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Don Rickles
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Don Rickles smiles in a formal portrait, wearing a black tuxedo with a bow tie and a red pocket square against a plain light background.
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Don Rickles smiles in a formal portrait, wearing a black tuxedo with a bow tie and a red pocket square against a plain light background.
Don Rickles Rickles' became a regular on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson by insulting the host on his first appearance.

Don Rickles

American comedian and actor
Also known as: Donald Jay Rickles
Written by
John M. Cunningham
John M. Cunningham graduated from Kalamazoo College in 2000 with a B.A. in English. He worked at Britannica from 2004 to 2018. A student of pop culture and the arts, he wrote about popular (and semipopular)...
John M. Cunningham
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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•History

Don Rickles (born May 8, 1926, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, U.S.—died April 6, 2017, Los Angeles, California) was an American comedian and actor known for a cheerfully belligerent brand of humor that relied heavily on ad-libbed insults and broad cultural stereotypes. Rickles grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, the only child of Jewish parents. At age 18 he enlisted in the navy and served in the Philippines during World War II. After...

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