Rappin' Rodney: FInally Gets Respect

Rodney Dangerfield passed away yesterday from complications arising after heart surgery.

I will truly miss him.

damn...thats a shame. funny man he was.

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Comic Rodney Dangerfield dies
Wed 6 October, 2004 02:04

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rodney Dangerfield, the goggle-eyed comic famed for his self-deprecating one-liners and signature phrase "I can't get no respect," has died at age 82, his spokesman says.

Dangerfield, who became a pop culture sensation in middle age with a string of broad film comedies starting with "Caddyshack" in 1980, died on Tuesday at the UCLA Medical Centre, where he had undergone heart valve replacement surgery on August 25, spokesman Kevin Sasaki said.

Dangerfield, whose initial forays into show business ended in failure, restarted his career as a comedian in his 40s. He went on to become a national sensation in his own right and helped launch the careers of such comics as Jim Carrey and Jerry Seinfeld.

Dangerfield suffered a stroke following the August surgery and "developed infectious and abdominal complications from which he did not recover," Sasaki said.

During the past week, the entertainer emerged from a coma he had slipped into sometime after the operation, according to his wife, Joan. "When Rodney emerged, he kissed me, squeezed my hand, and smiled for the doctors," Joan Dangerfield said in a statement.

A native of New York's Long Island, Dangerfield had endured a series of health problems in recent years. Last spring, he underwent brain surgery.

A month later, Dangerfield greeted reporters at the hospital dressed in a sports shirt and Bermuda shorts and declared, "My brain is OK. I feel like a new man." Later, responding to a medical question, he answered, "Ask me about things I'm familiar with, like drugs or prostitution."

NATIONALLY KNOWN

Born Jacob Cohen in Babylon, New York, in 1921, Dangerfield began writing jokes as a teenager, struggling as a comic and singing waiter in the "Borscht Belt" resorts of the Catskill Mountains under the name of Jack Roy in the 1940s.

Leaving show business to earn a living as a house painter and aluminum siding salesman, he returned to the comedy circuit about a decade later, this time as Rodney Dangerfield.

He eventually opened a New York nightclub and became a nationally recognised act with comedy albums and numerous TV appearances. Along the way he is credited with helping give a start to an impressive array of once-obscure talents who went on to become stars, among them Carrey, Seinfeld, Roseanne and the late Sam Kinison.

Moving easily from nightclubs to TV to commercials to film, Dangerfield remained popular well past the peak of his career in the 1980s, forever tugging at his tie and drawing laughs with his catch phrase "I can't get no respect."

Dangerfield made his film debut in the 1971 low-budget comedy "The Projectionist," playing the dual supporting roles of a tyrannical cinema manager and a serial villain, The Bat.

But his big-screen breakout came in a string of rowdy comedies in the 1980s -- "Caddyshack," "Easy Money" and "Back to School." His movie appearances generally have mirrored his stand-up comedy persona, with Dangerfield playing boisterous, casually ribald characters with a rapid-fire patter of one-liners.

Later film roles included the coach of a girl's soccer team in "Ladybugs" (1992), an abusive father in Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers" (1994), a tabloid TV show reporter in "Meet Wally Sparks" (1997) and a wannabe opera star in "The 4th Tenor" (2002).


"Somebody step on a duck??"

He was a fantastic comic

I always gave him my respect. Bye, Rodney!

Damn shame...

XOXO

Some of his t.v. appearances in the last few years were good as well. I laughed my butt off when he guested on Brooke Shields show, "Suddenly Susan". Rodney plays a plumber and the cast keeps egging him to continue his one-liners and put-downs.


And all he wanted was "one of these": the o.k. circle made with the thumb and forefinger. I'd say he earned that.


Drew

What a bummer! I saw him in concert at Jones Beach in 1986 and I remember this like it was yesterday.

RIP Rockin Rodney

Moose! Rocco! Help the judge find his checkbook!

What are you kiddin'?! They could donate my body to
science fiction!

My mother-in-law! For years I wouldn't kiss her face!
I wound up kissin' her ass!

Sir, your no gentleman! -Judge Smells
Yah? Well, I'm no doorknob either!

Good teacher...he really cares - about WHAT, I have
no idea!

Hoo! Look at that hat! I tell yah, you buy a hat like
that it should come with a bowl of soup - but on YOU
it looks good!

MONTY
I don't have any...(snaps finger)hey, Nicky what is it
I don't have any of?!

NICKY
Class!

MONTY
NOOO! We know I got class!


You had class in my book, old man!

I felt very bad to hear this. Rodney was hilarious. My favorite movies of his were "Back to School" and "Easy Money". Iam aware he did many comedy routines as well, but I didnt see his stand up comedy much. He was an original, and a truly gifted comic. R.I.P. Rodney, you certainly will be missed, and you had my "respect" for the gifted comic you were.

Mitch

The line I remember Rodney most for

In an interview on the old Dailey show with craig Kilborne, Craig asked Rodney "Define happiness?"

Rodney: "Happiness?"

Kiborne: "Yeah."

Rodney: "Well happiness to me is when a certain part of my anatomy defies the laws of gravity."

So simple. So elequoent. So rodney. Gonna miss you man. Damn this just SUCKS! SUCKS! SUCKS! SUCKS! SUCKS! If Shatner or Reeve goes I am going to start killing people. (No I wont literally start killing people, but I will be upset)

I know the movie Ladybugs didn't do well,but there was a great scene when he was in a bar
He tells the bartender that he asked his girlfriend's son to dress up in girls clothes and asks him to come play with him
The bartender then throws Rodney out of the bar and calls him a pervert

Rodney justs shrugs and says "well at least i beat the check"

This was one funny, funny man...

"In school, I didn't get any respect, either. What, are you kiddin', I shared a locker with a mop!"

Know what was great about Rodney? He cut across ALL demographics...all ages, everything else. He was universally hilarious. I would've loved to have met him.

It's a big loss indeed in the comedy world. I loved him in Back to School. Well, heaven now has someone to make em' laugh. What a comic he was, and what a man

"I gotta tell ya if it weren't for pickpockets I would not get any sex at all." Rodney Dangerfield

Bye Rodney. You will always have my respect.

I meet Rodney years ago back at Catch a Rising Star in NYC, he used to practice new routines there, I was working there for a short time. He was not a very friendly man in person. But he was a very funny commedian