Vale: Jonathan Winters

Jonathan Winters, known for a career in US comedy, film and television, has died, aged 87.

Winters died of natural causes at home in California.

The cherubic-faced performer was an inspiration to comics such as Robin Williams and Jim Carrey.

He was a regular on US Tonight shows including The Jack Paar Tonight Show, The Steve Allen Show and The Garry Moore Show. He also made many appearances on The NBC Comedy Hour, The Carol Burnett Show, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Dean Martin Comedy Hour.

He made his bigscreen debut in the Stanley Kramer comedy It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, appearing with an all-star cast of comics including Sid Caesar and Milton Berle. Other film credits included The Loved One, The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, Viva Max!, The Flintstones, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and he voiced Papa Smurf in The Smurfs.

There were TV roles in Mork and Mindy, Life With Bonnie, Davis Rules, Alice in Wonderland and The Twilight Zone.

He also had his own TV shows The Jonathan Winters Show and The Wacky World of Jonathan Winters.

Source: Variety