Veteran standup comedian Jonathan Winters died Thursday evening at his Montecito, California home of natural causes. He was 87.
The improvisational genius had a gift for mimicry and developed a number of eccentric characters that ran the gamet from lion tamer, bullfighter to delusional psychiatric patient.
Perhaps his most famous bit was as a sarcastic old lady named Maude Frickert. He claims, “I decided to be a hip old lady — one who had a wicked sense of humor, the kind of person who was married 12 times and cracked a whip in a ward of cardiac patients.”
Winters said during an 1988 interview, “As a kid, I always wanted to be lots of things. I was a Walter Mitty type. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a detective, a doctor, a test pilot with a scarf, a fisherman who hauled in a tremendous marlin after a 12-hour fight.”
He won an Emmy in 1991 for best supporting actor on the television sitcom ‘Davis Rules.’ He was nominated a second time in 2003 as outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his appearance on ‘Life With Bonnie.’
Winters won the prestigious Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Prize for Humor in 1999.
He greatly influenced the career of Robin Williams and appeared with him during the final season of ‘Mork & Mindy,’ cast in the role of Mearth, Mork’s son who was hatched from a giant egg.
The iconic comic battled alcoholism and depression for years and was preceded in death by his wife Eileen, who died at the age of 84 in 2009 following a long battle with breast cancer. They were married 60 years and had two children.
We’ve included a video clip where Mearth finds out he is an alien:
Photos: WENN-Promo