R.I.P. Celebrities(Non Wrestlers or Sports related) 2023

[jimsteel]

'Lord of Las Vegas' improv master Shecky Greene dies at 97

Those who saw Greene in his decades of comedy dominance on the Vegas Strip in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s said that with a mic in his hand he could roam a room and work a crowd like no other.

He couldn’t wait to abandon written jokes for the shared thrill of improv.

"I’ve never had an act," Greene told the Las Vegas Sun in 2009. "I make it up as I go along."

Greene made huge fans of his fellow entertainers including Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and, most famously, Frank Sinatra, who hand-picked him as his opening act for a stretch. Greene couldn’t resist the gig with the biggest star in America at the time, but the two big personalities butted heads frequently, and the relationship ended with the comic taking a beating from the singer’s cronies at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

It led to his most famous joke:

"Frank Sinatra once saved my life," Greene would say. "A bunch of guys were beating on me and Frank said, ‘OK that’s enough.’"

Sinatra wasn’t actually there, Greene later said, but the beatdown was real. Also true was the oft-repeated story of Greene driving his Oldsmobile into the fountains at Caesars Palace in 1968, a consequence of what he conceded was a serious alcohol problem and a dangerous desire to go for a drive when he was a few drinks in.

He got a famous joke out of that moment too, later saying that when the cops arrived at his submerged car, whose windshield wipers running, he told them, "No spray wax please!"

With a body like a linebacker’s, a wit as quick as lightning and a voice that suggested he could’ve been a lounge singer instead of a lounge comic, Greene in the course of a night would plow through dozens of impressions, do extended riffs at audience members’ tables and turn musical standards into parody songs on the spot.

[TTX]

Shecky...a name I haven't heard in years. RIP.

[jimsteel]

I GUESS THE GRIM REAPER ISN'T DONE YET WITH 2023



Les McCann, Soulful Jazz Great Sampled by Notorious B.I.G. and Dr. Dre, Dies at 88

The acclaimed musician released more than 60 albums but was arguably best known for his 1969 Montreaux Jazz Festival performance of protest song "Compared to What."

[TTX]

and sadly quickly enough we'll be getting the 2024 ones.

RIP to all who have passed in 2023.

[on_the_edge]

Jan 1, 2024 14:59:26 GMT -5 TTX said:

Shecky...a name I haven't heard in years. RIP.

Ain't that the truth.