Friday, May 30, 2008

In Memory of Harley Korman (That's Harvey!)


Image from Kenneth in the (212)
I haven't yet reached the age where I'm losing large chunks of family or friends. In fact, I really dread that day. But I'm old enough to start losing cherished bits of my childhood and young adulthood. Many of the entertainers I enjoyed so much back in the 1970s and 80s are sadly leaving us.

The first celebrity passing that knocked me for a loop was Gilda Radner. So sweet, so talented, and unfortunately underused as a performer, it just didn't seem right somehow. Then, several years later, Madeline Kahn was felled by the same dreaded disease. How difficult it must have been for Gene Wilder, having been married to Radner, and friends with Kahn. And poor Mel Brooks too, who lost his wife, Anne Bancroft. How strange that these celebrity deaths hit me harder than most, and were so connected.

Now there has been another one, Harvey Korman. Another of Mel Brooks' fabled company of performers, Korman was a delight as the prissy, self-important Heddy (that's Hedley!) LaMarr in Blazing Saddles, and Count de Money (de Monet, de Monet!) in History of the World Part 1. He also played Dr. Montague in High Anxiety as slave to dominatrix Nurse Diesel (Cloris Leachman). Of course, he is probably best known as one of the talented group of comics on The Carol Burnett Show, often (and best) paired with Tim Conway.

The sad part is, many of the rest of the best of these costars are in their seventies and eighties. I fear it won't be long before I end up like my grandparents, pointing to Randolph Scott and Gary Cooper, lamenting their passing. Sigh. Sorry for the bring-down. Let's try bringing it back up with some of Harvey Korman's best bits, shall we?


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