Louis Nye Dies at 92

Another one bites the dust...

Veteran TV "second banana" Louis Nye, one of the regulars on Steve Allen's original The Tonight Show in the 1950's ("Hi, ho, Steverino!") died Sunday at age 92 of lung cancer, the Associated Press reported Monday. He had continued to work in television until 2002, when he appeared regularly on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. Still, the role he was always identified with was that of Gordon Hathaway on Allen's 50s' show. "He was the suave, pretentious, smug country club braggart, that, in spite of the pretentiousness, you had to like because democratic nations like America need people like that to make fun of," Robert J. Thompson, professor of media and popular culture at Syracuse University, told the New York Times. "Gordon Hathaway was to Steve Allen as Frasier was to Frasier's dad. Frasier was always this guy we liked to dislike for looking down his nose at us."

-Mark.