DON RICKLES,
1926-2017

Don Rickles, the insult comic whose 60-year career included TV, film and concert appearances, a pair of Grammy nominations and honorary membership in The Rat Pack, died Thursday at the age of 90. The cause was kidney failure.

He insulted everyone: Fans, celebrities, friends, President Reagan and even Frank Sinatra. He started like most stand-up comedians in the 1950s with one-liners but quickly discovered that audiences responded to his put-downs of hecklers. And while he had a litany of non-PC ways to refer to people according to their ethnicities, one phrase lasted him a lifetime in comedy, “hockey puck.”

Nicknamed “Mr. Warmth,” Rickles endeared himself to Sinatra with an insult at a 1957 appearance that not only got Frank to laugh, it started a lifelong friendship. He recorded the only albums of his career for Warner Bros. when Sinatra was there—Hello, Dummy in 1968 and Don Rickles Speaks a year later—and both received Grammy noms.

An actor and TV show announcer as well as a comedian, Rickles was co-host of That Regis Philbin Show in 1964 and ’65 before getting his own variety series at ABC in1968. From there he became a regular guest on talk shows, appearing on everything from Playboy After Dark to Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In to the Hollywood Squares game show. He was often on the dais at Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roasts and either on the couch or behind the desk on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show.

As tastes changed in the 1980s Rickles’ TV appearances decreased but he continued to be a draw on the nightclub circuit. Two films released in 1995 put Rickles in a different light and helped revive his profile: Martin Scorsese’s Casino, in which he played a subservient casino manager; and the animated Toy Story, where he voiced Mr. Potato Head.

Jon Landis directed a 2007 documentary on the comedian, Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project, which earned Rickles two Emmy Awards.

In the 2000s, he was a regular guest on all the late-night talkshows. Jimmy Kimmel tweeted today: "90 years with Don Rickles weren't enough. One of the sweetest and most lovely people I had the pleasure of knowing. We miss you already.”

Among the tributes on Twitter were:

Barbra Streisand: "Being skewered by Don Rickles was side-splitting funny. A gentle soul with rapid fire wit"

Josh Groban: “’To Josh, try to remember the key.’ I will cherish my Don Rickles autograph and his sweetness under the edge. RIP.

Patton Oswalt: “In lieu of flowers, Don Rickles' family has requested that people drop their pants and fire a rocket.”

Paul Mooney: “Don Rickles was a genius and a quick observer of funny- dominated comedy roast!”