LOS ANGELES (AP) — Norm Crosby, the comedian known for mangling the English language, has died at 93.
Crosby’s daughter-in-law, Maggie Crosby, told The New York Times that the comic died Saturday of heart failure in Los Angeles.
Crosby worked steadily in his native New England before his first major New York appearance, in 1963.
Casting around for a way to stand out, he began noticing how people misuse words. He started breaking up audiences by such gaffes as calling the famed baby doctor Benjamin Spock “Dr. Spook.”
Starting in 1978, he starred in a syndicated TV show, “Norm Crosby’s Comedy Shop” and for many years he served as co-host with Jerry Lewis on the telethon for muscular dystrophy.
