HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Legendary comedian Soupy Sales died Thursday in New York following a lengthy illness. He was 83.
Sales died at Calvary Hospice in the Bronx, his former manager and longtime friend, Dave Usher, told the Associated Press.
Sales was born Milton Supman on Jan. 8, 1926, in Franklinton, N.C. He began his television career in Cincinnati and Cleveland before heading to Detroit in 1953, where he hosted “Lunch with Soupy,” a half-hour show that featured a cast of imagined characters.
Sales moved to Los Angeles in 1961 and eventually became a fill-in host on “The Tonight Show.”
While his greatest success most likely came in New York with the children’s program “The Soupy Sales Show,” the comic’s pie-throwing schtick was his trademark, with celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Tony Curtis among the stars lining up to take one on the chin.
“I’ll probably be remembered for the pies, and that’s all right,” Sales said in a 1985 interview.
The comedian is survived by his wife, Trudy, and two sons, Hunt and Tony.
