Dom DeLuise, the jovial comic who enlivened such madcap films as Cannonball Run, Blazing Saddles, and Spaceballs, has died. He was 75.
Often working with Burt Reynolds or Mel Brooks, the bearded, roly-poly actor was known for a sharp, distinctive, almost howling laugh that fills the outtakes reel of Cannonball Run — a testament to the joyous time he had with Reynolds.
"I was thinking about this the other day," Reynolds said in a statement released to TVGuide.com. "As you get older, and start to lose people you love, you think about it more, and I was dreading this moment. Dom always made you feel better when he was around and there will never be another like him. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much."
DeLuise's death was confirmed Tuesday by a representative for his son, David DeLuise.
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Question: I remember the show Burke's Law from the '90s or so, but wasn't there an earlier version of it on TV some years before? Thanks.
Answer: That there was, Drew. The original Burke's Law, which starred Gene Barry as L.A. chief of detectives Amos Burke when it launched — he became secret agent Amos Burke in the show's last season, when it was titled Amos Burke — Secret Agent — ran on ABC for two and a half years beginning in September 1963.
If Barry'd stuck to the way he'd been thinking about TV a couple of years earlier, however, he'd never have stepped into the role, which was first played by Dick Powell a couple of seasons before on Dick Powell Theatre. Barry didn't really like TV, and after leaving his previous show, Bat Masterson,
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