Spongebob Squarepants voice actor and star of The Carol Burnett Show Tim Conway has died aged 85.
By Lynn Elber and Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
May 14 2019 6:47 PM
Spongebob Squarepants voice actor and star of The Carol Burnett Show Tim Conway has died aged 85.
Conway played the impish second banana to Burnett who won four Emmy Awards on her TV variety show and starred aboard McHale’s Navy before voicing the role of Barnacle Boy for the popular cartoon.
Conway died in a Los Angeles care facility, according to Howard Bragman, who heads LaBrea Media. His wife, Charlene Fusco, and a daughter, Jackie, were at his side.
The cause of death was a disorder in which there is an excess of fluid on the brain, Mr Bragman said.
Tributes came from across the comedy world, including from Conan O’Brien, who said as a kid “no one made me laugh harder than Tim Conway”.
Larry Wilmore called Conway “always always funny” and Kathy Griffin called him “a wildly talented, comedy giant”. Al Roker tweeted out a link to Conway playing a hysterically incompetent dentist.
A native of Ohio, Conway credited his Midwestern roots for putting him on the right path to laughs, with his deadpan expression and innocent, simple-minded demeanour.
“I think the Midwest is the heart of comedy in this country, and a little bit of the South, too,” he told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2005. “For some reason, we’re just more laid-back, more understanding.… And Midwesterners have a kinder sense of humour.”
When I was a kid watching « The Carol Burnett Show, » no one made me laugh harder than Tim Conway. What a sweet and effortlessly funny man.
Those qualities probably contributed to his wide popularity on The Carol Burnett Show, which he joined in 1975 after years as a frequent guest. The show aired from 1967 to 1978 and had a short summer stint in 1979.
“We really didn’t attack people or politics or religion or whatever. We just made fun of, basically, ourselves,” he said.
The show operated with just five writers, one producer, one director and without network interference. The ensemble cast surrounding the redheaded star included Vicki Lawrence and Lyle Waggoner.
“I don’t think the network would allow a show like The Carol Burnett Show now because we had such freedom,” Conway said in his interview with the State Journal.
