David Brenner

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brenner

David Norris Brenner (February 4, 1936 – March 15, 2014) was an American comedian, actor and author. Contents [show] Early life[edit]

Brenner was born in 1936[2] and raised in poor areas of South and West Philadelphia.[1] His father, Louis, was a vaudeville comedian, singer and dancer performing under the stage name of Lou Murphy. He gave up his career, and a film contract, to please his rabbi father who objected to his working Friday nights.[1] After high school, Brenner spent two years in the U.S. Army, serving in the 101st Airborne and as a cryptographer of the 595th Signal Corps in Böblingen, Germany. After being discharged, he attended Temple University, where he majored in mass communication and graduated with honors.[1] Career[edit]

Brenner was a writer, director or producer of 115 television documentaries and headed the documentary units of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Metromedia, winning nearly 30 awards including an Emmy, before moving to comedy.[3][1] His first paid gig was at The Improv in June 1969, and then frequently performed at clubs in Greenwhich Village.[1] After making his national television debut in 1971, on the The Tonight Show, he became the show's most frequent guest, with 158 appearances.[4] He guest-hosted for Johnny Carson 75 times between 1975 and 1984, putting him fifth on the list of Carson's favorite and most frequent guest hosts for Carson. Brenner was ranked No. 53 on Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time. "At one point, he had appeared more often on major TV talk shows than any other entertainer.[5] He also wrote five books, [6] and starred in four HBO Specials. Brenner released the comedy album Excuse Me, Are You Reading That Paper? on MCA Records in 1983 (The title arose from a gag wherein a fellow passenger on a conveyence asked Brenner if he was reading a newspaper on which he was sitting. The punch line was Brenner saying he was, standing up, turning a page, and sitting down again.) He has also written four books including Soft Pretzels With Mustard (1983), Revenge is the Best Exercise (1984), Nobody Ever Sees You Eat Tuna Fish (1986), If God Wanted Us to Travel... (1990), and I Think There's a Terrorist in My Soup: How to Survive Personal and World Problems with Laughter--Seriously (2003) which was also released as two audiobooks. Brenner was the star of the 1976 TV series Snip (alternative title: Flip), which was inspired by the film Shampoo and set in a hair dressing salon.[1] The situation comedy was cancelled by NBC before it aired in the U.S. due to its inclusion in the supporting cast of what would have been the first gay character in an American situation comedy. He also played a charity ball auctioneer in the 1989 romantic comedy Worth Winning (with Mark Harmon, Madeleine Stowe, and Lesley Ann Warren, who was also Brenner's co-star on Snip).[citation needed] In 1986, King World Entertainment gave Brenner his own 30-minute syndicated late-night talk show, Nightlife , in an attempt to compete with Carson, but it was cancelled after one season. The show premiered September 8, 1986, on 102 stations[7] and was touted as "alternative".[8] Filmed in Manhattan and featuring a casually dressed Brenner,[8] it was unique among the late night talk genre for not having a monologue.[8] It gave some comedians, such as Bobby Slayton, their national television premieres[9]. The Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia named Brenner their Person of the Year in 1984 and inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2003.[citation needed] His friend, Richard Lewis, described Brenner as "the king of 'hip, observational comedy."[10] Personal life and death[edit]

Brenner had three children: Slade, Wyatt and Cole.[11] He and the mother of his first son, Cole, fought a custody battle lasting several years. Brenner finally won custody in 1992. As family courts would have considered him an absentee father if he was away from home more than 50 nights a week, Brenner seriously curtailed his career, including appearances on the Tonight Show in order to secure and maintain custody.[1] Brenner married Elizabeth Slater of New York, the mother of his sons Slade and Wyatt, in the closing minutes of his Live from The Venetian Hotel HBO Special shot in Las Vegas.[12] on February 19, 2000. They divorced a little over a year later and fought two custody battles, both of which Brenner won. Brenner was engaged to figure skater Tai Babilonia in 2005 but they never married.[1] In 2011, he married Ruth; they remained married until his death in 2014.[1] At one point in the 2000s, Brenner was living in Las Vegas and socializing with fellow comedians[13]. Brenner died on March 15, 2014, at the age of 78 from cancer at his Manhattan home.[14][15]

GEDCOM Source

@R-1094014398@ Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60541::0

GEDCOM Source

1,60541::3090132

GEDCOM Source

@R-1094014398@ Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60541::0

GEDCOM Source

1,60541::3090132

GEDCOM Source

@R-1094014398@ Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60541::0

GEDCOM Source

1,60541::3090132

GEDCOM Source

@R-1094014398@ Global, Find A Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 1,60541::0

GEDCOM Source

1,60541::3090132

GEDCOM Source

@R-1094014398@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=87085383&pid...