David Frye dies at 77
According to the AP, funnyman David Frye has died at the age of 77 on Monday (January 24th, 2011) in Las Vegas. He died of a cardiac arrest at his home.
He was a comic and did impressions of Presidents Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and other political figures propelled to popularity in the 1960′s and 1970′s.
He was a popular guest on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and ‘The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.’
Frye’s sister, Ruth Welch of Boynton Beach, Fla., said he was a genius born comic who wrote his own material and began to imitate the neighbors in Brooklyn, NY, where they grew up.
- David Frye.
Las Vegas – Comic David Frye, whose impressions of Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson and other prominent political figures vaulted him to popularity in the 1960′s and 1970s’, has died in Las Vegas at the age of 77.
Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Saturday that Frye died of cardiopulmonary arrest at his home on Monday.
Frye’s sister, Ruth Welch of Boynton Beach, Fla., says he was a genius who began by imitating neighbors in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they grew up.
She says her brother had an “ear for people’s voices” and an “eye for their movements” that made his impressions very accurate.
Among others, Frye appeared on ‘The Ed Sullivan Show’ and the ‘Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.’
David Frye, whose impressions of Presidents Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson and other prominent political figures vaulted him to popularity in the 1960′s and ’70s, has died. He was 77.
Frye died Monday of cardiopulmonary arrest at his Las Vegas home, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Saturday.
He had a wide-ranging cast of characters, but he specialized in impressions of the era’s political figures such as Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace and Nelson Rockefeller. “Frye bobs and weaves among the political heavyweights armed with perfect pitch and deadly accuracy” – Time magazine wrote in 1970.
Frye was a “frenzied, bellowing impressionist and political satirist” – The Times’ Dennis Hunt wrote in a 1974 review of a performance at the Troubadour.
His signature impression was of Nixon, with his shoulders hunched and a “singsong baritone … so close to the mark it makes one hope Frye never gets close to the hot line” – Time wrote.
After Nixon resigned in 1974, “it was a shock to lose my greatest character” – Frye told the New York Post in 1998. “And I knew I wouldn’t get a Grammy nomination for a Gerald Ford tape.”
Frye was born David Shapiro in Brooklyn. Frye’s sister, Ruth Welch of Boynton Beach, Fla., said he had an “ear for people’s voices” and an “eye for their movements” that made his impressions very accurate.