RIP Harvey Korman, 81; versatile Emmy-winning comedian

Los Angeles Times : The late Harvey Korman, second from right, in a 1968 skit on "The Carol Burnett Show."

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Harvey Korman, an Emmy-winning comedic actor best known for playing the self-described "luminous second banana" for a decade on television's "The Carol Burnett Show" and for starring in such Mel Brooks films as "Blazing Saddles," has died. He was 81.

With a knack for physical humor and oddball accents, Korman was a master sketch comic who did his best-known work on Burnett's variety show beginning in 1967 in an ensemble that included Tim Conway. "It's a 45-year friendship," Conway said. "It was a great ride; we worked together probably 30 years, plus the Burnett show, which was about as good as it gets." Conway said Korman had "a complete understanding of comedy and comedy timing."

Korman and Conway developed an uncanny rapport that made them arguably one of television's most lethal comic teams; Conway's on-camera ad-libs often made Korman crack up; producers wisely kept them in the show.

One of their favorite routines from the Burnett show was the dentist sketch, "where I kind of anesthetize my entire body with Novocain" while trying to fill Korman's teeth, Conway told The Times on Thursday. "They play it at all the dental schools, as kind of an introduction on how not to do it," Conway said.



Korman made more than 30 films, including four comedies directed by Brooks, who first discovered him when his wife, the late Anne Bancroft, singled Korman out on "The Carol Burnett Show."

"My wife said, 'You've got to see this guy. They're doing the Andrews Sisters [in a sketch] and this Harvey Korman is the best of the bunch.' . . . Harvey was so funny. When I was putting together 'Blazing Saddles,' I just knew he was a natural" for the role of Hedley Lamarr in the 1974 Western satire.

Brooks called Korman "a major, major talent, and he could have very easily have done Shakespearean drama. That's how gifted and talented Harvey was. . . . I loved working with him."

"I had some real problems working with Harvey," Brooks told The Times on Thursday. "I used to look past his eyes. . . . If our eyes met, that's the end of the take. We would break up."

Brooks also cast Korman in "High Anxiety" (1977), "History of the World -- Part 1" (1981) and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" (1995).