Jack Carter, wisecracking comedian and longtime TV fixture, dies
Jack Carter, wisecracking comedian and longtime TV fixture, dies
Jack Carter, whose deft mimicry, rapid-fire wisecracks, and manic storytelling energies made him a comedy star in television’s infancy and helped sustain a show business career that extended through eight decades, died Sunday at his home in Beverly Hills.
Jeff Sanderson, a family spokesman, told news media that the cause was respiratory failure.
Quick with a quip, whether scripted or ad lib, Mr. Carter was a significant figure in television during the medium’s earliest days, which were dominated by such comedians as Milton Berle and Sid Caesar.
At various stages of his career, he directed Lucille Ball, made a movie with Elvis Presley, played golf with Jack Benny, hung out with George Burns, toured with Bob Hope and acted on Broadway with Sammy Davis Jr.
If you like to spend your vacation in out-of-the-way places where few people go,” he said in one joke, “let your wife read the map.
When New York’s first-run movie palaces featured stage shows before and after films, Mr. Carter played at the Paramount and at Loew’s State.
In the late 1940s, he was a host of NBC’s “Texaco Star Theater,” which later featured Berle as the permanent host.
Mr. Carter was the host of specials and variety shows, including “Cavalacade of Stars,” before he the hour-long “Jack Carter Show” on NBC in 1950 and 1951.
In recent years, Mr. Carter appeared on the Fox comedy “New Girl” and voiced various parts on “Family Guy,” the animated Fox comedy series.
After Army service in an entertainment unit during World War II, he first appeared on Broadway in 1947 in “Call Me Mister.”