Skip to main content
obituary

Marty Allen, left, stands with comedy partner Steve Rossi in Los Angeles in 1965.David F. Smith

Marty Allen, the baby-faced, bug-eyed comedian with wild black hair who was a staple of TV variety shows, game shows and talk shows for decades, died on Feb 12. He was 95.

Mr. Allen died in Las Vegas of complications from pneumonia with his wife and performing partner of the past three decades Karon Kate Blackwell by his side, Mr. Allen's spokeswoman Candi Cazau told the Associated Press.

Mr. Allen, known for his greeting and catchphrase "hello dere," was a living link late in life to a generation of long-dead superstars with whom he shared a stage, including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Elvis Presley.

He first found fame as half of the duo Allen & Rossi with partner Steve Rossi, who died in 2014. Allen & Rossi appeared 44 times on The Ed Sullivan Show, including the episodes where the Beatles performed and most of the United States watched.

"Everyone remembers those shows with the Beatles, and they were great, but we appeared on all the shows," Mr. Allen said in 2014.

"There wasn't a talk show on TV that didn't want Allen & Rossi."

The duo appeared regularly on The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson and The Merv Griffin Show. They also toured comedy clubs nationwide, headlined shows at major Las Vegas casinos and released a series of hit albums until their amicable breakup in 1968.

He was a regular entertainer on the Las Vegas Strip for much of his life, and tributes from there poured in following his death.

"We have lost another iconic Las Vegas entertainer, Marty Allen," magician Lance Burton tweeted. "What a funny man who brought joy to millions of people for 95 years."

Mr. Allen was born in Pittsburgh and served in Italy in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War, earning a Soldier's Medal for Valour.

He was married to Lorraine (Frenchy) Allen from 1960 until she died in 1976.

Then in 1984, he married Ms. Blackwell, a singer-songwriter who became his performing partner in his last decades and acted as the goofy Mr. Allen's "straight man" just as Mr. Rossi did half a century earlier.

He kept making crowds laugh into his mid-90s.

"It's unbelievable to be 94 years old," Mr. Allen told a New York audience in 2016. "My wife says, 'What do you want for your birthday?' I told her, 'An antique.' So she framed my birth certificate."

Interact with The Globe