Comic Rodney Dangerfield Dies at Age 82
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Rodney Dangerfield (news), the bug-eyed comic whose
self-deprecating one-liners brought him stardom in clubs, television
and movies and made his lament "I don't get no respect" a catchphrase,
died Tuesday. He was 82.
Dangerfield, who fell into a coma after undergoing heart surgery, died
at 1:20 p.m., said publicist Kevin Sasaki. Dangerfield had a heart
valve replaced Aug. 25 at the University of California, Los Angeles,
Medical Center.
Sasaki said in a statement that Dangerfield suffered a small stroke
after the operation and developed infectious and abdominal
complications. But in the past week he had emerged from the coma, the
publicist said.
Clad in a black suit, red tie and white shirt with collar that seemed
too tight, Dangerfield convulsed audiences with lines such as: "When I
was born, I was so ugly that the doctor slapped my mother," "When I
started in show business, I played one club that was so far out my act
was reviewed in Field and Stream," and "Every time I get in an
elevator, the operator says the same thing to me: `Basement?'"
In a 1986 interview, he explained the origin of his "respect"
trademark:
"I had this joke: `I played hide and seek; they wouldn't even look for
me.' To make it work better, you look for something to put in front of
it: I was so poor, I was so dumb, so this, so that. I thought, `Now
what fits that joke?' Well, `No one liked me' was all right. But then
I thought, a more profound thing would be, `I get no respect.'"
Dangerfield is survived by his wife, Joan, and two children from a
previous marriage.
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