Comedian Joey Bishop, Rat Pack member, dies

LOS ANGELES – Joey Bishop, the deadpan comedian who was ABC’s answer to NBC’s late-night talk show king Johnny Carson in the late 1960s and was the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack, has died. He was 89.

Bishop, who had been in failing health for some time, died Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach, according to his longtime friend, publicist Warren Cowan.

An adept ad-libber with a dry, underplayed sense of humor, Bishop achieved his greatest fame in the 1960s. He was master of ceremonies for President Kennedy’s inaugural gala and joined Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Peter Lawford for the Rat Pack’s historic “summit” meetings on stage at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

Time magazine referred to Bishop as that swinging, fun-loving group’s “top banana.”

Jack Benny called him “one of the funniest men I’ve ever seen.”

And Danny Thomas was so impressed with Bishop, he had a weekly situation comedy built around him.

For four years, 1961 to ‘65, Bishop starred in the situation comedy “The Joey Bishop Show,” whose character, Joey Barnes, was changed from a low-level public relations man living with his mother the first season to being a married, late-night talk show host.

It was a fitting fictional occupation for the quick-witted Bishop, who had become nationally known in the late ‘50s for his regular late-night appearances on “The Jack Paar Show.” (Paar once likened Bishop’s dour demeanor to that of “an untipped waiter.”)

Bishop frequently substituted as host for Paar and later for Carson. In 1967, ABC signed him to host his own 90-minute late-night talk-fest.

“The Joey Bishop Show,” with Regis Philbin as Bishop’s announcer-sidekick, ran for 2 1/2 years.

In his 2002 biography of Bishop, “Mouse in the Rat Pack: The Joey Bishop Story,” New York Post TV columnist Michael Seth Starr painted a picture of a perfectionist who “clashed with his writers, producers, directors and co-stars” on his TV series, among others – a man who in general could be charming one minute and prickly the next.

Born Joseph Abraham Gottlieb in the Bronx, N.Y., on Feb. 3, 1918, Bishop was the youngest of five children of Jewish immigrant parents from central Europe.

Bishop appeared in 14 films, joining Sinatra and fellow Rat Packers in “Ocean’s 11” and “Sergeants 3,” as well as “Texas Across the River” with Martin.