Quipster Nipsey Russell Dies

Quipster Nipsey Russell Dies

by Charlie Amter
Oct 3, 2005, 10:15 PM PT



A 1970s TV fixture known for his rhyming wit, Nipsey Russell has passed on, so here's his obit.

The comic actor, who ascended to the "Poet Laureate of Television" thanks to his steady stream of quippy couplets on the talk- and game-show circuit, died of cancer Sunday in New York's Lenox Hill Hospital at age 80, according to his longtime manager, Joseph Rapp.

An Atlanta native, Russell got the show-biz bug in the 1940s as a car-hop at the local drive-in The Varsity, where he would earn his tips by cracking up customers.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati and serving as an Army captain in Europe during World War II, Russell settled in New York and hit the club scene. He recorded several albums of his stand-up routines and earned a cult following, which led to his first big break--a guest spot on The Ed Sullivan Show. That attracted the attention of NBC producers, who cast him in the bit part of Officer Anderson in the 1961 sitcom Car 54, Where Are You?--a role Russell reprised in the 1994 big-screen version.

So began a five-decade career that reached its pinnacle in the '70s with recurring stints on The Match Game, To Tell the Truth, The Dean Martin Show, and The Tonight Show, where he served as a guest host for Johnny Carson.

Russell was a sought-after guest thanks to his comic stanzas ("The opposite of pro is con/ That fact is clearly seen/ If progress means move forward/ Then what does Congress mean?" or "If you make sweet love with a school teacher/You'll have an amazing night/She'll do it and do it and do it again/Until you get it right."), which earned him his nickname.

By the end of the decade he scored his best known movie role, playing the Tin Man in Sidney Lumet's 1978 musical The Wiz, which costarred Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Richard Pryor.

In the '80s, he made the requisite Love Boat voyage, served as a panelist on $20,000 Pyramid, hosted the TV series Juvenile Jury and Your Number's Up, and appeared in the films Wildcats and Nemo.

Considered a mentor to younger comics, Russell was invited to The Chris Rock Show in the 1990s and poetically dissed Conan O'Brien on The Late Show. "Roses are red/Violets are blue/The real Nipsey Russell says/'Conan, screw you!' "

He also appeared on Spin City, the Comedy Central series Viva Variety and the soap operas As the World Turns and Search for Tomorrow. His last TV appearance came in 2003 on Hollywood Squares.

A lifelong bachelor, Russell left no survivors.