OBITUARY
23
Comic Soupy Sales Dead at 83
Always willing to take a pie in the face, he battled a variety of illnesses
(AP)
–
Soupy Sales, the rubber-faced comedian whose anything-for-a-chuckle career was built on 20,000 pies to the face and 5,000 live TV appearances across a half-century of laughs, died tonight at 83. A longtime friend said Sales died at a hospice in New York, which he entered last week as he battled a variety of health issues.
Sales began his TV career in Detroit, where he drew a large audience on WXYZ-TV. He move to Los Angeles in 1961.The comic's pie-throwing schtick became his trademark, and celebrities like Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and Shirley MacLaine queued up to take one on the chin. Sales was born Milton Supman in North Carolina in 1926. He grew up in Huntington, W. Va.
Copyright 2009 Newser, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. AP contributed to this report.