Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

Obituary: Larry Gelbart, Comedy Writer, Dies at 81

Larry Gelbart, the veteran comedy writer who composed gags and zingers for comic greats like Sid Caesar, Bob Hope and George Burns, and whose six-decade career spanned radio, theater, television and film, has died, CNN.com reported. He was 81. His wife, Pat Gelbart, told CNN that he died Friday from cancer at his home in Beverly Hills.

After catching his first break at the age of 16 when his father, a barber, boasted about his son to a customer — the comedian Danny Thomas — Mr. Gelbart went on to share a writer’s room with Neil Simon and Mel Brooks on television’s “Caesar’s Hour”; develop the television adaptation of “M*A*S*H,” and write its pilot, along with 56 more episodes of the show; write the books for the musicals “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” and “City of Angels”; and write the screenplays for “Tootsie” (with Murray Schisgal) and “Oh, God!” among other comedy films. He won two Tony Awards (for “Forum” and “City of Angels”), and earned 12 Emmy nominations (winning once for “M*A*S*H”) and two Academy Award nominations (for “Tootsie” and “Oh, God!”).

An obituary by Robert Berkvist can be found here.