Wednesday, February 12, 2014

They Always Go in Threes, right?

Sad news: One of television's original comic stars, Sid Caesar, has died. He was 91 and at home in Los Angeles, according to his friend and former collaborator, Carl Reiner, reports Reuters.

First, Shirley Temple; now, Sid. Who will be next?

Sid Caesar performing in four different languages



French: 0:00 - 1:42 German: 1:42 - 2:52 Italian: 2:52 - 4:08

46 comments:

Icepick said...

Wasn't Olivia de Havilland's sister first?

KCFleming said...

There are going to be a lot of threesomes in the next 20 years.

That didn't come out right.

ricpic said...

I have it on good authority that the next to go will be Francisco Franco.

ricpic said...

I'm old enough to actually remember Your Show of Shows and the fact is that Caeser & Co. were more frantic than funny. Although I always found Imogene Coca, Sid's female sidekick, to be naturally funny. She was like a forerunner of Andrea Martin, who's hysterical.

The Dude said...

Abe Vigoda needs to look out.

Trooper York said...

One can only hope that someone will introduce Lena Dunham to Phillip Seymour Hoffman's dealer.

Trooper York said...

Wait a minute?

Was that too harsh?

sakredkow said...

Let's not borrow trouble.

Meade said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Ask not for whom the slide whistle tolls

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Drug overdose not included.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

James Earl Jones has had a good run... im just saying.

Michael Haz said...

Wilford Brimley. Or Jimmy Carter.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Wilford Brimley's been seventy years old for at least the past three decades. I think he contains the cure for diabetus in his left leg.

ndspinelli said...

RitMo, LOL!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

JRJ seemed pretty healthy the last glimpse of him I caught. I realize an exterior that dark is inherently resistant to aging from the outside, but he always seems pretty happy, too. Still, 83 is getting up there.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

nd, with the t-shirt craze of the current generation, I did find a pretty funny gif of Wilford that had him posing his hands, rap-style, with the caption, "Bitches don't know nuthin' bout my diabeetus".

It seemed snarky enough but I go for the even crazier t shirts.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

So, did anyone else wonder what sort of audience would have understood all that? If not, then was he really telling jokes? Showing off language skills? Exhibiting the art of linguistic impersonation? What?

I seriously thought from his name this guy would have been Italian. He's got to be one of the more famous Caesars since Julius and the guy they named the salad after.

David Chase's original name was "Cesare". It's funny, an Italian guy changes his name to an Anglo word for running and the Jewish guy with no surname gets branded by the authorities at customs with a Roman dictator. Life is goofy.

edutcher said...

Not next.

Hoffman was first.

Icepick said...

Wasn't Olivia de Havilland's sister first?

That was at the beginning of the year with Larry from Araby right after.

rcocean said...

My Dad was a big "Show of Shows" fan and when the thing showed up on Cable TV in the 1980s I watched a few shows with him.

I didn't think much of it. A few funny bits, take offs on old films, but a lot slow, mediocre stuff too. Never thought Sid was that good. However, Imogene Coca was Funny.

XRay said...

Ya gotta realize/remember that in the mid/early fifties TV was stunning in and of itself. The technology.

They could have shown bowel movements that would likely have been a hit.

Not trying to take away from Sid, as he grasped the importance of the medium right away and was in many ways a trail blazer, even if his talent didn't always measure up to his ambition.

RIP.

XRay said...

As to Hoffman being first of the threesome... I'm not so sure. Sid a novelty I guess you could say, but Shirley had a great full life. All in what's being measured I guess, as to whom ends up in that gruesome threesome.

Michael Haz said...

Professor Irwin C. Corey will be 100 years old in June.

Amartel said...

Lem said "James Earl Jones has had a good run... im just saying."

Noooooo, I love his Sprint commercials with the British guy, giving dramatic readings of texts and phone calls. Totes McGotes.
Wish death on someone else, Lindsay Lohan, Zsa Zsa Gabor, or somebody who's going soon anyway.

edutcher said...

The British guy is Malcolm McDowell.

Amartel said...

Caligula is now your friend!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Zsa Zsa Gabor still lives?

Modern medicine I guess.

Amartel said...

Saw something about Zsa Zsa having a birthday recently which is why I thought of her. Just checked and, yes, she's still going.

deborah said...

Bush, Sr.

rcocean said...

No comment on the disappearance of Crack?

rcocean said...

There are lot of old Movie TV stars over 80 out there. Reiner, Brooks, Van Dyke, Eastwood, Connery, Caine, Duvall, etc. etc.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Bush, Sr. says he's going to wait until after his son Jeb inauguration.

Shouting Thomas said...

Dylan's been looking pretty ragged for quite a while.

In fact, in some photos, looks like his face is falling off.

chickelit said...

Carl Djerassi?

He won't die until they give him the Nobel Prize.

Revenant said...

Caesar was a talented guy, and launched the careers of an almost scary number of other talented people.

I'm ashamed to admit this, but I'd just kind of assumed he was dead. He was such a substance-abuse basket case before he cleaned up in the mid-70s, I guess I just figured his body had to have given out by now. But 91, wow.

Just goes to show you're never too old to clean up your act.

deborah said...

"Bush, Sr. says he's going to wait until after his son Jeb inauguration."

:) I always liked Sr.

Trooper York said...

Betty White is not worried.

She made a deal with the Devil.

Well actually she gave him a blow job. Back in the Garden of Eden.

Shouting Thomas said...

Well actually she gave him a blow job. Back in the Garden of Eden.

The first Deep Throat in human history!

No wonder she still has such a nice complexion.

rcocean said...

"He was such a substance-abuse basket case"

No doubt with a clean life style he would lived to be 100.

Trooper York said...

Well Betty White thinks practices makes perfect.

rcocean said...

Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks are still going strong.

Revenant said...

No doubt with a clean life style he would lived to be 100.

Struck down in his youth by the scourge of liquor!

rcocean said...

"Struck down in his youth by the scourge of liquor!"

Actually it was the cigarettes. George Burns told him to stick to cigars or he'd die a young man.

William said...

You should count the three as three actors you thought were dead. That's the element they had in common. By this reckoning Olivia DeHavilland, Shirley Temple, and Sid Caesar have completed the cycle. Mickey Rooney can go skiing this weekend.

Mitch H. said...

Bush, Sr. says he's going to wait until after his son Jeb inauguration.

So, he plans to live forever?

I eventually warmed up to Dubya, but the Shrub and his aristocratic pretensions were the reason I was such a crap Republican in the Nineties. I can't stand dynasties.

And they always die in threes because they're always dying - apophenia does the rest.

ricpic said...

Dylan's been looking pretty ragged for quite a while.

Skinny guys go on forever.