Alan King

Alan King married his wife Jeanette Sprung in 1947 and had three children. They had been married for 57 years at the time of his death.

He had a lifelong interest in charity work. He founded the Alan King Medical Center in Jerusalem, and created the ‘Laugh Well’ program which sends comedians to hospitals to perform for patients.

During his later years he suffered from oral and well as lung cancer. He died on May 9, 2004.

Alan king was the youngest of eight children born to Minnie and Bernard Kniberg who were Russian immigrants in New York. His birth name was Irwin Alan Kniberg.

He gave street performances as a child in order to earn some money. He dropped out of high school at 15 to pursue a career in comedy.

He got a job as a stand-up comedian at the Hotel Gradus in Catskill Mountains. However, he once made fun of the hotel’s owner during a performance and was fired. He later went to Canada where he found work in a burlesque house and also began fighting as a professional boxer.

He was quite successful in his boxing career and won a series of matches, but he quit boxing after his first loss. He adopted the last name “King” of the boxer who beat him, and from then was known as Alan King.

He met the legendary comedian Milton Merle while he was working as a doorman in a nightclub. Merle recognized his talents and became his mentor. King was also influenced by comedian Danny Thomas.

In the 1950’s he became a very popular nightclub comedian and opened for celebrities such as Nat King Cole, Tony Martin and Lena Horne. On Martin’s recommendation, King was offered a small role in the movie ‘Hit the Deck’ (1955).

Over the next few years, he starred in many movies like ‘Miracle in the Rain’ (1956), ‘The Girl He Left Behind’ (1956), ‘The Helen Morgan Story’ (1957).

He starred in the 1980 American comedy film ‘Just Tell Me What you Want’ with Ali MacGraw. He played the role of married, wealthy, and vulgar head of a company who has a stormy yet funny relationship with his mistress.

He played a major role in the 1988 film ‘Memories of Me’ as Abe the ‘King of the extras’ in Hollywood. The movie was about the strained relations between a father-son duo.