Categories: Obituaries

Legendary Comedian, Marty Allen, Dies At 95

ADVERTISEMENT

Marty Allen, the baby-faced, bug-eyed comedian with wild black hair who was a staple of TV variety shows, game shows and talk shows for decades, died Monday night. He was 95.

TownHall

Allen died in Las Vegas of complications from pneumonia with his wife and performing partner of the last three decades Karon Kate Blackwell by his side, Allen’s spokeswoman Candi Cazau told The Associated Press.

ADVERTISEMENT

Allen, known for his greeting and catchphrase “Hello dere,” was a living link late in life to a generation of long-dead superstars with whom he shared a stage, including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Elvis Presley

ADVERTISEMENT
In this Dec. 10, 1965 file photo, the comedy team of Marty Allen, left, and Steve Rossi are shown. The pair performed several times on The Ed Sullivan Show, including the show on Feb. 7, 1964, in which The Beatles made their landmark appearance. (David F. Smith/File, Associated Press – cbc.ca)

He first found fame as half of the duo Allen & Rossi with partner Steve Rossi, who died in 2014. Allen & Rossi appeared 44 times on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” including the episodes where the Beatles performed and most of America watched.

“Everyone remembers those shows with The Beatles, and they were great, but we appeared on all the shows,” Allen said in 2014. “There wasn’t a talk show on TV that didn’t want Allen & Rossi.”

KSNV

The duo appeared regularly on “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson” and “The Merv Griffin Show.” They also toured comedy clubs nationwide, headlined shows at major Las Vegas casinos and released a series of hit albums until their amicable breakup in 1968.

Allen then took on a series of serious roles on daytime television and made-for-TV movies and was a regular on “The Hollywood Squares” and other celebrity-themed game shows.

totaltheater.com

Allen was born in Pittsburgh and served in Italy in the Army Air Corps in World War II, earning a Soldier’s medal for valor.

He was married to Lorraine ‘Frenchy’ Allen from 1960 until she died in 1976.

Then in 1984, he married Blackwell, a singer-songwriter who became his performing partner in his last decades and acted as the goofy Allen’s “straight man” just as Rossi did half a century earlier.

Allen is scheduled to celebrate an early 94th birthday at Mill Valley’s Throckmorton Theatre, performing musical comedy and telling great stories with his wife, Karon Kate Blackwell. (SF Gate)

He kept making crowds laugh into his mid-90s.

“It’s unbelievable to be 94 years old,” Marty Allen told a New York audience in 2016. “My wife says, ‘What do you want for your birthday?’ I told her, ‘An antique.’ So she framed my birth certificate.”

(Source:  TownHall)

Show comments
Share
Published by

Recent Posts

test

test

4 years ago

‘The Little Rascals’: The ‘Our Gang Curse’ That May Have Haunted the Cast Throughout the Years

Hollywood “curses” are a strange thing as people tend to look at the collective deaths…

4 years ago

Florida Man Pays Utility Bills For Over 100 Families For Second Christmas In A Row

74-year-old Michael Esmond is putting on the Santa Claus gear this year once again as…

4 years ago

Orlando PD Donates Christmas Gifts To More Than 200 Kids In Need

Police officers from Orlando, FL donated and delivered Christmas gifts to more than 200 kids…

4 years ago

The 1965 Kecksburg Incident: What Fell Over Pennsylvania?

On December 9, 1965, a blue-tinged fireball streaked across the sky over Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. However,…

4 years ago

Why The Pandemic Helped Bring Back Sunday Family Dinners

Over years, less emphasis ended up placed on traditional Sunday family dinners. In those times,…

4 years ago