This person was born on the 1 st December 1940 in Illinois USA. His early life was very confusing and difficult as he was brought up in a brothel which was owned by his grandmother. So at a very early age he had to stand up for himself and was quite often a target of gang violence. But at the age of 14 he started performing with a local amateur dramatics group which set him on his way to a movie career. So at the age of 24 he relocated himself to New York City. He firstly did a stint at NBC on quite a few TV series including one called “The Lawyers” & “Carter's Army” . He also did do a stint in the army from 1958 to 1961.

But then as he hit the 70's his life took a very downward spiral as he was hitting the news for all the wrong reasons such as his drugs, beer and one new years eve he drunkedly shot up his wifes car with a shot gun!! So he got himself some much needed help and came back into the limelight a very different person. And he then came back with a love for films starring as characters such as Stanley X- Wild In The Streets, Piano Man - Lady Sings The Blues, Mike Willmer - Hit! & Sharp Eye Washington - Uptown Saturday Night.

Then into the 80's his movie career was going strong starring in roles such as Wendell Scott - Greased Lightning , Zeke Brown –Blue Collar, Harry Monroe -Stir Crazy, Jack Brown - The Toy & Joe Braxton - Bustin Loose he was also offered the role of Billy Ray Valentine in the film Trading Places but turned it down for personal reasons. But his personal life was still as much in the limelight because of his well publicized marriages because by the late 80's he had been married 5 times!!

Into the 90's he was still starring in movies but his health started to deteriate as he got Multiple Sclerosis which affected his first true love which was stand up comedy which he had done for most of his life and because of his illness he had to stop which nearly broke his heart. He could through the first part of his illness star in films as characters such as Montgomery Brewster - Brewsters Millions, Arlo Pear - Moving, Wallace Karue - See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Sugar Ray - Harlem Nights & Eddie Dash - Another You. But as his illness took over him he had to eventually give up his movie career as well as he eventually ended up in a wheel chair.

One film role that he will always be remembered for is as Gus Gorman in the Superman III films. And he is well known for starring in a lot of films with gene wilder, and finally in this year he passed away from a heart attack but he will always be remembered as one of the great comedians he is of course:-