I mean, outrageously funny.”
Mr. Rickles got his first break, the story goes, when Sinatra
and some of his friends came to see him perform in 1957 — in Hollywood, according to most sources, although Mr. Rickles said it was in Miami.
That show included appearances by David Letterman, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart and Bob Newhart, whose soft-spoken style of comedy could not be further removed from Mr. Rickles’s,
but who he often said was his closest friend in show business.
A variety show in 1968 and a situation comedy in 1972, both called “The Don Rickles Show,” were short-lived, as was “Daddy Dearest,” a 1993 sitcom in which he
and the comedian Richard Lewis played father and son.
Warmth,” the biggest names in show business felt that “if they hadn’t been insulted by Rickles, they weren’t with it.”
His appearances insulting celebrities on the Dean Martin roasts and his sparring matches with Carson cemented Mr. Rickles’s reputation,
but his unscripted brand of humor proved an uneasy fit for weekly television.
Mr. Rickles was soon being championed by Sinatra, Dean Martin and the other members of the show business circle known as the Rat Pack.
Don Rickles, Comedy’s Equal Opportunity Offender, Dies at 90 -
By PETER KEEPNEWS and RICHARD SEVEROAPRIL 6, 2017
Don Rickles, the acidic stand-up comic who became world-famous not by telling jokes
but by insulting his audience, died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles.