'The World Just Got a Little Less Funny'

Prescription drug OD suspected

(USER SUBMITTED) - Comic Greg Giraldo died today of an apparent prescription drug overdose. Best known for his work on several Comedy Central roasts and NBC's Last Comic Standing, the 44-year-old died in a New Jersey hospital days after being hospitalized. "The tragic news of Greg's passing hits us very, very hard. Greg has been a close member of the Comedy Central family for years, injecting his energy and wicked sense of humor into countless projects," said a statement by Comedy Central. More»

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. More»

(NEWSER) - Fred Travalena, a master impressionist whose catalog of voices ranged from US presidents to Frank Sinatra doing Boy George, has died at 66 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, the Los Angeles Times reports. The actor-singer-mimic, known as the "Man of a Thousand Faces," opened for the likes of Shirley Maclaine and Wayne Newton and was a frequent guest on the Johnny Carson-era Tonight Show. More»

Comedian broke new ground in Maude , Golden Girls

(NEWSER) - Bea Arthur may not have been television’s most iconic actress, “but no woman ever made so many people so happy by being so imperious, so decisive, so just plain bossy,” Ken Tucker writes in Entertainment Weekly. No one defied or upstaged her on Maude or Golden Girls, but no one “resented her for that. Indeed, this was the source of her thunderbolt comic power.” More»

'I’ll have what she’s having,' clan matriarch said after famous When Harry Met Sally scene

(NEWSER) - Estelle Reiner, wife of actor Carl Reiner and mother to actor/director Rob Reiner, died Saturday at her home in Beverly Hills at 94, the New York Times reports. Estelle is perhaps best known for her cameo in Rob’s 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, where, following Meg Ryan’s faked orgasm at a deli, said: “I’ll have what she’s having.” More»