Harvey Korman, the award-winning comedic actor who rose to fame playing second banana to Carol Burnett on her television variety series and who starred in hit movies like "Blazing Saddles" and "High Anxiety," has died at the age of 81.
The cause of death, Thursday in Los Angeles, was complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said in a statement released by the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.
A tall man known for his outlandish characterizations, Korman was nominated for seven
Emmys for his television work and won four. He also was nominated for four Golden Globe awards, winning one.
"Everything he did on 'The Carol Burnett Show,' especially the Mother Marcus character, was a special favorite," his daughter, Katherine Korman, said in an interview on Thursday. Mother Marcus, which he played in drag, "was a Yiddish grandmother based on his own real-life grandmother," she said.
Korman also considered Hedley Lamarr, his role in the 1974 film "Blazing Saddles," as one of his favorites, she said.
A native of Chicago, Korman studied drama there and then tried, unsuccessfully, to break into show business in New York City.
"For the next 13 years I tried to get on Broadway, on off-Broadway, under or beside Broadway," he said in an 1971 interview.
Eventually he gave up and returned to Chicago, but he later went to California to try again. He began getting minor movie parts, doing voice-overs as the Great Gazoo on "The Flintstones" and winning a TV spot on "The Danny Kaye Show." The Kaye show, which he joined in 1964, proved to be a springboard.
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