The Tony-winning 'World According to Me!' funnyman has recently passed away at the age of 93, nearly a decade after he announced retirement from showbusiness.
- July 26, 2021
AceShowbiz - Legendary stand-up comedian Jackie Mason has died at the age of 93.
The famously politically-incorrect funnyman began his career in the mid-1950s, appearing at New York City nightclubs. He also worked resorts in the Catskills region of New York state, known as the "Borscht Belt," that fostered such comics as Rodney Dangerfield, Jerry Lewis, Don Rickles, and Phyllis Diller.
In 1987, he received a special Tony Award for his solo show, Jackie Mason's "The World According to Me!", which ran for 573 performances. The self-titled show also netted him an Emmy award when it aired on television in 1988.
He won a second Emmy for voicing Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky, the father of Krusty the Clown, on "The Simpsons" in 1992.
His film roles included 1979's "The Jerk" with Steve Martin, Mel Brooks' 1981 comedy, "The History of the World: Part I", and 1988's "Caddyshack II".
The comedian's 1992 series, "The Jackie Mason Show", featured a panel discussion format about the topics of the day, very much along the lines of Bill Maher's show "Politically Incorrect", which premiered the following year and ran through 2002.
When Jackie launched a one-man show in 1994, called "Jackie Mason: Politically Incorrect", the cable network Comedy Central, which hosted the Maher programme, unsuccessfully sued the veteran comic over the name.
Mason, real name, Yacov Moshe Maza, retired from showbusiness in 2012.
He is survived by his wife, Jyll Rosenfeld, who he married in 1991, and a daughter, Variety reports.
