Mel Brooks and Woody Allen are among those who have paid tribute to veteran US comedian Sid Caesar, who died on Wednesday aged 91.
“Sid Caesar was a giant,” tweeted Brooks. “Maybe the best comedian who ever practiced the trade.”
“He was one of the truly great comedians of my time,” echoed Allen.
Caesar, who has been credited with inventing TV sketch comedy, was a major influence on Brooks, Allen and Carl Reiner, who all worked with him.
“I was privileged to be one of his writers and one of his friends,” wrote Blazing Saddles director Brooks, who got his break creating sketches for the classic TV series Your Show of Shows.
The live 90-minute show, which combined improvised and scripted comedy, dominated the Saturday night viewing habits of millions of Americans from 1950-54.
It also brought together Caesar and Reiner, who worked as a writer on the show.
“Inarguably he was the greatest single monologist and skit comedian we ever had,” Reiner said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Television owes him a debt of gratitude for his pioneering work and the great shows he gave us all.
“Render onto Caesar what is his due. He deserves real applause from the American people.”
Caesar won an Emmy for Your Show of Shows in 1952, and the series came to an end in 1954 after 160 episodes.
Months later he returned with Caesar’s Hour, a one-hour variety show which briefly achieved similar cult success, paving the way for comedy stalwarts such as Saturday Night Live
Larry King, paying tribute, called him “a dear friend, a comic genius and an American classic – there will never be another one like him.”
Whoopi Goldberg mourned the passing of “another great”. “Funny man. We honoured him at the very first Comic Relief. RIP,” she tweeted.
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