Don Rickles Just Passed Away

[toobfreak]

Comedian Don Rickles is dead at age 90. I sure will miss his zany humor.

 

[warren]

A life well lived as I see it.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Insult humor at its finest. A legend is going home.

 

[cabinfever]

Rest in peace, Crapgame. Thanks for the laughs.

 

[papipeguy]

Damn.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

He really wasn't insulting. He had refined the art of playing on people's insecurities. If people get insulted it was their own fault. However, he rode a fine line, for sure.

 

[toobfreak]

Don Rickles was part of a dwindling cadre of great Hollywood talent, a person who you'd often see on Johnny Carson, not many of them left now.
What are some of the really good actors still alive (who can still act)? Off hand I can think of:
Clint Eastwood

Jack Nicholson

Robert De Nero

Harrison Ford

Al Pacino

I mention Kirk Douglas because the guy is still alive at 100! 8O

Christopher Plummer

Max von Sydow

Gene Hackman

Robert Wagner

Sean Connery

 

[aldecaker]

Rickles was one-of-a-kind, for sure. A great comic and a damned good actor to boot. Loved him as the archetypal crooked supply sergeant in Kelly's Heroes; I don't think any actor could have done that role better.

 

[Chasing Embers]

He really wasn't insulting. He had refined the art of playing on people's insecurities. If people get insulted it was their own fault. However, he rode a fine line, for sure.

And that was beautiful to behold! More insult art than humor!

 

[dochudson]

Go over to YouTube and search Rickles and Carson nothing like it on late night since Carson retired.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

There was no Late Night after Carson left.

 

[sablebrush52]

RIP. Thanks for the laughs, you hockey puck!

 

[mso489]

Rickles navigated the insults with great skill. He remained likable the way many in the genre don't. He was a close friend to Bob Newhart, and those two and their wives vacationed together. Seems incongruous with Newhart being so low key and droll, but when you saw them together, it made sense. Rickles was a very thoughtful guy, smart, and a close observer of people. I'm glad he had ninety years, anyway.

 

[toobfreak]

Rickles Is A Classic

 

[jpmcwjr]

Yes, may you rest in peace, Mr. Rickles.

 

[brian64]

RIP Don. You were talented and hilarious...and very lucky to have performed during the times you did...because you never would have been able to do that stuff in these humorless, constipated PC days.

 

[warren]

He performed through the entire PC period. Quite successfully I might add. His trick was, he wasn't vicious and his targets, reveling in the recognition, weren't offended. He often finished his shows with a sincere apology to any he might have offended. He was truly one of a kind! The finest kind!

 

[mayfair70]

you never would have been able to do that stuff in these humorless, constipated PC days

I understand the point but politely disagree. Every generation has had people with sticks up their butts. Today they are called PC (though how politics is in any way correct is beyond me). Rickles appeared on Letterman and countless other mainstream shows doing his usual put downs and knocking the stupidity of all races, religions and creeds. Louis C.K. and many others continue to do material that Lenny Bruce got put in jail for. Rickles was a fearless comedian and I and many others revered him for it.
Mr. Rickles was one of the greats and we may never see his like again. May he rest in peace, or frenetic agitation, whichever he prefers.

 

[brian64]

I'm aware that he continued on into more recent times, but IMO, it was primarily because he was already famous and successful...you might say he was "grandfathered in" to this "PC" era.
But I still think it would have been much more difficult for him to have been just starting out during these times.

 

[pagan]

Damm! I love that guy