Actors - Pat McCormick

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	Actors - Pat McCormick

Pat McCormick (born July 17, 1934 - died July 29, 2005)(1) was an American comic actor and writer known for playing Big Enos Burdette in Smokey and the Bandit
and its two sequels. He wrote for a number of performers such as Red Skelton, Phyllis Diller and Johnny Carson as well as shows such as Get Smart.

Career

McCormick was born in 1934 in Rocky River, Ohio. He was a high school athlete and served in the Army from 1946-1948. He dropped out of Harvard Law School for a career in advertising but abandoned that career as well when he started writing jokes for television and standup comedians. Eventually, he became a writer for Jack Paar on The Jack Paar Show. He also wrote for Get Smart, The Danny Kaye Show
and wrote and appeared on Candid Camera.

McCormick was both the announcer and straight man for Don Rickles on The Don Rickles Show in 1968. He was a regular on The New Bill Cosby Show
on 1972. Behind the scenes, he was one of the lead writers on The Tonight Show writing many of its most well-known lines. He wrote the line "Due to today's earthquake, the God is Dead rally has been canceled." (2) He also made regular appearances in front of the camera including streaking in 1974. McCormick had a distinctive appearance being more six and a half feet tall, weighing 250 pounds and having a walrus moustache.

His first screen performance was in The Shaggy D.A in 1976. He played Grover Cleveland in Robert Altman's Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson
in the same year. In 1977, he appeared in Smokey and the Bandit and appeared in both sequels in 1980 and 1983. He appeared as The Ghost of TV Christmas Past in Scrooged
in 1988 with his final appearance being in Ted and Venus.

He also made frequent appearances as a panellist on innumerable television game shows including I've Got a Secret and The Gong Show.

McCormick retired in 1998 after being left partly paralysed by a stroke leading to his admission to the Motion Picture and Television Fund's hospital in Woodland Hills, California in that year. He died there in July 2005. He is survived by a son, Ben, and a grandson.

Footnotes

(1) Although media reports of his death state he was 78, both the Internet Movie Database and Allmovie.com state that he was born on July 17, 1934 in Rocky River, Ohio.

(2) Cited in United Press International report published in the Washington Times on July 30, 2005.

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