Harvey Korman

Harvey Herschel Korman (February 15, 1927 – May 29, 2008) was an American actor, comedian, and Broadway performer born in Chicago, Illinois, of Russian Jewish descent. His parents were Ellen (née Blecher) and Cyril Raymond Korman, a salesman. During World War II, Korman served in the United States Navy. Following his discharge, he trained at the Goodman School of Drama at the Art Institute of Chicago, now affiliated with DePaul University, and subsequently at HB Studio.

Korman's stage work included Broadway appearances in 1950, with credits in The Tower Beyond Tragedy and Captain Brassbound's Conversion. He was also a member of the Peninsula Players summer theatre program, participating in the 1950, 1957, and 1958 seasons.

His early television appearances included a guest role as a head waiter on The Donna Reed Show, a program on which he was cast three times in total, including the role of Dr. Allison in the 1962 episode "Who Needs Glasses?" He appeared as a public relations man in a January 1961 episode of the CBS drama Route 66, played a bartender in the 1962 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Unsuitable Uncle," and took on the role of Blake in the 1964 episode "Who Chopped Down the Cherry Tree?" on the NBC medical drama The Eleventh Hour. He also guest-starred on Dennis the Menace and the NBC western series Empire. From 1963 through 1967, Korman appeared frequently as a supporting player on The Danny Kaye Show. Between 1964 and 1966, he appeared three times on the CBS comedy The Munsters, starring Fred Gwynne and Yvonne De Carlo. During the 1965–1966 season, he provided the voice of The Great Gazoo on ABC's The Flintstones during the animated series' final network season.

The 1967 premiere of The Carol Burnett Show on CBS marked the beginning of Korman's most prominent career chapter. Starring alongside Carol Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, and Tim Conway, he remained with the series for ten years. During that run, he received six Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won four, in 1969, 1971, 1972, and 1974, each in the category of outstanding achievement by a supporting performer in a music or variety program. He also received four Golden Globe nominations for the series, winning the award in 1975. Korman departed the show in 1977 to headline his own ABC sitcom, The Harvey Korman Show, which ran for five episodes.

While still a cast member on The Carol Burnett Show, Korman appeared in the 1974 Mel Brooks film Blazing Saddles, playing the villainous Hedley Lamarr opposite Cleavon Little, Gene Wilder, and Madeline Kahn. He went on to collaborate with Brooks in several additional films, portraying Dr. Charles Montague in High Anxiety (1977), Count de Monet in History of the World, Part 1 (1981), and Dr. Seward in Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). His other film credits include Captain Blythe in the Disney comedy Herbie Goes Bananas (1980), and appearances in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983). In 1978, Korman appeared in the CBS Star Wars Holiday Special in three separate segments, playing a barfly, a four-armed parody of Julia Child named Chef Gormaanda, and a malfunctioning android.

Korman maintained ongoing professional relationships with his Carol Burnett Show colleagues. In 1982, he reunited with Carol Burnett and Vicki Lawrence in the TV movie Eunice, reprising his role of Ed Higgins from the show's recurring "The Family" sketches. He continued that portrayal on the spin-off series Mama's Family during its initial two-season NBC run from 1983 to 1984, also introducing each episode as fictional television host Alistair Quince and directing 31 episodes of the series. He made a guest appearance on Tim Conway's 1980–1981 comedy-variety series The Tim Conway Show, and the two later toured the United States performing both revived and new material. A DVD of new comedy sketches, Together Again, was released in 2006. Korman and Conway were jointly inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2002. Korman also starred in the short-lived CBS comedy series Leo & Liz in Beverly Hills in 1986, alongside Valerie Perrine, and appeared in the Mel Brooks television series The Nutt House.

Korman's voice work spanned several decades and included roles in Garfield and Friends, Alice in Wonderland, Dumb and Dumber, Hey Arnold!, The Wild Thornberrys, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. He also provided voice work for the live-action film The Flintstones and for the animated The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue.

In his personal life, Korman was married to Donna Ehlert from 1960 to 1977, with whom he had two children, Maria and Christopher. In 1982, he married Deborah Fritz, and they remained married until his death. They had two daughters, Kate and Laura. Korman died on May 29, 2008, at age 81 at UCLA Medical Center from complications arising from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm he had suffered four months prior. He is entombed at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California, within its Unity Corridor Mausoleum.