LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shecky Greene, the gifted comic and master improviser who became the consummate Las Vegas lounge headliner and was revered by his peers and live audiences as one of the greatest standup acts of his generation, has died. He was 97.

His widow, Marie Musso Green, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her husband died early Sunday at their home. She said her husband of 41 years died of natural causes.

Those who saw Greene in his decades of comedy dominance on the Vegas Strip in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s said that with a mic in his hand he could roam a room and work a crowd like no other.

He couldn’t wait to abandon written jokes for the shared thrill of improv.

“I’ve never had an act,” Greene told the Las Vegas Sun in 2009. “I make it up as I go along.”

Greene made huge fans of his fellow entertainers including Bob Hope, Johnny Carson, and, most famously, Frank Sinatra, who hand-picked him as his opening act for a stretch. Greene couldn’t resist the gig with the biggest star in America at the time, but the two big personalities butted heads frequently, and the relationship ended with the comic taking a beating from the singer’s cronies at the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach.

It led to his most famous joke:

“Frank Sinatra once saved my life,” Greene would say. “A bunch of guys were beating on me and Frank said, ‘OK that’s enough.’”

Sinatra wasn’t actually there, Greene later said, but the beatdown was real. Also true was the oft-repeated story of Greene driving his Oldsmobile into the fountains at Caesars Palace in 1968, a consequence of what he conceded was a serious alcohol problem and a dangerous desire to go for a drive when he was a few drinks in.

He got a famous joke out of that moment too, later saying that when the cops arrived at his submerged car, whose windshield wipers running, he told them, “No spray wax please!”

With a body like a linebacker’s, a wit as quick as lightning and a voice that suggested he could’ve been a lounge singer instead of a lounge comic, Greene in the course of a night would plow through dozens of impressions, do extended riffs at audience members’ tables and turn musical standards into parody songs on the spot.

Tony Zoppi, who for decades was entertainment director of the Riviera Hotel, said Greene was the finest comic mind he ever saw.

“He’ll walk out on a stage and do an hour off the top of his head,” Zoppi told the Los Angeles Times. “A waitress dropped a glass — he did 15 minutes.”

He made appearances in films including 1967’s “Tony Rome” with Sinatra, 1981’s “History of the World Part I” with Mel Brooks, and 1984’s “Splash” with Tom Hanks, showed-up on network sitcoms including “Laverne & Shirley” and “Mad About You,” and was a constant guest on talk and variety shows.

But he never really clicked on the screen. He needed a crowd he could interact with, and a whole night to woo them. That meant never becoming as famous as comic contemporaries like Don Rickles, Buddy Hackett or Carson. But he pulled the same six-figure-a-week paychecks as they did for live shows.

Born Fred Sheldon Greenfield, Greene took to singing, acting, making jokes and doing mock accents while growing up on the North Side of Chicago.

He served in the Navy in World War II in the Pacific.

On returning to Chicago, he went to community college and thought he might become a gym teacher, but started doing comedy nightclub gigs for money.

An offer of a two-week gig at the Prevue Lounge in New Orleans turned into a six-years stint.

He did his first show in Las Vegas in 1953. He found he and the Strip were a perfect match, and within a few years he owned the town. In 1956, he opened for a young Elvis Presley at the New Frontier.

“The kid should never have been in there,” Greene told the L.A. Times in 2005. “He came out in a baseball jacket. Four or five musicians behind him had baseball jackets on. It looked like a picnic. After the first show they switched the billing, and I headlined.”

Greene would remain a Vegas mainstay, his playgrounds places like the Riviera and the Tropicana, for the next 30 years.

From 1972 to 1982 Greene was married to Nalani Kele, a dancer whose show, the Nalani Kele Polynesian Revue, was a long-running nightclub hit. And in 1985, he married Marie Musso, daughter of jazz saxophonist Vido Musso.

Greene gained his share of national fame eventually. He could fill Carnegie Hall, and guest-hosted both Carson’s “Tonight Show” and “The Merv Griffin Show.”

He grappled with addictions to both drinking and gambling, neither ideal for a man who spent most of his time in Las Vegas. He also struggled with what were later diagnosed as severe depression and panic attacks, both of which made it increasingly difficult to perform as he got older.

Greene moved to Palm Springs in an attempt at retirement in his late 70s in 2004, but the stage still had appeal, and he returned for a stint in Las Vegas at the Suncoast Hotel and Casino in 2009.

Returning to a city now dominated by the likes of Celine Dion and Cirque du Soleil, Greene found he could stroll through casinos anonymously.

“I’m a legend,” he told the Sun in 2009, “but nobody knows me in Vegas anymore.”

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II announces she will abdicate the throne on Jan. 14th.

LONDON (AP) — John Pilger, an Australia-born journalist and documentary filmmaker known for his coverage of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 84.

A statement from his family, posted on X, formerly Twitter, said Pilger died on Saturday in London.

“His journalism and documentaries were celebrated around the world, but to his family he was simply the most amazing and loved dad, grandad and partner,” the statement said.

Pilger, who has been based in Britain since 1962, worked for Britain’s left-leaning Daily Mirror newspaper, broadcaster ITV’s investigative program “World In Action” and for the Reuters news agency.

He won an International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences award for his 1979 film “Year Zero: The Silent Death Of Cambodia,” which revealed the extent of the Khmer Rouge’s atrocities. He followed that with a 1990 documentary titled “Cambodia: The Betrayal,” which examined international complicity in the Khmer Rouge remaining a threat.

He also won acclaim for a 1974 documentary looking into the campaign for compensation for children after concerns were raised about birth defects when expectant mothers took the drug Thalidomide.

Pilger was known for his opposition to American and British foreign policy, and he was also highly critical of Australia’s treatment of its Indigenous population.

In more recent years, he campaigned for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has fought a lengthy battle against extradition to the United States.

Kevin Lygo, managing director of media and entertainment at ITV, described Pilger as “a giant of campaigning journalism” who offered viewers a level of analysis and opinion that was rare in mainstream television.

“He had a clear, distinctive editorial voice which he used to great effect throughout his distinguished filmmaking career. His documentaries were engaging, challenging and always very watchable,” Lygo said.

“He eschewed comfortable consensus and instead offered a radical, alternative approach on current affairs and a platform for dissenting voices over 50 years,” he added.

LONDON (AP) — Tom Wilkinson, the Oscar-nominated British actor known for his roles in “The Full Monty,” “Michael Clayton” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” has died, his family said. He was 75.

A statement shared by his agent on behalf of the family said Wilkinson died suddenly at home on Saturday. It didn’t provide further details.

Wilkinson was nominated for a best actor Academy Award for his work in 2001’s family drama “In The Bedroom” and in the best supporting actor category for his role in “Michael Clayton,” a 2007 legal thriller that starred George Clooney.

He is remembered by many in Britain and beyond for playing former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in the 1997 comedy “The Full Monty,” about a group of unemployed steel workers who formed an unlikely male stripping act.

Wilkinson was born in Yorkshire in northern England in 1948 and spent part of his childhood in Canada. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the 1970s.

He starred in dozens of other TV dramas and movies, from “Rush Hour” and “Batman Begins” to “Shakespeare in Love,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Valkyrie.”

He most recently reunited with his “Full Monty” co-stars, Robert Carlyle and Mark Addy in a Disney+ series of the same name.

“He’ll be sorely missed by everyone who had the pleasure of working with him,” Carlyle said in a statement. “Such a huge performer, a real titan of an actor, one of the greats of not only his, but of any generation.”

Wilkinson was recognized for his services to drama in 2005 when he was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire.

He also won a 2009 Golden Globe and 2008 Emmy for his role as Benjamin Franklin in the HBO series “John Adams.”

Wilkinson married actress Diana Hardcastle in 1988. The couple had two daughters.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Smothers, half of the music-and-comedy duo Smothers Brothers and host of a groundbreaking variety show, dies at 86.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Actor Lee Sun-kyun of Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite’ is dead, South Korean emergency office says.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Actor Lee Sun-kyun of Oscar-winning film ‘Parasite’ has been found unconscious: South Korean police.

HORSE CAVE, Ky. – Coming to Sunnstream on Christmas Day is a new movie from the minds Fairai and Branscombe Richmond.

The Richmonds came from Hawaii to shoot a movie they’ve never done before, centered around the kangaroos at Kentucky Down Under. Branscombe spoke to News 40 about the movie, and he said he’s shot movies in Kentucky 10 times prior to this and wanted to try something new.

Branscombe and his son, Fairai, spent 16 days at the park specifically to shoot what they feel was of their more fun movies in recent years. The Richmonds are excited to see the community react and are happy to film in Kentucky due to the partnership between tourism and the film industry.

Using local talent is important to both production and the state film commissions, so there were quite a few characters from Kentucky, as far north of our area as Elizabethtown. But the stars of the show, as Steve Hodges will tell you, are the kids. News 40 spoke to four young actors, who had a lot of fun on set and are excited to see the movie, as they told the station they haven’t seen anything but the trailers.

Everyone involved is more than excited for the film to hit streaming platform Sunnstream.

WARREN COUNTY, Ky. – A new addition has come to the Paradise Playground and it’s going to be a big hit among kids all over the area.

The Bowling Green chapter of the Kiwanis Club turned 100 years old this year and to celebrate, one of the big things they did was a new community project that can be enjoyed by all. After fundraising through events that the club does every year, they pulled off the biggest community project in the last few years to bring a new sense of play to one of the more popular parks run by Warren County Parks & Rec.

Many community members and partnerships went into the 70,000 dollar installation, and the Kiwanis Club is happy to see the community come out create music, parents and kids alike.

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