J-Speaks: The Passing of "Mr. Warmth"

Every great comedian that has had their own unique way of making us laugh. One comedian who had a style all his own was one born in Queens, NY. A style of telling jokes like no one before him. His verbal jabs, playful putdowns and insults of movie and television stars, U.S. presidents, talk show hosts and occasionally a mobster endeared him to the masses. It also made him a star on the silver and small screen and earned him the respect and friendship of the greatest late night talk show host in television history. On Thursday, that great comedian who got a laugh from entertainers and ordinary folks left us.

The legendary comedian and actor Donald Jay “Don” Rickles passed away on Thursday at his home in Beverly Hills, CA. He was 90 years old. Mr. Rickles is survived by his wife of 52 years Barbara Sklar; their daughter actress Mindy, and his two grandchildren Ethan and Harrison Mann. Mr. Rickles also had a son Lawrence, who passed from complications with pneumonia in 2011.

A date for the funeral service has not been set, but when it does it will be a private one as stated by the Rickles family. The family also said that besides sending flowers, that donations can be made to the Larry Rickles Endowment Fund at Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles, CA.

In a career that lasted close to six decades, from guest appearances on television shows to staring in movies and working the comedy circuit doing standup on nightclub stages.

Whether it was doing a scene with the likes of Jeff Hollis in the 1970s show “C.P.O. Sharkey” (1976-78), to the first of many appearances on “The Tonight Show,” hosted by the late great Johnny Carson in 1965 to his role as Mr. Potato Head in the 1995 movie “Toy Story,” which had two sequels and is the one role that his grandchildren are most impressed by than all his roles.

Mr. Rickles’ comedic style was beyond words ferociously entertaining and humorous and equally fearsome. To sit in the front row at one of his stand-up shows was to be sitting in a shooting gallery with nowhere to hide from the figurative bullets that were going to come from out of his mouth. From those that watch him on television, to those that were in the audience for the taping of the “Tonight Show,” Mr. Rickles appeared 89 times over the course of 30 years. That sense of humor he displayed during his appearances, with many alongside the late great Frank Sinatra earned him praise and love from fans and those in entertainment across the board.

“90 years with Don Rickles weren’t enough. One of the sweetest and most lovely people I had the pleasure of knowing,” Jimmy Kimmel of ABC’s daily late night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” said on Twitter Thursday.

“Don once begged me for a couple of bucks then told me to twist myself into a pretzel. Ego slayer! Comic Everest! Spank you, Mr. Rickles,” comedian and actor Jim Carrey tweeted.

“Being skewered by Don Rickles was side-spitting funny. A gentle soul with a rapid-fire wit,” singer and actress Barbara Streisand tweeted.

“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,” Rickles’ best friend, actor and fellow comedian Bob Newhart said.

To bring the genius of Mr. Rickles into context, he was the originator of “politically correctness” in comedy before it became mainstream.

Mr. Rickles once said of the late former president Ronald Reagan, who was insisted by Mr. Sinatra to perform an unrehearsed act at his second Inaugural Ball, “Remember when you were governor and you used to walk over to my table? Now you’re big and you’re getting on my nerves.”

He also said once to the President Reagan, with his wife, First Lady Nancy Reagan in the audience, “It’s a victory for me to fly all the way from California to be here for this kind of money.” He then proceeded to drop the microphone

Mr. Rickles said of why his ability to insult anyone get a laugh from people from it was because he was never “mean spirited.”

“Not that you had to like it, but you had to be under a rock somewhere not to get it. Nevertheless, he did back off the ethnic jibes years ago.”

Mr. Rickles was born on May 8, 1926 in Queens, NY to Max Rickles, an insurance salesman and the former Etta Feldman, a housewife. Rickles grew up in Jackson Height, NY and once said what he remembers most about growing up in that part of New York is, “that I left.”

The comedy style that Mr. Rickles became known for he honed as a child, saying that he learned from his dad, who as he described was a “kibitzer,” who enjoyed kidding around with people about themselves. Rickles also said that his ability to make people laugh is how he began to make friends as he was growing up.

“In school, I wasn’t a wiseguy,” Rickles said to 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.”

Before he became the great comedian nicknamed “Mr. Warmth,” Mr. Rickles enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served our country during World War II on a torpedo boat.

Two years after being honorably discharged, Mr. Rickles studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, where he took classes with the likes of Jason Robards, Grace Kelly and Anne Bancroft.

While he did not enjoy the box office success of his classmates, Mr. Rickles made the most of his small roles on the small screen.

With infrequent work as an actor, Mr. Rickles worked the L.A. comedy club circuit, where he honed his insulting act going figuratively toe-to-toe with bothersome hecklers.

Mr. Rickles also made appearances in the then smoked filled nightclubs from Miami Beach, FL, to Las Vegas, NV to many East Coast spots in Catskills Mountains in upstate New York to many spots on Long Island.

Audiences from one state to the next enjoyed the Mr. Rickles insults more than his prepared material. Mr. Rickles said that his favorite put-down was when he called a person a hockey puck.

“If I were to insult people and mean it, that wouldn’t be funny,” Mr. Rickles once 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.”

Mr. Rickles’ first encounter with Mr. Sinatra came after working in a Miami Beach nightclub “Murray Franklin’s” and he remarked to Sinatra that he saw him in the movie The Pride and the Passion and Mr. Rickles told him that, “the cannon’s acting was great.” He also said, “Make yourself at home, Frank. Hit somebody.”

That moment led to a life-long friendship between the two and Mr. Sinatra encouraged other celebrities to catch Mr. Rickles’ act and be insulted by him.

This is how Rickles earned the nicknames “The Merchant of Venom,” and his mostly used nickname, “Mr. Warmth.”

Mr. Rickles would find his home on the small screen in the 1950s through the 70s with guest appearances on shows like “The Twilight Zone,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” The Munsters,” The Addams Family,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” and “I Dream of Jeannie.”

He also made appearances on the silver screens in movies like 1958’s “Run Silent, Run Deep,” with the late Clark Gable and the late Burt Lancaster; 1963’s “X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes,” where Mr. Rickles played a carnival barker, who was out to exploit the title character, played by the late Ray Milland and 1965’s “Beach Blanket Bingo,” part of the Beach Party film series, where Mr. Rickles recalled in his 2007 memoir that at a White House dinner, then First Lady Barbara Bush teased him about his choice to appear in those films.

That choice, which came about thanks to Mr. Rickles’ longtime agent Jack Gilardi, who was married to the great Annette Funicello when Rickles was casted in the film series, subsequently began a string of guest appearances on television talk shows and he was a frequent guest on “The Tonight Show,” during the Carson era beginning in 1965.

He began his string of over 100 appearances on Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show,” in the early 1960s. He then began appearing on Jack Paar’s. Unfortunately, Paar was lukewarm about Rickles, but his successor in Mr. Carson was not and the rest is television history that lasted all the way to 1992, just before Carson’s retirement.

One of the most memorable highlights from Mr. Rickles guest appearances came in a skit in 1968 where two Japanese women were treating Carson to a bath and massage by their feet and Rickles walked onto the set and began massaging him.

“Just give me a break. I’m so lonely,” Rickles said as he massaged Carson, while making him laugh.

In guest appearance by Mr. Rickles on “The Tonight Show,” in 1980 would be the third-highest rated episode over Carson’s run. That episode was watched by 9.3 million households, which equated to 25 million people.

A lot of the icons in entertainment back then, their star would fade to black over the past few decades, but Mr. Rickles was unlike a lot of those icons.

Mr. Rickles appeared in the 1970’s film “Kelly’s Heroes,” playing the role of Crapgame and sharing the marquee poster with co-stars Clint Eastwood, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and the late great Carroll O’Connor, who we all come to know as Archie Bunker from the sitcom of the 1970s “All in the Family.”

On occasion, Mr. Rickles appeared as a panelist on the game show, “Hollywood Squares.”

In 1983, he co-hosted with Steve Lawrence, who he did concerts in Las Vegas “Foul-Ups, Bleeps & Bunders,” which was an imitation of “TV’s Bloopers & Practical Jokes.”

In 1998, he played the role of Mr. George Wilson in the “Dennis the Menace Strikes Again.”

In Feb. 2007, Mr. Rickles made a cameo appearance as himself in a strange, reoccurring dream sequence in an episode of CBS’s dramatic series, “The Unit,” which starred Dennis Haysbert.

Mr. Rickles even appeared on a 2009 episode on comedienne Kathy Griffin’s reality show, “My Life on the D-List,” where he met Griffin’s mother, Maggie, which fulfilled one of her items on her “bucket list.”

In 2011, Mr. Rickles was reunited with his co-star from the 1995 film “Casino,” Joe Pesci in a Snickers advertisement, that highlighted the actors known for their, “short fuses.”

On May 28,2014, Mr. Rickles was honored by Spike TV with a show, “One Night Only: An All-Star Comedy Tribute to Don Rickles,” which was recorded at New York City’s Apollo Theater. Comedian and actor Jerry Seinfeld was the master of ceremonies for the two-hour special and it featured live monlogues from some of the elite in entertainment and the media like Johnny Depp, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Tracy Morgan, MSNBC news anchor Brian Williams, Regis Philbin, Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. There were also recorded segments from his best friend in actor Bob Newhart, Kimmel, and Eddie Murphy.

“He is all what we inspire to be,” Stewart said on that night.

Mr. Rickles continued to make appearances on late night talk shows, including the previously mentioned “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” and “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” He even appeared as a guest on one of the final episodes of “The Late Show with David Letterman,” which was on May 11, 2015.

Despite multiple surgeries following a bout with necrotizing fasciitis, Mr. Rickles continued to tour across the country to perform stand-up right up to his death. He talked about the thought of retiring in an interview in 2014 and said, “I’m in good health. I’m working better than I ever have. The audiences are great. Why should I retire? I’m like a fighter. The bell rings and you come out and fight. My energy comes alive. And I still enjoy it.”

On Thursday, a comedy pioneer passed away. He had an ability to get a laugh from those that watched him in person, on the small or silver screen through making a verbal jab and playful putdown on those in the entertainment industry or the public eye in terms of politics. Along the way, he gained a respect from entertainers and fans across the board. They enjoyed seeing him, hearing him, and learning from him and what they learned to enjoy life and laugh at yourself now and again.

“A God died today. Don Rickles, we did not want to ever lose you. Never,” actor Tom Hanks tweeted.

“I was so sad. Nobody lives forever, and I knew he was 90, but I saw him a couple of weeks ago,” long time talk show host Larry King said on Thursday about when he heard about the passing of Mr. Rickles. “He was hysterical to the end. He always made me laugh.”

Information and quotations are courtesy of 4/7/17 New York Daily News article, “Laugh Till It Hurt,” by Nancy Dillon; 4/7/17 Newsday article, “Farewell to ‘Mr. Warmth,’” by Verne Gay; 4/7/17 4 a.m. edition of “Early Today,” with Yasmin Vossoughian and Francis Rivera, with story by Lester Holt and en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Rickles.