A Comic Genuis, a Master of Characters, Part of an Iconic Ensemble, Dead at 90
One of the great comic geniuses of the twentieth century, Arte Johnson, has passed away. He was 90.
Variety reports: “Comedian and actor Arte Johnson, Emmy-winning star of 1960s and ’70s comedy sketch show ‘Laugh-In,’ died July 3 in Los Angeles of heart failure. He was 90 and had been battling bladder and prostate cancer.
“On ‘Laugh-In,’ he was most familiar as Wolfgang, the heavily accented German soldier who thought World War II was still going on. His catchphrase ‘Very interesting…’ was one of many that caught on from the hit show. Johnson won one Emmy for the show and was nominated two more times.
“Appearing on the NBC series for its full run from 1968 to 1973, his other well-known character was as the dirty old man Tyrone F. Horneigh who sat down on a park bench and made off-color remarks to Ruth Buzzi. In a 1970 episode, the two were set to be married appeared in a wedding scene with Tiny Tim as best man. Thought the character probably wouldn’t have worked in modern times, he and Buzzi reprised their characters in the 1977 cartoon series ‘Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.'”
The Hollywood Reporter captured the genius of Johnson: “Humor for me consists in incongruity,” he said in 1974. “If I were doing a Hasidic rabbi, I’d have him speak with an Irish accent. … You take it out of reality and make it cartoon-esque without being denigrating. Because people today are so sensitive, it’s the only way of creating humor without offending someone.”
Some great memories of Arte Johnson:
