Mort Sahl has died at age 94. Sadly forgotten now, Sahl was the master of topical and political humor in his heyday. An equal opportunity scold for all politicians, he began on the political left, and moved to the center, supporting Reagan in eighty. When John Wayne died he noted that of the many people he had met in Hollywood Wayne was one of the few whose word was actually his bond. He always worked clean and smart, Bob Hope once introducing him as that favorite of nuclear physicists everywhere. Always an ardent patriot, after Pearl Harbor he briefly dropped out of high school at age 15 to join the Army by lying about his age, his mother tracking him down and bringing him home. The ultimate accolade for Sahl is that other comedians regularly stole borrowed gags he invented. I hope he is now in that Kingdom where good humor is ever the order of the day.
Requiescat In Pace: Mort Sahl
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Oh! I recognize his voice!
I thought his given name (well, nickname), was Sal!
He was an old school liberal in the very best sense of the term. His fading from the scene mirrored that of the disappearance of those same liberals.
We are the worse for their loss: I couldn’t always agree with them, but we shared a common language and understanding of how things should work.
May he rest in peace.
Sad he seems to have had no family. He came to fatherhood quite late in life, around age 50. His one and only child died in an accident 25 years ago. He himself was an only child. Lots of odd lacunae in his family history; you have to wonder if he knew any of his cousins.