Comic actor Henry Gibson, who first broke out as a member of Rowan And Martin’s Laugh-In and later became a familiar face in Robert Altman’s acting stable, has died after a brief battle with cancer at the age of 73. Born Henry Gibson Bateman, he dropped his surname early on in his theatrical career—which he entered into after a stint in the Air Force as an intelligence officer—as a play on “Henrik Ibsen," and slowly began developing a character he called “The Poet,” a Southern-accented fop which he later turned into a nightclub act. (In an interesting sidenote, Gibson first tried his hand at Southern caricature at the Catholic University of America, where he was one-half of a comedy duo of "hillbillies." His partner, who acted under the name "Harold Gibson," was none other than Jon Voight.) Gibson's "The Poet" would later become a staple of Laugh-In, where for three years, Gibson would recite satirical verse while wearing hippie beads and carrying a large flower, a routine that was so memorable that John Wayne once performed a famous parody version, and which Gibson later reprised over the course of two comedy albums and a book. He was also frequently seen as a priest in the show's famous "cocktail party" scenes.
After first getting noticed in Jerry Lewis’ The Nutty Professor (where he played a college student), Gibson slowly accrued cameos on some of the bigger TV shows of the ’60s like The Beverly Hillbillies and Bewitched before becoming an indelible part of the most influential comedy program of the era. His post-Laugh-In career included roles in four Robert Altman films—The Long Goodbye, A Perfect Couple, Health, and Nashville, in which he played the pivotal role of Haven Hamilton, singing several songs he’d co-written, including one adapted from a poem he’d first read many years before on The Dick Van Dyke Show. For his performance, he received a Golden Globe nomination as well as a Grammy nod, and later picked up the National Society Of Film Critics’ Best Supporting Actor Award.