Foster Brooks

Foster Murrell Brooks (May 11, 1912 – December 20, 2001) was an American actor and comedian best known for his portrayal of a lovable drunk in nightclub performances and television programs.

Early life Brooks was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 11, 1912, to Edna (née Megowan) and Pleasant M. Brooks. He had seven brothers. His career started in radio, notably with station WHAS in Louisville. He was a staff announcer, and his deep baritone voice was also well-suited for singing. Brooks gained fame for his reporting of the Ohio River flood of 1937, where he was featured on emergency broadcasts by WHAS and also WSM from Nashville, Tennessee. In 1952, Brooks appeared on local TV in a short-lived spoof of Gene Autry and his "Singing Cowboys".

He later worked in local broadcasting as a radio and TV personality at WHAM in Rochester, New York, and at WGR & WKBW in Buffalo, where he hosted "The Musical Clock" and "Million Dollar Ballroom". In Buffalo, Brooks also performed with a country and western vocal group known as the Hi-Hatters. In 1997 Brooks was inducted into the Buffalo Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. Moving to the West Coast, he launched a career as a stand-up comic and character actor.

In 1960, Brooks moved with his family to Los Angeles to seek more professional opportunities. During this time, he appeared on television comedies such as The Munsters, The Monkees and Bewitched. Brooks also delivered Christmas mail and phone books, and managed an apartment building in North Hollywood. In addition, he worked as a security guard for the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

On the syndicated Steve Allen Show of the 1960s, Allen introduced Brooks as an important movie producer. Brooks stumbled on stage doing his drunk act, fooling some of the other guests. Brooks claimed to be the executive in charge of editing movies for television. His biggest success, he said, was the famous movie The Three Commandments. His character also claimed to have invented the concept of removing clips from the movies and inserting commercials.Foster Brooks on the Steve Allen Show , retrieved September 1, 2017.

In 1969, game show icon and television personality Dennis James took his friend Brooks to a North Carolina charity golf tournament to tell some jokes, and then introduced Brooks to good friend, singer Perry Como, who in turn gave the comedian his major break. Como chose Brooks to open for him at a Las Vegas hotel. When the hotel's owners balked at Como's choice due to Brooks' age and lack of fame, Como insisted and the owners acquiesced. Brooks was an instant hit. He made his first appearance soon thereafter on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Career Brooks regularly appeared on The Dean Martin Show television program in the 1970s (for which he garnered an Emmy Award nomination in 1974) as well as many situation comedies and talk shows, (including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson). Mr. Brooks appeared many times on the Bill Cosby variety show in 1972.

His signature routine was the basis of a hit comedy album titled Foster Brooks, The Lovable Lush, released in the early 1970s. As his "Lovable Lush" character, Brooks usually portrayed a conventioneer who had had a few too many drinks—not falling-down drunk, but inebriated enough to mix up his words and burp to comedic delight. 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,Foster Brooks roasts Don Rickles on Dean Martin Roast , February 8, 1974 Johnny Carson"Foster Brooks roasts Johnny Carson on Dean Martin Roast , November 2, 1973 and Lucille Ball,"Foster Brooks roasts Lucille Ball on Dean Martin Roast , February 8, 1975 and serious public figures such as writer Truman Capote,Foster Brooks roasts Truman Capote on Dean Martin Roast , clip consumer activist Ralph Nader,Foster Brooks roasts Ralph Nader on Dean Martin Roast , February 15, 1974. and former vice president Hubert Humphrey.

During his period of greatest fame, Brooks rarely drank. Of giving up drinking to win a bet in 1964, Brooks said, "A fellow made me a $10 bet I couldn't quit, and I haven't had a drink since. At the time I needed the $10."

He would occasionally make cameo appearances in which his character was perfectly sober, such as his appearance in a 1968 episode of Adam-12 playing a strait-laced citizen who tries to get out of a parking ticket by dropping the name of an officer senior to the main characters. He also 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. In a later Adam-12 episode, he plays a stoned man, stopped for erratic driving, who tries to hide the burning marijuana "joint" in his suit's front pocket. In a more serious Adam-12 appearance, he portrayed a drunken driver who killed another driver in an accident on Christmas Eve.

On the comedy series Green Acres in the 1969 episode "Economy Flight to Washington", Brooks' boozy, bobble-headed character meets and befriends the pig Arnold Ziffel in a hotel bar. In the scene, ostensibly through the haze of alcohol, Brooks mistakes the anthropomorphic pig for a U.S. Air Force lieutenant, since the animal is sitting on a bar stool and is wearing a white leather aviator's cap, goggles, and a red scarf. Brooks acted again on Green Acres in 1969, this time giving a "sober" performance as Charlie Williams, a chemist, in the episode "The Milk Maker". The following year he returned to his whiskey-soaked persona on the television western The High Chaparral. Brooks asked Dean Martin to join his group "Alcoholics Unanimous", a play on Alcoholics Anonymous. He boasted he and Martin were charter members of the DUI (Driving Under the Influence) Hall of Fame.

In the 1970s, Brooks appeared as a celebrity panelist on the game shows Celebrity Sweepstakes, Hollywood Squares and Match Game, and in 1979, he appeared in the film The Villain as a bank clerk.

Public sensibilities had changed regarding alcoholics and public drunkenness by the 1980s, so Brooks moved away from his drunken character. In 1983, Brooks appeared in the film Cannonball Run II with comedians Louis Nye and Sid Caesar as fishermen in a rowboat. He had a recurring role as Mr. Sternhagen, Mindy's boss on Mork & Mindy. His name was a moniker on a Louisville celebrity golf tournament benefiting Kosair Charities. Brooks was a Shriner and member of the Al Malaikah Shriners, Los Angeles. He also made occasional guest appearances on TV shows in which he would demonstrate his singing voice.

Brooks' last performance was at a celebrity roast in Las Vegas for Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Later career and legacy Years later Brooks was referred to on the Cartoon Network television show Space Ghost Coast to Coast (episode 45, "Switcheroo II"). He 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. He is also referenced on an episode of Get a Life called "Paperboy 2000". On the March 1, 2010, episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart referred to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's mispronunciation of a constituent's name by saying, "It's not supposed to end on a Foster Brooks hiccup." He was mentioned in the lyrics of a Loudon Wainwright III song, "Wine With Dinner".

Personal life Brooks was first married to Loretta Brooks, with whom he had a son and three daughters; one daughter died in infancy. Foster and Loretta divorced in 1950. That same year, he married Teri Brooks, with whom he had two daughters. Brooks' brother, Tom, was a well-known entertainer in Louisville for many years. Brooks's nephew Randy Brooks is a comedy songwriter, best known for his composition "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer", recorded by Randy's friend Elmo Shropshire and inspired by an unnamed "tipsy" member of the Brooks family.

Death Brooks died on December 20, 2001, at his home in Encino, California, from heart failure. He was 89 years old.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes1971 The Late Liz Howard Borman 1976 Super Seal Harold 1979 The Villain Bank Clerk 1983 Cracking Up The Pilot 1984 Oddballs Hardy Bassett 1984 Cannonball Run II Fisherman #1 1986 GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords Stoneheart / Fossil Lord Voice1991 The Giant of Thunder Mountain Doc (Townsman)

Television Year Title Role Notes1962 Gunsmoke Ed S8:E3, "Quint Asper Comes Home"1965 The Munsters The Admiral S2:E6, "Happy 100th Anniversary"1966 I Dream of Jeannie Englishman S1:E16, "Get Me to Mecca on Time" Tammy Elmer S1:E25, "Uncle Lucius Returns" Bewitched Robert Andrews S2:E29, "Disappearing Samantha" Laredo Harry Tyson S2:E9, "One Two Many Voices"1967 Mr. Terrific 1st Man S1:E2, "Mr. Big Curtsies Out" The Monkees Conventioneer S1:E30, "Monkees in Manhattan" The Flying Nun Passenger S1:E12, "Young Man with a Cornette"1968 Death Valley Days Phil Stockton S16:E21, "A Friend Indeed" It Takes a Thief Judge S2:E6, "The Packager" It Takes a Thief Drunk S2:E9, "A Case of Red Turnips" The Beverly Hillbillies Fiddlin Sam Dingle S6:E25, "The Clampetts Fiddle Around" Green Acres Major S3:E27, "The Rutabaga Story" Adam-12 Man S1:E10, "Log 132: Producer" Adam-12 Citizen S1:E12, "Log 61: The Runaway"1969 Green Acres Man S4:E19, "Economy Flight to Washington" Green Acres Charlie Williams S4:E25, "The Milk Maker" The Mod Squad Will Jackson S1:E22, "Child of Sorrow, Child of Light" The Survivors Stafford S1:E7, "Chapter Seven" Bonanza Judge S11:E1, "Another Windmill to Go" Adam-12 Harry Sachs S2:E7, "Log 63: Baby"1970 Bonanza Judge Rogers S11:E20, "The Law and Billy Burgess" The High Chaparral Drunk S3:E21, "The Reluctant Deputy" Daniel Boone Stranger S6:E24, "Bringing Up Josh" Gunsmoke Sporting Gentleman #1 S16:E9, "The Gun" Adam-12 George Selfridge S3:E11, "Log 46: Pilgrimage"1971 The Beverly Hillbillies Man S9:E15, "The Grun Incident" Green Acres Farmer #1 S6:E23, "The Hole in the Porch" The Partners Willy Cooper S1:E3, "The Prisoner of Fender"1972 Arnie Dr. Matthews S2:E17, "What's Up, Doc?" Adam-12 Mr. Allen S4:E19, "Mary Hong Loves Tommy Chen"1973 Here's Lucy David Benton Miller S6:E10, "Tipsy Through the Tulips"1976 Starsky & Hutch Drunk Gambler S2:E1, "The Las Vegas Strangler, Part 1"1977 Switch Dale Abee 2 episodes Police Woman Darryl Everson S4:E9, "Ambition"1978 Fantasy Island Frank 'Spider' Randall S1:E12, "The Over-the-Hill Caper/Poof, You're a Movie Star"1979 Sweepstakes Edgar S1:E1, "Lynn and Grover and Joey" B. J. and the Bear Terry Morgan S1:E3, "A Coffin with a View"1981 Mork & Mindy Miles Sternhagen 3 episodes 1982 Today's FBI Rainey S1:E18, "Kidnap" Madame's Place Self S1:E18, "Who Laughs Last?"1983 Quincy, M.E. Carriage Driver S8:E19, "Murder on Ice"1986 Small Wonder Roland Cardwell S2:E5, "Home Sweet Homeless"1987 The New Mike Hammer Manny, The Great Mandrell S3:E12, "Elegy for a Tramp" Murder, She Wrote Simon Thane S3:E17, "Simon Says, Color Me Dead"1990 The Munsters Today Igor S2:E13, "Reunion" What a Dummy Jackie Clark S1:E1, "What a Dummy"1996 Cosby Actor S1:E5, "The Best Little Antique Shop in Astoria"

Foster Brooks

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