Thursday, October 18, 2007

R.I.P. Joey Bishop


LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Joey Bishop, the deadpan comedian, TV host and last of the super-hip team of performers known as the Rat Pack, led by Frank Sinatra, has died at age 89, his publicist said on Thursday.

Bishop, born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb on February 3, 1918, in the Bronx, died on Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles, following an illness of several months.

I was surprised, upon reading his biography at imdb.com, that he did not provide the voice of the Aardvark on the old Pink Panther show cartoons. That was done by John Byner. When I mentioned this discovery to MizBubs, she mocked my ignorance by asking if I knew that Orson Welles did not provide the voice of The Brain.

8 comments:

Johnny Yen said...

My feelings about him were mixed. As the last survivor of the Rat Pack, I felt that they should perhaps put the effort they put into preserving Mount Rushmore or the Statue of Liberty into keeping him alive. Then again, as a participant in the Golden Ghoul Dead Pool, I felt like I should put him on my list every year. What a shame that I didn't go with my baser instincts.

Dr. Monkey Von Monkerstein said...

Goodbye Joey, we hardly knew ye.

Anonymous said...

Well, I guess I can forget about putting a second check next to Bishop's name on my minor-celebrity sighting list.

Writeprocrastinator said...

But Orson Welles did provide the voice of Maurice LaMarche.

Seriously, Maurich LaMarche didn't get credited for providing the voice of Wells for Vincent D'onofrio in "Ed Wood."

The IMDB had at one time even omitted this fact, or so claims a fried of mine when he looked it up.

Writeprocrastinator said...

BTW, just what did Joey bring to the Rat Pack? I don't know because when I see old clips of them, his banter is more or less edited out.

Cup said...

He wore those cool cardigans, WP.

MizzBubs rocks.

Evil Genius said...

I can't believe I missed this! Then again, I thought Joey already had his ticket punched.

Dale said...

I think I thought he was gone already too. I'm a bad guy to have on death watch.