Legendary comedian Rip Taylor has died.
He was 84.
Taylor's zany antics kept him in the
spotlight for over six decades.
According to various outlets, Taylor's
publicist Harlan Boll announced his death on Sunday.
Taylor described himself as the “King
of Confetti” for drowning his audience with buckets of colored
confetti. An early Taylor bit in which he would hold a handkerchief
to his face and pretend to cry earned him the title of “The Crying
Comedian.” The nickname stuck when Ed Sullivan couldn't remember
Taylor's name and introduced him as “The Crying Comedian.”
Throughout the 1970s, Taylor was a
regular celebrity guest on television game shows and talk shows such
as The Tonight Show and The Mike Douglas Show.
He also appeared in numerous films,
including Wayne's World 2, Jackass: The Movie, and
Indecent Proposal, and
television shows such as The Monkees and
The Kids in the Hall.
Taylor was born Charles Elmer Taylor
Jr. His father was a musician, his mother a waitress.
Taylor kept his personal life private.
He was briefly married to Las Vegas showgirl Rusty Rowe. The couple
divorced in the early 1960s. He helmed the Washington D.C. Capital
Pride parade in 2005. At the time of his death, he had been in a
long-term relationship with Robert Fortney.
According to his publicist, Taylor was
hospitalized last week after suffering a seizure. He died at
Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.