Bye, Henry Gibson

(Kudos to Monty)

Or
Hello Charlotte
(Props to Peter C)
Henry Gibson, the priest and poet of Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In has died of cancer at the age of 73. He got his start in a comic duo with Jon Voight in the 1960s. Anyone who could make that pairing funny had to have a future in comedy and he got tapped to join the Not Ready for Late Night cast of Laugh-In, most notably as the stoic priest dishing one-liners in the quick-cut cocktail party sketches and toting a giant flower while reciting poetry that was alternately sardonic and moronic. His other best known role was the leader of the Illinois Nazis that so riled Jake and Elwood in The Blues Brothers. He tried to kill Tom Hanks in The ‘burbs during Hanks’ mostly fallow period between being drunk Uncle Ned and becoming the most popular actor in the history of cinema. Gibson drew attention for a dramatic role as the smarmy superpatriot country star Haven Hamilton, winning a Golden Globe nomination, got fired for smoking in Gremlins 2, and most recently played Judge Clark Brown on Boston Legal, constantly commenting on the “out-rageous” behavior of Allan Shore and Denny Crain.