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Thread: Don Rickles, legendary funnyman and king of the insult, dead at 90

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    Default Don Rickles, legendary funnyman and king of the insult, dead at 90

    Comedic insult king Don Rickles, whose verbal jabs and playful putdowns endeared him to both audiences and Hollywood stars alike, died Thursday. He was 90.

    The Queens native, who would have turned 91 on May 8, suffered kidney failure, said Paul Shefrin, his longtime publicist.

    Sarcastially nicknamed “Mr. Warmth,” Rickles headlined casinos from Atlantic City to Las Vegas for decades with his legendary one-liners and became a perennial presence on late-night TV shows.

    No one was immune from Rickles’ politically incorrect insults — including friends such as former President Ronald Reagan, late-night star Johnny Carson and even the legendary Frank Sinatra.

    Rickles, who was raised in a four-story brick building in Jackson Heights, appeared in many movies and TV roles.

    Rickles is best remembered for his appearances on a variety of talk and comedy shows, where he would trade good-natured insults with hosts and guests.

    One of the best-known skits involved a “Tonight Show” appearance when Carson was interviewing Sinatra.

    Rickles appeared on stage and immediately dropped to his knees to kiss Sinatra’s ring — before launching into a routine peppered with references to the crooner’s alleged mob ties.

    “When you enter a room, you have to kiss his ring,” Rickles joked about Sinatra. “I don’t mind, but he has it in his back pocket.”

    Rickles was the considered in some circles to be the Rat Pack’s court jester, hanging out with the likes of Sinatra and Dean Martin at clubs.

    In another “Tonight Show” appearance, Sinatra told a story about seeing Rickles at a restaurant.

    “He came over to the table and he said, ‘Frank, do me a favor, will you? I’m sitting with a very pretty girl and, uh, I’m trying to make out, you know,’” Sinatra recalled.
    And he said, ‘I told her I know you and she really doesn't believe me. Would you stop by the table?’ And I said all right. I was just about finished, and I walked by the table and I said, 'How are ya, Don? Nice to see you.’ And he said, 'Can't you see I'm eating, Frank?’”

    Rickles, an Emmy-award winner for outstanding performance in a variety program in 2008, enjoyed brief success with an NBC sitcom called “CPO Sharkey,” which ran from 1976 through 1978. The show featured Rickles as an abrasive, sharp-tongued Navy chief petty officer in charge of a company of new recruits.

    In real life, Rickles had enlisted in the Navy, and served during World War II on a torpedo boat.

    “When I got out of high school back in the ‘40s, I had to go to a thing called a war against Japan,” Rickles told the Daily News in 1996. “What did I know then? I was still trying to figure out why I had pimples.”

    Two years after he was honorably discharged, Rickles — with dreams of being a dramatic actor — studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where his classmates included Jason Robards, Grace Kelly and Anne Bancroft.

    He failed to enjoy their box office success, settling for bit parts on the small screen.

    It was the frustration of infrequent work in Los Angeles that led him to perform at comedy clubs, where he honed his insult schtick by going head-to-head with bothersome hecklers. He appeared in small hotels across the East Coast, many of them upstate in the Catskill mountains.

    The audiences enjoyed the insults more than his prepared material. His favorite put-down was to call a person a hockey puck.

    “If I were to insult people and mean it, that wouldn’t be funny,” Rickles said. “There’s a difference between an actual insult and a friendly jab. So I don’t think I’m offensive on stage. I like to think I'm like the guy who goes to the office Christmas party Friday night, insults some people but still has his job Monday morning.”

    Rickles’ success finally got him to the big screen in movies that included “The Rat Race,” “Bikini Beach” and “Pajama Party.”

    He also took a dramatic turn as Billy Sherbert, a casino manager in the iconic 1995 film “Casino” alongside Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone.

    De Niro, during a Spike TV roast in 2014, said: “Don is something rare, a true friend, a wonderful human being. If he weren’t, he would never be able to get away with being such an a--hole.”

    Rickles also found success with younger audiences as the voice of Mr. Potato Head in three “Toy Story” films.

    He also made guest appearances on such TV classics as “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Get Smart,” “The Addams Family” and “Gomer Pyle.”

    In a 1966 profile of Sinatra for Esquire magazine, Gay Talese said of Rickles: “His humor is so rude, in such bad taste, that it offends no one — it is too offensive to be offensive.”

    Rickles grew up an only child, the son of an insurance salesman and a housewife.

    “What I remember most about Jackson Heights is that I left,” Rickles once said.

    Rickles began honing his comedic style as a child. He said his father “was a great ‘kibitzer' who loved to kid people about themselves. I loved him and adapted his approach. I began to make friends by making people laugh.”

    “In school, I wasn’t a wiseguy,” Rickles told the Wall Street Journal in 2015. “I had the same attitude that I have on stage today. My personality is such that I’m never hurtful and I can get away with being a smart aleck. People just need to know up front that your intent isn’t personal.”

    Talk show host Larry King said Thursday that the news of Rickles’ death hit him hard.

    “I was so sad. Nobody lives forever, and I knew he was 90, but I saw him a couple weeks ago,” King said. “He was hysterical to the end. He always made me laugh.”

    Tributes began pouring in from every corner of the comedy world.

    “Don Rickles has passed away,” tweeted funnyman Billy Crystal. “A giant loss.”

    Comedian Bob Newhart said he and his wife, Ginnie, were devastated.

    “He was called ‘The Merchant of Venom,’ but in truth, he was one of the kindest, caring and most sensitive human beings we have ever known,” Newhart said. “We are devastated and our world will never be the same. We were totally unprepared for this.”

    Rickles is survived by Barbara, his wife of 52 years, as well as their daughter Mindy, who is also a comedienne. Their son Larry died in 2011.

    Funeral services will be private, the family said. In lieu of flowers, the family said donations can be made to the Larry Rickles Endowment Fund at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

    With News Wire Services

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    Don was one funny man.
    He made me laugh since I was a kid.
    Younger people don't know who he was.
    RIP Don You will be missed buy us old people

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