tribute
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Don Rickles made his living hurling insults.
Dubbed “Mr. Warmth” and sometimes “the Mer-
chant of Venom,” the Queens-bred comic slagged
Johnny Carson as “dum dum,” called Larry King
an “annoying guy” and dismissed Robin Williams
as “an ape.” And then there was his favorite epi-
thet, applied to nearly everyone who strayed into
his sights: “hockey puck.”
And yet the irascible stand-up, who died at 90
of kidney failure on April 6, was deeply loved—
particularly by fellow comics. When
Jimmy Kimmel memorialized Rickles
in his late-night monologue, he wept.
Comedians such as Sarah Silverman
and Chris Rock shared that depth of
feeling, because behind the prickly ex-
terior Donald Jay Rickles was a pussy-
cat. That showed in his final tweet, a
tribute to his wife, Barbara, posted
March 11 just before their 52nd an-
niversary. “You are my life,” he wrote.
That was Rickles’s magic. For more than a half
century, he was a champion trash-talker, savaging
ethnic groups, celebrities and, of course, himself.
Yet he was endearing, not alienating. Rickles de-
scribed himself as “the guy who goes to the office
Christmas party Friday night, insults some people
but still has his job Monday morning.”
Offstage Rickles—the father of two, daughter
Mindy and son Larry (who died in 2011)—was
caring and deeply loyal, “a great man with a great
heart,” says Robert De Niro, who worked with him
on the 1995 mobster classicCasino. That film’s di-
rector, Martin Scorsese, adored his work: “It was
like listening to a great jazz musician wail.” In re-
turn Rickles called the Oscar winner “a midget.”
It was on talk shows where Rickles perfected his
art, eviscerating late-night titans. He was full of
“endless mischief,” says ex-Late Show host David
Letterman, able to make an “audience go crazy.”
Rickles grew up wanting to act. But at a club
in Miami in the 1950s, he got his big break doing
stand-up. Frank Sinatra came to his show late.
“Make yourself comfortable, Frank,” Rickles
snarked. “Hit somebody.” Sinatra laughed—be-
coming a lifelong pal and signaling to one and all
that the jester could shake his bells at anyone he
wanted, from Ronald Reagan to Clint Eastwood.
The everyday Rickles was mild-mannered, “a
regular guy who spends time with his family and
who turns on the television and watches a lot of
sports.” But performing, Mr. Warmth was on fire—
and his victims loved getting burned. At the end of
a 2013 roast he quipped, “So many stars are sitting
here. I realize I’m the biggest name.”•PEOPLE April 24, 2017 59- “I can’t work with you,” Rickles
joked toCasinocostar Robert
De Niro. “You can’t act.” - “His bombastic humor will be
celebrated for a long time,” says
Estelle Harris of “Mr. Potato
Head,” her To y S t o r y costar. - “Thank God she realized there’s
another side of me,” Rickles said
of wife Barbara (with son Larry in
1970).4. Rickles was famous as
the one man who could kid Ol’
Blue Eyes (with wife Barbara
Sinatra) but said, “I speak of him
with love.”5. Mugging with
Don Adams onGet Smart(1968).
213‘If I were
to insult
people
and mean
it, that
wouldn’t be
funny’54CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; PHILLIP CARUSO/UNIVERSAL/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK; WALT DISNEYPICTURES/PHOTOFEST; BARRY KING/WIREIMAGE; NBCU PHOTOBANK/GETTY IMAGES; HAROLD FILAN/AP