as an avant-garde jazz musician who seemed happily high on something.

A

ctor (65 credits)

2004 Comic Book: The Movie (Video)

Old Army Buddy

2000 Globehunters (TV Movie)

Jacob (voice)

1998 The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit

Sid Zellman

1997 Mad About You (TV Series)

Uncle Harold

- Citizen Buchman (1997) ... Uncle Harold

1997 Vegas Vacation

Old Guy

1997 Life with Louie (TV Series)

Marty Kazoo

- Kazoo's Coming to Dinner (1997) ... Marty Kazoo (voice)

1995 The Great Mom Swap (TV Movie)

Papa Tognetti

1995 Love & War (TV Series)

Mr. Stein

- At the Pantheon: Part 2 (1995) ... Mr. Stein

1988 Side by Side (TV Movie)

Louis Hammerstein

1988 Freedom Fighter (TV Movie)

Max

1987 The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor

1986 Christmas Snow (TV Movie)

Snyder

1986 Sesame Street (TV Series)

The Professor

- Episode #18.19 (1986) ... The Professor

- Uncle Wally recalls his sailor days (1986) ... The Professor

1985/II Alice in Wonderland (TV Mini Series)

The Gryphon

1985 Love Is Never Silent (TV Movie)

Mr. Petrakis

1985 Amazing Stories (TV Series)

Lou Bundles

- Mr. Magic (1985) ... Lou Bundles

1985 Stoogemania

Doctor Fixyer Mindyer

1984 Cannonball Run II

Fisherman #2

1984 Over the Brooklyn Bridge

Uncle Benjamin

1978-1984 The Love Boat (TV Series)

Bert Multon / Michael Harmon

- Aunt Emma, I Love You/Hoopla/The First Romance (1984) ... Bert Multon

- Julie Falls Hard/Double Wedding/The Dummies (1978) ... Michael Harmon

1983 Found Money (TV Movie)

Sam Green

1982 Matt Houston (TV Series)

Prince Sergei Polansky

- Recipe for Murder (1982) ... Prince Sergei Polansky

1982 Grease 2

Coach Calhoun

1981 History of the World: Part I

Chief Caveman

1981 The Munsters' Revenge (TV Movie)

Dr. Dustin Diablo

1981 The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo (TV Series)

The Bomber

- Another Day, Another Bomb (1981) ... The Bomber

1980 Nelvanamation (Video)

King Goochi (voice)

1980 Dorothy in the Land of Oz (TV Short)

Wizard / Mince Pie (voice)

1980 The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu

Joe Capone

1980 Pink Lady (TV Series)

Sid Caesar

- Episode #1.6 (1980) ... Sid Caesar

- Episode #1.4 (1980) ... Sid Caesar

- Episode #1.2 (1980) ... Sid Caesar

1979 Having Babies (TV Series)

- Captive (1979)

1979 Intergalactic Thanksgiving or Please Don't Eat the Planet (TV Movie)

King Goochi (voice)

1979 Barnaby and Me (TV Movie)

Leo Fisk

1979 America 2100 (TV Movie)

MAX (voice)

1978 Vega$ (TV Series)

The General

- Mother Mishkin (1978) ... The General

1978 W.E.B. (TV Series)

- The Great Clowns (1978)

1978 Grease

Coach Calhoun

1978 The Cheap Detective

Ezra Dezire

1977 Curse of the Black Widow (TV Movie)

Lazlo Cozart

1977 Fire Sale

Sherman

1977 Flight to Holocaust (TV Movie)

George Beam

1976 Good Heavens (TV Series)

Herman Meltzer

- The Queen's Rook Club (1976) ... Herman Meltzer

1976 Silent Movie

Studio Chief

1975 When Things Were Rotten (TV Series)

the Marquis de la Salle

- The French Dis-connection (1975) ... the Marquis de la Salle

1974 Airport 1975

Barney

1973 Ten from Your Show of Shows

1969-1971 Love, American Style (TV Series)

Bert (segment "Love and the Bowling Ball") / John Smith (segment "Love and Who?")

- Love and the Bowling Ball/Love and the Check/Love and the Hiccups/Love and the Liberated Lady Boss (1971) ... Bert (segment "Love and the Bowling Ball")

- Love and the Legal Agreement/Love and the Militant/Love and Who? (1969) ... John Smith (segment "Love and Who?")

1971 The Ed Sullivan Show (TV Series)

Max - scene from 'Four on a Garden'

- Episode #24.20 (1971) ... Max - scene from 'Four on a Garden'

1970 NBC Children's Theatre (TV Series)

Narrator

- Pets Allowed (1970) ... Narrator

1970 Make Room for Granddaddy (TV Series)

Habib

- Tonoose, the Exile (1970) ... Habib

1969 Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (TV Series)

Guest Performer

- Guest Starring Sid Caesar (1969) ... Guest Performer

1968-1969 That's Life (TV Series)

- You Never Take Me Anyplace (1969)

- Bringing Baby Home (1968)

- Buying a House (1968)

1968 That Girl (TV Series)

Marty Nickels

- The Drunkard (1968) ... Marty Nickels

1967 The Danny Thomas Hour (TV Series)

Gregory

- Instant Money (1967) ... Gregory

1967 The Spirit Is Willing

Ben Powell

1967 A Guide for the Married Man

Technical Adviser (uncredited)

1967 The Busy Body

George Norton

1966 The Mouse That Roared (TV Movie)

Grand Duchess Gloriana XII / Prime Minister Count Rupert of Mountjoy / Tully Bascombe

1963 It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Melville Crump

1961 Checkmate (TV Series)

Johnny Wilder

- Kill the Sound (1961) ... Johnny Wilder

1961 General Electric Theater (TV Series)

Nick Lucifer

- The Devil You Say (1961) ... Nick Lucifer

1959 The United States Steel Hour (TV Series)

- Marriage... Handle with Care (1959)

1947 The Guilt of Janet Ames

Sammy Weaver

1946 Tars and Spars

Chuck Enders

1941 Shep Fields and His New Music with Ken Curtis (Short).

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