American actor and comedian, who appeared on stage and in TV commercials. He is probably best known for a lead role in “The Carol Burnett Show,” which earned him four Emmy awards from 1967 to 1977. He also appeared in “Blazing Saddles,” and “The Young Dr. Frankenstein.” He played small roles on Broadway and in TV commercials before finding his niche in comedy.
Of Russian-Jewish descent, Harvey Herschel Korman was born to parents who separated when he was four. His father had worked as a salesman and became a soft drink company executive. Korman and his younger sister were raised by their mother. His 7th-grade teacher urged him to join an after-school theater workshop, and this brought him some juvenile roles in industrial films. He acted in high school productions, then attended Wright Junior College. He served from 1945-1946 in the US Naval Reserve, after which he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago’s Goodman School of Drama where he studied for four years.
He moved to New York City in 1950, and worked odd jobs trying to launch his acting career. He also traveled to California trying to find work in television or films. After a series of jobs, stock productions and nightclub comedy, he was recommended, in 1963, for a slot in a supporting cast of the “Danny Kaye Show.” At age 36, he became a regular performer on a television show for the first time. In 1967, he moved to “The Carol Burnett Show” where he became a master of sketch comedy for the next ten years. He won Emmy Awards for the 1968-1969 and the 1970-1971 seasons. He won a third Emmy for “outstanding achievement by a performer in music or variety” during the 1971-1972 season, and the fourth was for the “best supporting actor in comedy-variety” in 1973-1974.
In 1977, he tried a series of his own and switched networks. A pilot of “The Harvey Korman Show” appeared on ABC-TV on 19 May 1977 and was not well received. After a re-tooling and a run of less than five months, the show went off the air on 3 August 1978.
Korman went on to appear in a dramatic role in a television movie, “Bud and Lou,” portraying Bud Abbott. He also made several feature films. He shone as a lawyer in Mel Brooks’ manic spoof, “Blazing Saddles” and in “High Anxiety,” 1977.
He married Donna Ehlert, a fashion model he met on a blind date in Milwaukee, on 27 August 1960 after a four-month courtship. They have a daughter and a son.
Four months after suffering an abdominal aortic aneurysm, Korman died on 29 May 2008 in Los Angeles. He was 81.
Link to Wikipedia biography