The Texaco Star Theater premiered on Sept. 21, 1948. Rowdy and hilarious, it was essentially a revival of the skits the comedian had performed in vaudeville, and it was America's No. 1 show for seven seasons. By the time The Texaco Star Theater ended in 1954, 26 million homes had TV sets.
"Mr. Television" went on to make guest appearances on others' shows in the years that followed, appeared in numerous movies (including 1963's It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World and Woody Allen's 1984 Broadway Danny Rose). He also was a perennial favorite on stage in Las Vegas.
Berle married four times, though only to three women. He married his first wife, showgirl Joyce Matthews, twice. After his second divorce from Matthews, he married Ruth Cosgrove, a former publicist. The couple was married for more than 35 years. He went on to marry Lorna Adams, after Cosgrove's 1989 death. Described by PEOPLE as "a kind of Borscht Belt Errol Flynn," he also had relationships with a number of women outside his marriages, including evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and actresses Lucille Ball and Marilyn Monroe.
Berle is survived by wife Lorna, and two stepdaughters by her first marriage; along with daughter Vicki Walton, adopted by Berle and Matthews in 1945; and son Bill Berle, adopted by Berle and Cosgrove in 1961.
He loved performing all his life, earning an Emmy nomination at the age of 87 for his work playing an Alzheimer's patient on Beverly Hills 90210, The Times reported, adding that when asked why he still performed, he said, "Because I know nothing else. I live to work and I work to live."
Still, he never lost his sense of humor, and always had a clever, bawdy one-liner. In an interview, The Times reported, he said: "Somebody asked me how do I feel today on my 88th birthday. I said, 'I feel like a 20-year-old, but unfortunately there's never one around.'"
-- MEREDITH MURRAY
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