George Kirby
| George Kirby | |
|---|---|
Kirby in 1964.
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| Born |
June 8, 1923 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | September 30, 1995 (aged 72) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse | Rosemary (1960–1995) |
George Kirby (June 8, 1923 – September 30, 1995) was an American comedian, singer, and actor.
Born in Chicago, Kirby broke into show business in the 1940s at the Club DeLisa, a South Side establishment that employed a variety-show format and preferred to hire local singers, dancers, and comedians. His first recording was as a stand-up blues singer, performing "Ice Man Blues" on a Tom Archia session done in 1947 for .
He was one of the first African-American comedians to begin to appeal to white as well as black audiences during the height of the Civil Rights era, appearing between 1963 and 1972 on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Temptations Show, Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He was an excellent impressionist — targeting, somewhat scandalously for the time, many white actors such as John Wayne and Walter Brennan rather than solely black stars such as Bill Cosby and Pearl Bailey — and, for a man of his ample girth, an unexpectedly agile dancer. He also did vocal impressions of such singers as Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald.
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