No Laugh-In Matter: Dick Martin Passes
Funnyman Dick Martin, best known as the cohost of the 1960s television hit Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, died Saturday in Santa Monica from respiratory complications. He was 86.
“He had had some pretty severe respiratory problems for many years, and he had pretty much stopped breathing a week ago,” said Martin family spokesman Barry Greenberg.
On the pioneering sketch show Laugh-In, which mined humor out of hippie culture and other topical issues of the late 1960s, goofball Martin and his straight-man other half, Dan Rowan, helped launch the careers of, among others, Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn.
Martin also starred as Lucille Ball’s neighbor and love interest in her comeback sitcom The Lucy Show and, after Laugh-In’s run ended in 1973, went on to direct several television shows, including Newhart and Family Ties. He also appeared on The Love Boat and Diagnosis Murder.
He is survived by his wife, Dolly Read, and sons Cary and Richard. Rowan died in 1987.
Jason Bateman, Wife Welcome a Baby Girl
Jason Bateman and his wife, Amanda Anka, welcomed their first child, a girl, PEOPLE has learned.
Their daughter, Francesca Nora Bateman, was born on Saturday in Los Angeles, according to the actor’s rep, Cara Tripicchio.
Bateman and Anka, both 37, knew each other as casual acquaintances for years before they started dating in 1998. They wed in Malibu on July 3, 2001.
Anka, an actress, is the daughter of singer-songwriter Paul Anka. She has appeared in such shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Diagnosis Murder.
Bateman rose to fame as a child actor on Silver Spoons and The Hogan Family. The actor most recently starred in the critically acclaimed FOX sitcom Arrested Development, for which he won a Golden Globe last year. (After three years, the series was canceled in February.)
The couple live in Los Angeles, close to Bateman’s sister, Justine, who starred in the ’80s sitcom Family Ties.
Up next for the actor is a role in the romantic comedy Fast Track with Amanda Peet and Zach Braff.
Laugh-In’s Dick Martin dead at 86
Dick Martin was the “Martin” in the comedy duo Rowan & Martin, who hosted the incredibly popular 1960s/early ’70s comedy sketch show on NBC, Laugh-In. Dan Rowan, who died in 1987, was the straight man (that’s Rowan on the left in the pic).
Martin also appeared in several other TV shows over the years, including Third Rock From The Sun, The Lucy Show, Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Coach, Blossom, Dave’s World, Baywatch, The Nanny, Diagnosis: Murder, George & Leo, The John Larroquette Show, and Two Guys, A Girl, and a Pizza Place. He was also in the movies The Maltese Bibby, Carbon Copy, and The Glass Bottom Boat.
Besides acting, Martin was a director as well, helming such shows as The Bob Newhart Show, Family Ties, Archie Bunker’s Place, Mama’s Family, In The Heat of the Night, Newhart, and Sledge Hammer.
Martin died of respiratory complications in Santa Monica last night. He was 86.
More Dollhouse casting announced
Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse is becoming the “it” show, the show everyone is looking forward to and talking about (unless, of course, you didn’t like Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Firefly). We’ve already told you that Eliza Dushku was signed to star in the show and that Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett had joined her (along with Dichen Lachman, Enver Gjokaj, and Fran Kranz from Welcome to the Captain, which I doubt will be back on CBS next season), and now comes word about other cast additions that will thrill fans of a show about a vampire (no, not this one).
Whedon himself has announced on Whedonesque that Amy Acker has joined the cast. She was a regular on Angel and also played that nasty Kelly Peyton on the last season of Alias (and co-starred on the short-lived Drive). He also says the awesomely named Miracle Laurie has joined the cast, along with Henry Lennix from 24, Commander-In-Chief, and Diagnosis: Murder.
Dollhouse is about four people who have been programmed with various personalities, which they then use on secret assignments. I think from that description we know it’s not going to be a sitcom or variety show, but what exactly will happen on the show is still sort of a mystery.