Comedian Norm Crosby reportedly died from heart failure Saturday in Los Angeles.
His cause of death was confirmed Sunday as heart failure by his daughter-in-law Maggie Crosby, according to The New York Times.
Norm Crosby, the stand-up comedian who spent more than five decades amusing and bemusing audiences in nightclubs and on television as the “Master of the Malaprop,” has died. He was 93. https://t.co/TvzXYv1JvN pic.twitter.com/WkB0sNfWUi
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) November 8, 2020
Crosby was popular in the 1960s, 70s and 80s as he appeared on television, in nightclubs and casinos. He first began his comedy career by emulating other comedians.
“I was doing everybody’s material,” he said in an interview with the show business historian Kliph Nesteroff back in 2010. “I took from Buddy Hackett, Jan Murray and Red Buttons. Everybody!” (RELATED: Comedy Legend, Creator Of ‘Dick Van Dyke Show,’ Carl Reiner Dies At 98)
The comedian ended up playing around with words and became the “King of Malaprop.” Malaprop is the use of a usually wrong word in place of a similar-sounding one.
SANTA MONICA, CA – APRIL 08: Comedian Norm Crosby, (left) on stage with Mel Brooks at the Recording Academy Los Angeles Chapter presents Up Close & Personal With Mel Brooks, at the Recording Academy on April 8, 2008 in Santa Monica,California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, CA – JUNE 09: Mickey Rooney, Mitzi Gaynor and Norm Crosby arrive at The Actors Fund 17th Annual Tony Awards Viewing Party held at Taglyan Cultural Complex on June 9, 2013 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Araya Diaz/Getty Images)
“I was looking around for fresh ideas, and I kept hearing people misuse words,” he told an interviewer in 1989, according to the Associated Press. “So I started to use it in my act.”
In 1978, Crosby started his own syndicated TV show called “Norm Crosby’s Comedy Shop.”
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – OCTOBER 20: Actors Norm Crosby and Robert Culp attend the “All Star Salute to Legendary Jockeys” for the 20th Anniversary Breeders Cup Celebration at the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 20, 2003 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Chris Hatcher/Getty Images)
Crosby continued to perform comedy throughout his 80s including on cruise ships, in Las Vegas and on television. He also had an appearance in “Grown Ups 2.”
Crosby is survived by his wife Joan Foley, two children, Andrew and Daniel, and two grandchildren.