Dick Martin

Dick Martin was an American comedian and director best known as Dan Rowan's comic foil on the sketch comedy hit Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Born in Battle Creek, Michigan, and raised in Detroit, he began as a writer for the radio comedy Duffy's Tavern, then teamed with Rowan in 1952 for a nightclub act that toured the United States and overseas. The pair hosted NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour and appeared in the 1958 Western Once Upon a Horse... Martin worked solo in 1962 as Lucille Ball's next-door neighbor in the first season of The Lucy Show, and he co-starred in the Doris Day film The Glass Bottom Boat (1966). Laugh-In, which he developed with Ed Friendly and George Schlatter, ran on NBC from 1968 to 1973 and ranked as the top-rated show during its second and third seasons. After Rowan retired, Martin was a game show panelist and hosted The Cheap Show and Mindreaders. He died in 2008.