David Norris Brenner was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author.
15 Facts About David Brenner
2.
David Brenner was born to Jewish parents in 1936 and raised in South and West Philadelphia.
3.
David Brenner's father, Louis, was a vaudeville comedian, singer and dancer, performing under the stage name of Lou Murphy, who gave up his career and a film contract to please Brenner's grandfather, a rabbi, who objected to his working on the Sabbath.
4.
Once David became successful, he regularly sent his parents on cruises, and both of Brenner's parents would eventually die at advanced ages while on cruises aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, approximately two years apart.
5.
David Brenner was a writer, director or producer of 115 television documentaries and headed the documentary units of Westinghouse Broadcasting and Metromedia, winning nearly 30 awards including an Emmy, before moving to comedy.
6.
David Brenner's first paid gig was at The Improv in June 1969, and following that he frequently performed at clubs in Greenwich Village.
7.
David Brenner was ranked No 53 on Comedy Central Presents: 100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time.
8.
David Brenner wrote five books, and starred in four HBO Specials.
9.
David Brenner guest-hosted for Johnny Carson 75 times between 1975 and 1984, placing him fifth on the list of Carson's most frequent guest hosts.
10.
David Brenner was the star of the 1976 TV series Snip, which was inspired by the film Shampoo and set in a hair dressing salon.
11.
David Brenner portrayed a charity ball auctioneer in the 1989 romantic comedy Worth Winning.
12.
From 1994 to 1996, David Brenner hosted a daytime talk-radio program, inheriting the timeslot of the long-running Larry King Show on the Mutual Broadcasting System.
13.
David Brenner had earlier hosted a syndicated weekly radio show, David Brenner Live, for three months in 1985.
14.
David Brenner was engaged to Tai Babilonia in 2005, but they never married.
15.
David Brenner died on March 15,2014, at age 78, from pancreatic cancer at his Manhattan home.