Donald Jay Rickles (1926 - 2017)

Born 8 May 1926 in Queens, New York City, New York, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Apr 2017 at age 90 in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, United States

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Biography

Don Rickles is Notable.

Son of Max Sidney Rickles and Etta Feldman

Husband of Barbara Sklar

Don Rickles was a comedian who was an expert in insults. He originally studied to be an actor, but found his talent lay in comedy and made a career of it. Don was loud and obnoxious while on stage, treating the audience as if they were all (his favorite term) "idiots", but in his personal and private life was much warmer and kind.

He married late in life to Barbara Sklar. They met while at one of his stand-up routines. She sat in the front row while he insulted her repeatedly without effect. He was so taken by her lack of reaction to his routine that he took her out to dinner and insulted her some more. She later revealed that she was more interested in whether he liked her than any of his jokes. He claims he asked her to marry him that night. They were married on March 14, 1965 and would go on to have 2 children (Mindy and Larry) and stayed married for the 52 years until his passing.

Don had a number of movie and television roles as well as his comedy routine, and was a regular on talk shows like The Tonight Show. He even had his own show for one season. Don won an Emmy Award for his documentary, "Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project".

He passed away on April 6, 2017 due to complications with kidney failure. He was 90 years old.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Don Rickles

• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV53-6RL5 : 8 September 2016), Don Rickles in entry for Etta Rickles, Florida, United States, 24 Sep 1984; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing , born-digital text.

• "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVRT-25NF : 10 September 2016), Don Rickles in entry for Mrs Etta Feldman Rickles, Pennsylvania, United States, 24 Sep 1984; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Philadelphia Daily News, born-digital text.

• Wong, Jessica, "U.S. comedian Don Rickles, the Merchant of Venom, dead at 90." CBC News, April 6, 2017.

• This WikiTree profile is referenced from Wikidata: Item Q269890, en:Wikipedia

• Don Rickles on Find A Grave: Memorial #178150969 retrieved 00:28, 23 April 2017 (EDT)