Don Rickles (In Spotlight)

Don Rickles was born in the New York City borough of Queens to Jewish parents Etta and Max Rickles. He grew up in the borough's Jackson Heights neighborhood.[4] After graduating from nearby Newtown High School, he served in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Cyrene as a S1/c until 1946, when he was honorably discharged. Two years later he studied drama, and played occasional bit parts on television. Frustrated with the lack of acting work, he began doing stand-up comedy. He eventually became known as an insult comedian by learning to respond to hecklers. The audience liked these insults more than his prepared material, so he developed that part of his act. His act reminded some observers of the older insult comic Jack E. Leonard, though Rickles has denied that Leonard had any influence on his style.

In 1958, Don Rickles made his film debut in Run Silent, Run Deep Throughout the 1960s, he appeared frequently on television in sitcoms and dramatic series. In an episode of the 1960s drama series Run for Your Life, Rickles played a distressed comedian whose act culminates with his strangling a patron while imploring the patron to "Laugh!" He also appeared in the popular Beach Party film series.As his career progressed, he made more and more appearances on television talk shows, making his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1965. He became a frequent guest and guest host and would go on to make over 100 appearances on The Tonight Show throughout the rest of its run during Carson's era. He also began making frequent appearances on The Dean Martin Show and became a fixture on Martin's roast specials which continued until 1984.In February 2007, Rickles made a cameo appearance (as himself) in a strange, recurring dream sequence that was woven through an episode (titled "Sub Conscious") of the CBS dramatic series, The Unit.