# R.I.P. Don Rickles **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** celebrity-death\ **Created:** [April 6, 2017, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908 "2017-04-06T18:16:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/21 "2017-04-06T19:42:37Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Anyone remember _CPO Sharkey_? I know that I watched it regularly when it was on the air (it being a comedy, and me being 11 years old). I don’t really remember it well, other than the mental image of Rickles and his assistant (a tall, dorky blonde Southern guy). Other than clips of Carson interrupting filming of that show (as Mahaloth mentions), I don’t think I’ve seen Sharkey since it was on the air. Given that it looks like a lot of the humor was based on Sharkey’s insults directed towards his ethnically-diverse recruits, I suspect that it hasn’t aged well at all. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/22 "2017-04-06T19:46:33Z")
This is the Sinatra story that I remembered. “ Don Rickles joke: "Frank Sinatra saved my life once. Two hoods were beating me up in an alley. Frank walked by and said “okay boys, he’s had enough.” ” ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/23 "2017-04-06T19:53:58Z")
My favorite line of his was from Toy Story, when the toys are listening in to the birthday party gifts being opened. “Bed sheets?! Who invited THAT kid?!” ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/24 "2017-04-06T20:18:13Z")
One of the greats has moved on the the Big Stage in the Sky. Thank you, Don Rickles, for all the laughs. Here’s a poignant video of Don Rickles paying tribute at Don Adams’ 75th birthday: [- YouTube](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ExBdY74bo1E) – funny and also sincere, Rickles was. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/25 "2017-04-06T20:23:20Z")
Well, now I have an excuse to re-watch “Kelly’s Heroes”. RIP Don ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/26 "2017-04-06T20:24:43Z")
Good night Mr. Warmth. > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Thanks for the chuckles “Mr. Warmth.” > > Crapgame: Then make a DEAL! > Big Joe: What kind of deal? > Crapgame: A DEAL, deal! Maybe the guy’s a Republican. “Business is business,” right? Love Kelly’s Heroes. Crap game was one of the best parts. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Anyone remember _CPO Sharkey_? I do remember but it was only so-so. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/27 "2017-04-06T20:44:04Z")
I always knew he was ept. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/28 "2017-04-06T20:50:58Z")
I remember him playing a Mafia lawyer in the film _Innocent Blood_. The role was played completely straight — until he got bitten by a vampire. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8k5zomWyKYI/maxresdefault.jpg "Mr. Warmth can't take the head :D") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k5zomWyKYI) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/29 "2017-04-06T20:59:57Z")
Don was on Jerry Seinfeld Comedians with Cars last year. Don was still very sharp and got around fine. [http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/don-rickles-youll-never-play-the-copa](http://comediansincarsgettingcoffee.com/don-rickles-youll-never-play-the-copa) ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/30 "2017-04-06T21:32:36Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > My favorite line of his was from Toy Story, when the toys are listening in to the birthday party gifts being opened. > “Bed sheets?! Who invited THAT kid?!” And there was a nice moment in one of the Toy Story movies when Don’s character is talking to another, off-camera character, and calling him a “hockey puck”–and of course it WAS a hockey puck. Bob Newhart must be devastated. (They were very close, play-golf-everyday friends.) ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/31 "2017-04-06T21:53:04Z")
I always enjoyed Don Rickles. Very funny guy, still quick-witted to the end. If he was still alive he could still make audiences roar with laughter, even at 90. RIP, Don, you will be missed. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2017, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/32 "2017-04-06T22:29:54Z")
I loved his digs at Frank Sinatra, “[insert joke about Sinatra] … Please, Frank, don’t send your men on me! I have kids! They need me!” Sinatra loved that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/33 "2017-04-07T03:02:52Z")
[Here is Rickles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ynDFif-9I) (audio only) at a tribute honoring Barbra Streisand. RIP, ya hockey puck. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/34 "2017-04-07T05:01:23Z")
A wonderful and kind man. He was the best friend of Bob Newhart. The two couples vacationed together. He had a unique style and it will be fifty years until someone can fill his shoes. I will miss him. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/35 "2017-04-07T05:14:28Z")
Too late to edit, I suppose. My favorite Rickles joke. "So anyway before I met my wife I was dating a young lady in Vegas. Frank Sinatra was having dinner. She said ‘Oh, I’ would love to meet Sinatra.’ Well, I am in the business, I am allowed to talk to Sinatra so I go over. I say ‘Frank, I’m with this girl, she wants to meet you.’ He says he’ll come over in a few minutes. So I go back to my table. “Frank gets up to use the restroom. On his way back, he stops at my table and makes a big deal of saying hello. I say to him, 'Damn it Frank, can’t you see I’m with somebody?” ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/36 "2017-04-07T05:48:15Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > And there was a nice moment in one of the Toy Story movies when Don’s character is talking to another, off-camera character, and calling him a “hockey puck”–and of course it WAS a hockey puck. > > Bob Newhart must be devastated. (They were very close, play-golf-everyday friends.) He is. > [@](#): > > In a statement released on Thursday morning, Bob and Ginnie Newhart expressed their shock and condolences regarding Rickles’ death. “He was called ‘The Merchant of Venom,’ but in truth, he was one of the kindest, caring, and most sensitive human beings we have ever known,” the statement reads. “We are devastated and our world will never be the same. We were totally unprepared for this.” > **[Bob Newhart, Tom Hanks, Other Stars Remember Don Rickles: ‘A God Died Today’](https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/don-rickles-dead-celebrities-react-bob-newhart-tom-hanks-1202025158/amp/)** > > Bob Newhart, Tom Hanks, Jimmy Kimmel, and many other Hollywood stars paid tribute to Don Rickles, who died on Thursday at the age of 90. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/37 "2017-04-07T06:05:54Z")
RIP, you hockey puck. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/38 "2017-04-07T12:03:04Z")
I remember REALLY liking him when I was a wee pup. Didn’t really understand why other people said he was “mean.” Now, decades later, I wonder how much my cynical nature attracted me to him, or whether his comedy influenced my personality/sense of humor… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/39 "2017-04-07T12:15:37Z")
I liked his standup, but remember him more from guest spots on Dean Martin’s show and on Carson, as well as several parts on 1960s sitcoms. He appeared on a few episodes of _Get Smart_, and there are blooper reels of the two Dons cracking each other up so many times that it’s amazing they ever finished the scene. He played a holdup man who sticks up Rob and Laura Petrie in an elevator (that gets stuck between floors) on _The Dick van Dyke Show_ – a hilarious episode. Rob: The gun in your pocket was a comb? You don’t even NEED a comb! Rickles: You sure know how to hurt a guy, Rob. I recall _CPO Sharkey_, but never watched it. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2017, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908/40 "2017-04-07T12:29:23Z")
The first image of Rickles that came to mind was of him coughing aboard the sub in “Run Silent, Run Deep” and looking abashed because the Japanese patrolling overhead might have heard. Well, it was more memorable than his comedy bits. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-i-p-don-rickles/783908.md?page=3)