Foster Brooks

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Foster Brooks (11 May 1912, Louisville, Kentucky – 20 December 2001, Encino, California) was an American actor and comedian who was most famous for his ongoing portrayal of a drunken man in Las Vegas nightclub performances and television programs.

Brooks' career started in radio, most notably with station WHAS (AM) in his hometown of Louisville. Brooks was a staff announcer, but his deep baritone voice was well-suited for singing as well. Brooks gained some measure of fame for his reporting of the Ohio River flood of 1937, where he was featured on emergency broadcasts by WHAS and also WSM (AM) out of Nashville, Tennessee. In 1952, Brooks even appeared on local television in a short-lived spoof of Gene Autry and his "Singing Cowboys." He later worked in local broadcasting as a radio and TV personality in Buffalo and Rochester, New York before moving to the west coast to launch a national career as a standup comic and character actor; he continued to maintain a summer home in the Rochester area in later years.

On the syndicated Steve Allen show of the 1960s, Allen introduced Brooks as an important movie producer. Brooks stumbled on stage doing his drunk act -- and fooling some of the other guests. Brooks claimed to be the executive in charge of editing movies for television. His biggest success, he said, was the famous movie "The Three Commandments."

Singer Perry Como discovered Brooks in 1969, giving the comedian his major break. Como chose Brooks to open for him, and when a manager balked at the newcomer, Como refused to perform. The manager acquiesced, and Brooks was an instant hit.

Brooks regularly appeared on The Dean Martin Show (Celebrity Roast) television program in the 1970s, as well as many situation comedies, talk shows, and a few films. Though he had only one basic signature character, he exhibited such extraordinary timing and subtlety that he was instantly recognized as one of the great comic performers of the time. His signature routine was the basis of a hit comedy album entitled "Foster Brooks, The Lovable Lush" released in the early 1970s.

As his "Lovable Lush" character, Brooks usually portrayed a conventioneer who had a few too many drinks — not completely falling-down drunk, but inebriated enough that he would mix up his words to comedic delight. Brooks drew upon his own battles with alcohol for his act, but the irony was that during his period of greatest fame, Brooks eschewed alcohol almost entirely. He gave up drinking to win a bet in 1964. "Fellow made me a $10 bet I couldn't quit, and I haven't had a drink since. At the time I needed the $10," Brooks said.

The humor of Foster Brooks (in character) asked Dean Martin to join his group “Alcoholics Unanimous,” a play on Alcoholics Anonymous. He boasted he and Martin were charter members of the DUI Hall of Fame.

Brooks appeared in the 1977 Johnny Cash television special, A Concert: Behind Prison Walls, where he not only portrayed himself as a drunken man but also sang the song "Half as Much".

Public sensibilities had changed regarding alcoholics and public drunkedness by the 1980s so Brooks moved away from his drunken-man character during his performances. For many years, his name was a moniker on a Louisville celebrity golf tournament benefiting Kosair Charities. Brooks' brother, Tom, was a well-known entertainer in Louisville for many years. Tom Brooks played "Cactus," a hayseed character and sidekick to Randy Atcher on T-Bar-V Ranch and Hayloft Hoedown, two popular local shows on WHAS-TV for many years in the 1950s and 1960s.

Years later he was referenced on the Cartoon Network television show Space Ghost Coast to Coast (in episode number 45 entitled "Switcheroo II"), as well as being featured in a very brief scene, though it was cut before airing. The scene was later included on the Space Ghost Coast to Coast volume 3 DVD release. ^[1]