Foster Brooks, a comedian whose act as a lovable drunk made him a fixture on television and Las Vegas stages, died Dec. 20 at his home in Encino, Calif. He was 89.
Brooks, with silver hair and a beard, was a master at appearing as someone who had had too many cocktails and was trying not to show it.
His popularity reached a peak in the 1970s and 1980s with frequent appearances on "Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts" and as a guest on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."
"People seemed very surprised to learn that he didn't drink at all," said Teri Elmendorf, Brooks' daughter. "They seemed to think he must have had at least one cocktail before going onstage."
Instead, she said, Brooks had given up alcohol and cigarettes on a bet in the 1960s, when he was experiencing lean years in Hollywood.
"Somebody bet $10 that he wouldn't quit, and he needed the money," she said.
Born in Louisville, Ky., in 1912, Brooks performed as a child singer on local radio and moved as a young man to New York state, where he worked in Buffalo and Rochester as a newscaster and disc jockey. While in Buffalo he joined Robert Schmidt, who would later adopt the name Buffalo Bob and team up with the puppet Howdy Doody in a country and western vocal group called the Hi-Hatters.
Elmendorf said her father, hoping for a break in Hollywood, moved his family there in 1960.
Then, during a decade of struggle with only an infrequent bit part on television shows like "Bewitched," "The Munsters" and cowboy dramas, he worked delivering phone books and Christmas mail, and he managed a North Hollywood apartment building in exchange for free rent.
Elmendorf said Brooks continued performing until he was 86, appearing for the last time in Las Vegas at a celebrity roast for Zsa Zsa Gabor.
In addition to Elmendorf, of Villa Park, Calif., Brooks is survived by his wife, Teri Brooks; another daughter, Scotti Brooks of Encino; and three grandchildren.