Ernie Kovacs
| Ernie Kovacs | |
|---|---|
Kovacs on the set of his television show, 1956
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| Birth name | Ernest Edward Kovacs |
| Born |
January 23, 1919 Trenton, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | January 13, 1962 (aged 42) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) |
| Medium | Newspaper, radio, television, magazine, cinema |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1949–1962 |
| Genres | Character comedy, surreal comedy, improvisational comedy, prop comedy, spoof, sketch |
| Spouse |
Bette Lee Wilcox (m. 1945; div. 1952) (2 children) Edie Adams (m. 1954–62) (his death) (1 child) |
| Children | Betty (b. 1947) Kippie (1949-2001) Mia Kovacs (1959-1982) (car accident) |
| Parent(s) | Andrew J. Kovacs (1890-1967) Mary Kovacs (1901-1981) |
Ernest Edward "Ernie" Kovacs (January 23, 1919 – January 13, 1962) was an American comedian, actor, and writer.
Kovacs' visually experimental and often spontaneous comedic style influenced numerous television comedy programs for years after his death by automobile accident. Many shows, such as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, Monty Python, The Uncle Floyd Show, Captain Kangaroo, Sam and Friends, Sesame Street , The Electric Company, The Muppet Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Wallace and Ladmo Show, The Goodies (TV series), Late Night with David Letterman, You Can't Do That on Television, The Amanda Show, and Mystery Science Theater 3000 are credited with having been influenced by Kovacs.Chevy Chase acknowledged Kovacs' influence and thanked him during his acceptance speech for his Emmy award for Saturday Night Live.
Some of Kovacs' unusual behaviors include having pet marmosets and wrestling a jaguar on his live Philadelphia television show.
When working at WABC (AM) as a morning-drive radio announcer and doing a mid-morning television series for NBC, Kovacs claimed to dislike eating breakfast alone while his wife, Edie Adams, was sleeping after her Broadway performances. His solution was to hire a taxi driver to come into their apartment with his own key and make breakfast for them both, then take Ernie to the WABC studios.
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