Blazing Saddles

Harvey Korman, May 29, age 81: Korman was beloved as a longtime member of Carol Burnett's sketch comedy troupe on "The Carol Burnett Show" in the '60s and '70s, as well as for his fearless, shticky performance as Hedley Lamarr in Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles." Korman paired with... more Burnett memorably in send-ups of "Gone With the Wind," where he played an unctuously clueless Rhett Butler, and the soap "As the World Turns" (called "As the Stomach Turns"). Brooks paid the ultimate tribute to him, telling The Associated Press upon hearing of Korman's death, "A world without Harvey Korman — it's a more serious world. It was very dangerous for me to work with him, because if our eyes met we'd crash to floor in comic ecstasy. It was comedy heaven to make Harvey Korman laugh."

(AP)