A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Cast

Peter Falk passed away this week at the age of 83. Aside from his career in theatre he was best known as the slouchy, disheveled detective Colombo on the long-running TV show. A good series it was but I will remember him most for playing the part of a taxi cab driver in my favorite comedy, It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. That epic film had dozens of name brand actors and comedians, some famous ones just in bit roles. Most have left us, several within just a few years of the film’s 1963 release:

Buster Keaton – 1966
Spencer Tracy – 1967
Jack Benny – 1974
Paul Ford – 1976
Andy Devine – 1977
Jimmy Durante – 1980
Ethel Merman – 1984
Phil Silvers – 1985
Dick Shawn – 1987
Jim Backus – 1989
Terry-Thomas – 1990
Sterling Holloway – 1992
Norman Fell – 1998
Milton Berle – 2002
Buddy Hackett – 2003
Don Knotts - 2006
Edie Adams – 2008
Arnold Stang – 2009
Dorothy Provine – 2010

Who among the august cast is still living?

Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Jonathan Winters and Carl Reiner, all born in the 1920s. Oh, and Jerry Lewis who is in the news today as being ill had a bit part.