The Ohio native died Thursday
evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes, said Joe Petro
III, a longtime family friend. Petro said Winters died of natural
causes and was surrounded by family and friends.
Winters was a pioneer of
improvisational standup comedy, with an exceptional gift for mimicry, a
grab bag of eccentric personalities and a bottomless reservoir of
creative energy. Facial contortions, sound effects, tall tales — all
could be used in a matter of seconds to get a laugh.
On Jack Paar's television show
in 1964, Winters was handed a foot-long stick and he swiftly became a
fisherman, violinist, lion tamer, canoeist, U.N. diplomat, bullfighter,
flutist, delusional psychiatric patient, British headmaster and Bing
Crosby's golf club.
"As a kid, I always wanted to be
lots of things," Winters told U.S. News & World Report in 1988. "I
was a Walter Mitty type. I wanted to be in the French Foreign Legion, a
detective, a doctor, a test pilot with a scarf, a fisherman who hauled
in a tremendous marlin after a 12-hour fight."
The humor most often was based
in reality — his characters Maude Frickert and Elwood P. Suggins, for
example, were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio.
A devotee of Groucho Marx and
Laurel and Hardy, Winters and his free-for-all brand of humor inspired
Johnny Carson, Billy Crystal, Tracey Ullman and Lily Tomlin, among
others. But Williams and Carrey are his best-known followers.
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