"Laugh-In" Actor Henry Gibson Dies at 73

(AP)  Henry Gibson, the veteran comic character actor best known for his role reciting offbeat poetry on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In," has died. He was 73.

Gibson's son, James, said Gibson died Monday at his home in Malibu after a brief battle with cancer.

After serving in the Air Force and studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Gibson - born James Bateman in Germantown, Pa., in 1935 - created his Henry Gibson comic persona, a pun on playwright Henrik Ibsen's name, while working as a theater actor in New York. For three seasons on "Laugh-In," he delivered satirical poems while gripping a giant flower.

After "Laugh-In," Gibson went on to appear in several films, including "The Long Goodbye" and "Nashville," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination. His most memorable roles included playing the menacing neighbor opposite Tom Hanks in "The 'Burbs," the befuddled priest in "Wedding Crashers" and voicing Wilbur the Pig in the animated "Charlotte's Web."

His recent work included playing cantankerous Judge Clarence Brown on ABC's "Boston Legal" for five seasons and providing the voice of sardonic, eye-patched reporter Bob Jenkins on Fox's "King of the Hill." In 2001, Gibson returned to the stage in New York in the Encores! New York City Center production of Rogers and Hart's "A Connecticut Yankee."

Gibson is survived by three sons and two grandchildren.

[yeswecanstupidneocons]

2009 has experienced too many losses! r.i.p. mr. gibson

[actiscenei]

I got to know Henry Gibson briefly in the late 1990s when he wrote a brilliant article about LAUGH-IN for a magazine on television I was editing/publishing.

Henry was a very personable man, full of great humor and even greater sincerity. He was, indeed, someone you'd want to know.

Rest well.

[brianbwb-2009]

And all this time I thought I was the only one who got the "Henrik Ibsen" joke.

He even pronounced his name so on several occasions on Laugh-in, as he was delivering a poem. Ibsen wrote the poem "Peer Gynt", and no one understood why I found his segment so funny.

Even after explaining it to people, they still didn't get the dynamic from the great dramatic poem style of Ibsen to the simplistic double-entendre of Gibson.

Maybe one day in the future America will get it. At least I did.

Thank you Mr. Gibson (Bateman) for the laughs.

[Ken68us2006]

Henry Gibson, A true Character and Great Role Model,
I would not miss any of his work, I the Film World will Miss you
My condolences to the Family