In this May 5, 2002 file photo, Sid Caesar, of “Your Show of Shows,” arrives at NBC’s 75th anniversary celebration in New York.LOS ANGELES – Sid Caesar, the prodigiously talented pioneer of TV comedy who paired with Imogene Coca in sketches that became classics and who inspired a generation of famous writers, died early Wednesday. He was 91.
Caesar died at his home in the Los Angeles area after a brief illness, family spokesman Eddy Friedfeld said.
In his two most important shows, “Your Show of Shows,” 1950-54, and “Caesar’s Hour,” 1954-57, Caesar displayed remarkable skill in pantomime, satire, mimicry, dialect and sketch comedy. And he gathered a stable of young writers who went on to worldwide fame in their own right – including Neil Simon and Woody Allen.
“The one great star that television created and who created television was Sid Caesar,” said critic Joel Siegel on the TV documentary “Hail Sid Caesar! The Golden Age Of Comedy,” which first aired in 2001.
While best known for his TV shows, which have been revived on DVD in recent years, he also had success on Broadway and occasional film appearances, notably in “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.”