Actor Harvey Korman Dies at 81

Image credit: Shelley Gazin/CORBIS

HARVEY KORMAN Center, with his Carol Burnett Show colleagues (Vicki Lawrence, Carol Burnett, and Tim Conway)

(FROM AP) — Actor Harvey Korman has died. The versatile comedic performer, 81, best known as part of the ensemble that appeared on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978, passed away Thursday in Los Angeles. He had been suffering complications stemming from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Korman started as a voice actor on The Flintstones (as the Great Gazoo) and as a guest star on countless early-1960s TV programs, earning his big break on The Danny Kaye Show in 1964. His career peaked in the 1970s, when he acted in the Mel Brooks comedies Blazing Saddles (as the diabolical Hedley Lamarr) and High Anxiety, and starred on The Carol Burnett Show, for which he won four Emmys and a Golden Globe. He left The Carol Burnett Show in 1977 to headline his own short-lived series, The Harvey Korman Show, and continued to pop up in a wide range of TV fare through the 1990s. (AP via Yahoo!)