Served in the United States Army in 1942 and was trained as a radio operator. He later was assigned to Maurice Evans' Special Entertainment Unit, which included Werner Klemperer, and toured the South Pacific as a comedian in GI reviews.

Quotes

[on Mel Brooks as The 2000 Year Old Man] I always knew if I threw a question to Mel he could come up with something. I learned a long time ago that if you can corner a genius comedy brain in panic, you're going to get something extraordinary.