Foster Brooks was an American actor and comedian best known for his portrayal of a lovable drunk in nightclub performances and television programs.
28 Facts About Foster Brooks
2.
Foster Brooks's career started in radio, notably with station WHAS in Louisville.
3.
Foster Brooks was a staff announcer, and his deep baritone voice was well-suited for singing.
4.
In 1952, Foster Brooks appeared on local TV in a short-lived spoof of Gene Autry and his "Singing Cowboys".
5.
In Buffalo, Foster Brooks performed with a country and western vocal group known as the Hi-Hatters.
6.
In 1997 Foster Brooks was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.
7.
In 1960, Foster Brooks moved with his family to Los Angeles to seek more professional opportunities.
8.
Foster Brooks delivered Christmas mail and phone books, and managed an apartment building in North Hollywood.
9.
Foster Brooks stumbled on stage doing his drunk act, fooling some of the other guests.
10.
Foster Brooks claimed to be the executive in charge of editing movies for television.
11.
Foster Brooks's character claimed to have invented the concept of removing clips from the movies and inserting commercials.
12.
Foster Brooks made his first appearance soon thereafter on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
13.
Foster Brooks regularly appeared on The Dean Martin Show television program in the 1970s as well as many situation comedies, talk shows, Mr Foster Brooks appeared many times on the Bill Cosby variety show in 1972.
14.
Foster Brooks is best remembered for his appearances on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast during the 1970s, where he roasted other comedians, such as Don Rickles, Johnny Carson and Lucille Ball, and serious public figures such as writer Truman Capote, consumer activist Ralph Nader, and former vice president Hubert Humphrey.
15.
Foster Brooks played the character Harry Sachs in a 1969 episode of Adam-12 in which he performed as a highly intoxicated man standing in the middle of a street, waving his suit jacket at oncoming traffic, as if he were a bullfighter.
16.
Foster Brooks asked Dean Martin to join his group "Alcoholics Unanimous," a play on Alcoholics Anonymous.
17.
Foster Brooks boasted he and Martin were charter members of the DUI Hall of Fame.
18.
Public sensibilities had changed regarding alcoholics and public drunkenness by the 1980s, so Foster Brooks moved away from his drunken character.
19.
In 1983, Foster Brooks appeared in the film Cannonball Run II with comedians Louis Nye and Sid Caesar as fishermen in a rowboat.
20.
Foster Brooks's name was a moniker on a Louisville celebrity golf tournament benefiting Kosair Charities.
21.
Foster Brooks was a Shriner and member of the Al Malaikah Shriners, Los Angeles.
22.
Foster Brooks made occasional guest appearances on TV shows in which he would demonstrate his singing voice.
23.
Years later Foster Brooks was referred to on the Cartoon Network television show Space Ghost Coast to Coast.
24.
Foster Brooks was featured in a scene that was cut before being aired, but the scene was later included on the Space Ghost Coast to Coast volume 3 DVD release.
25.
Foster Brooks is referenced on an episode of Get a Life called "Paperboy 2000".
26.
Foster Brooks was first married to Loretta Foster Brooks, with whom he had a son and three daughters; one daughter died in infancy.
27.
Foster Brooks' brother, Tom, was a well-known entertainer in Louisville for many years.
28.
Foster Brooks died on December 20,2001, at his home in Encino, California, from heart failure.