Red Skelton, 84, dies
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This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from September 1997.
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Known for goofy physical comedy and disheveled carrot-top hair, Skelton died Wednesday at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, 90 miles (145 kilometres) east of Los Angeles, after a long, undisclosed illness, said spokeswoman Mary Kay Plock.
As the characters Clem Kadiddlehopper, Freddie the Freeloader, Cauliflower McPugg and the Mean Widdle Kid, the rubber-faced comic was inspired by an early friendship with silent film star Buster Keaton, and went on to develop a style that owed more to the big top than Hollywood.
"The world has lost a gem, an icon, an original," said Milton Berle.
"There was always something about Red that was partly the little boy," Steve Allen said. "He was a great clown and remarkably funny even in his later years."
Longtime friend Jerry Lewis said: "We have lost a brilliant comedian and a dear friend. We will miss him,"
The son of a circus clown, Skelton was forever bumping into other people, occasionally playing the drunk and all the while flashing a goofy, cockeyed grin.
A master pantomime, his routines ranged from a man dunking a doughnut in his coffee to a hobo, alone and hungry on Christmas Eve.
"(Clowns) are sad at times, sure, like anybody else,” Skelton once said. "But a clown actually is portraying life and truth. Walk around happy all the time and they'll throw a net over you."
His characters included Sheriff Deadeye, the drunken Willie LumpLump, con artist San Fernando Red, Bolivar Shagnasth, and the cross-eyed seagulls Gertrude and Heathcliffe.
In 1946's "Ziegfield Follies," Skelton starred in the uproarious "Guzzler's Gin" sequence. Skelton's television career began on NBC in 1951. He moved to Tuesday nights on CBS in 1953, placing among the Top 10 shows, then returned to NBC in 1970. Clowns continued to be his fortune, even after NBC cancelled his show for good in 1971. His paintings of clown faces fetched $80,000 and more, and he once estimated he earned $2.5 million a year from lithographs. He also wrote and recorded scores of songs.
In 1945, he married Georgia Davis and they had a daughter, Valentina, and a son, Richard, who died of leukemia at age 9. The marriage ended in divorce. Skelton married his third wife, Lothian, in 1973.
Skelton continued to perform live, doing 75 or more shows a year later in his career.
Perhaps the most poignant summation of his career came from Skelton himself.
