Comedian George Burns remained in intensive care Wednesday after surgery to drain fluid from the surface of his brain. But he was well enough to crack jokes from his hospital bed.
Burns, 98, was listed as stable and improving at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and could be released next week, hospital spokesman Ron Wise said."He's OK," said Burns' longtime manager, Irving Fein.
Fein said Burns was drowsy after surgery but able to talk with his speech therapist. "He was cracking jokes with her. He was doing routines with her."
Burns underwent about two hours of surgery Monday night to relieve pressure from fluid that built up after he fell in his bathtub and hit his head at his Beverly Hills home on July 13, Wise said.
Burns hit a soap dish when he fell and needed two stitches to close a head cut. He was hospitalized at the time for observation, and his speech was impaired briefly.
The non-emergency operation was performed after the speech troubles returned.
The fall had forced Burns to cancel an upcoming engagement at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Burns underwent open heart surgery in 1974 but has generally enjoyed good health, which became part of his stand-up routine.
"There's not a thing I do now that I didn't do when I was 18," Burns quipped at his 98th birthday party earlier this year in Las Vegas. "That just goes to show you how pathetic I was at 18."
He was once asked what his doctor thought about his daily penchant for martinis and cigars.
"My doctor is dead," was his reply.
Burns, with his trademark cigar, has been a fixture in comedy since his vaudeville days. He later moved into radio, motion pictures and television.
Through much of his career he was straight man to his wife and ditsy stage partner Gracie Allen, who died in 1964.
He won an Academy Award in 1975 for "The Sunshine Boys." At the time, he was the oldest actor ever to receive an Oscar - at age 80.
Jessica Tandy was older, by a few months, when she won an Oscar in 1990 for "Driving Miss Daisy." Tandy died Sunday at age 85.