Rodney Dangerfield, the `Get No Respect' Comedian Dies at 82

Oct. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Rodney Dangerfield, the bug-eyed comedian and actor best known for his line, ``I don't get no respect,'' has died. He was 82.

Dangerfield died at the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, according to an e-mailed statement from publicist Kevin Sasaki.

His wife, Joan Dangerfield, revealed on Sept. 20 in a statement that the comedian had slipped into a coma while recovering from heart surgery at the UCLA Medical Center on Aug. 25. She said then that Dangerfield had begun to show ``signs of awareness.''

The heart valve replacement operation had been planned since April 2003 when Dangerfield had brain bypass surgery to reduce the chances of a stroke during the heart procedure.

Dangerfield had double-bypass heart surgery in 2000 and suffered a heart attack on his 80th birthday in 2001. In 1992, he underwent surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

When Dangerfield was asked how long he would be in the hospital for his latest operation, he responded with a typical quip: ``If things go right, I'll be there about a week, and if things don't go right, I'll be there about an hour and a half.''

Dangerfield's shtick was mocking himself. As he constantly tugged at his loosened tie and mopped his forehead, he delivered a steady stream of one-liners about getting ``no respect'':

``I'm so ugly my father carries around the picture of the kid who came with his wallet.''

``I could tell that my parents hated me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.''

``I was such an ugly baby my mother never breast-fed me. She told me that she only liked me as a friend.''

``When I was born the doctor came out to the waiting room and told my father, `We did everything we could but he pulled through.'''

New York Born

Dangerfield was born Jacob Cohen on Nov. 22, 1921, in Babylon, New York. His father was a vaudeville performer known as Phil Roy. Dangerfield started writing jokes when he was 15; he performed in amateur nights when he was 17; and at the age of 19, using the name Jack Roy, he did stand-up comic routines.

He played the comedy circuit on the East Coast for 10 years, leaving it to make a steady income. He relaunched his career in 1963 with the name Rodney Dangerfield and his ``no respect'' monologue. Four years later he got his first big break when he appeared on ``The Ed Sullivan Show.''

Dangerfield became a Las Vegas headliner and made frequent appearances on TV talk and variety shows, including ``Saturday Night Live,'' ``The Dean Martin Show'' and the ``Tonight Show'' with Johnny Carson and later Jay Leno.

In 1969, Dangerfield opened his own nightclub in Manhattan, ``Dangerfield's,'' where he gave several would-be comic stars their first break, including, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne, Tim Allen, Jim Carrey and Andrew Dice Clay.

Autobiography and Films

Dangerfield's comedy films included ``Caddyshack'' (1980), ``Easy Money'' (1983), ``Back to School'' (1986) and ``Lady Bugs'' (1992). He co-wrote the movies ``Meet Wally Sparks'' (1997), ``My 5 Wives'' (2000) and ``The 4th Tenor'' (2002).

He produced the animated feature musical ``Rover Dangerfield'' (1991) for Warner Bros. and provided the voice for Rover, as well as wrote the screenplay and co-composed the songs. He played a dramatic role in director Oliver Stone's ``Natural Born Killers'' (1994).

Dangerfield was scheduled to guest star in the TV sitcom ``Still Standing'' in the fall and was to be the voice of himself in the animated comedy ``The Family Guy.''

In 1981 Dangerfield was given a Grammy Award for his comedy album, ``No Respect,'' and in 1994 he received the Lifetime Creative Achievement Award from the American Comedy Awards. His trademark white shirt and red tie are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. He was the first entertainer to personally own a Web site, http://www.rodney.com .

Dangerfield's autobiography, ``It's Not Easy Being Me: A Lifetime of No Respect but Plenty of Sex and Drugs,'' was released in May.

He is survived by his wife and two children from a previous marriage, Brian and Melanie.


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