Nipsey Russell
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Nipsey Russell
- Genres: Rock
Biography
"The poet laureate of television," comedian Nipsey Russell became a fixture of pop culture landscape during the 1970s after a successful nightclub career with a series of indelible appearances on the talk shows and game shows that, in large part, defined the Me Decade. Nipsey Russell was born October 13, 1924 in Atlanta, Georgia. "My mother just liked the way the name 'Nipsey' sounded," he later said of his unusual moniker. He began his professional performing career at age six as the song-and-dance master of ceremonies for the Ragamuffins of Rhythm, an Atlanta children's troupe organized by Eddie Heywood, Sr., father of the noted jazz pianist. After studying classical literature and foreign languages at the University of Cincinnati, Russell served with the U.S. Army in World War II before he settled in Montreal in 1946. In 1950, he made his television debut on the Robert Q. Lewis-hosted CBS talent showcase The Show Goes On. The exposure boosted his burgeoning stand-up career and resulted in headlining gigs at chitlin-circuit clubs across the U.S. Russell was nevertheless unique among the African-American comics of his generation. He shunned the stereotypical baggy-pants image and raunchy riffs in favor of a conservative suit and tie, trademark porkpie hat and sophisticated, topical wit couched in aphorisms and rhymes.By the mid-1950s, Russell was headlining New York's legendary Apollo Theater as well as popular Catskills resorts like the Concord. During a long residency at the fashionable Harlem cabaret, the Baby Grand, he captured the attention of Jack Paar, host of NBC television's popular Tonight Show, and his appearances on the late-night gabfest launched the comedian to national prominence. In 1960 Russell signed to the Borderline label and released a series of comedy LPs including Confucius Told Me, Things They Never Taught at School, The Birds and the Bees and All That Jazz, and Sing Along with Nipsey Russell. In 1961, he was cast in NBC's Car 54, Where Are You? and became one of the first African-American actors with a regular sitcom gig. But, as more politically-charged black comedians like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor became a cause célèbre among white liberals, Russell's genial, earthy approach rapidly fell out of favor with audiences on both sides of the color line. He nevertheless deserves recognition as a television pioneer. In 1964 Russell became the first black performer to serve as a regular panelist on ABC's game show Missing Links and a year later became co-host of the network's late-night Les Crane Show.
During the 1970s, Russell maintained a tireless touring schedule. He became a nightclub staple in both Las Vegas and Atlantic City, a frequent guest on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, and also a popular panelist on daytime game shows including Match Game, Hollywood Squares and The $25,000 Pyramid, where he always arrived prepared with a topical verse. In 1978, Russell made his feature film debut in the Hollywood musical bomb The Wiz. He earned glowing reviews for his portrayal of the Tin Man but did not resurface on the big screen until 1986 when he appeared opposite Goldie Hawn in Wildcats. Russell remained a television constant during the 1980s. In 1983, he starred in the BET cable network's Juvenile Jury, and two years later, hosted the short-lived daytime game show Your Number's Up for NBC. The demise of celeb-driven daytime game shows conspired to restrict Russell to the nightclub circuit in the decade to follow, however, although his popularity among a younger generation of comedians resulted in regular appearances on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien and HBO's The Chris Rock Show. After a lengthy battle with cancer, Russell died in Manhattan on October 2, 2005, just weeks shy of his 81st birthday. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Nipsey Russell
| Nipsey Russell | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Birth name | Julius Russell |
| Born | September 15, 1925 [1] Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | October 2, 2005 (aged 80) New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Medium | Stand-up comedy, television, film |
| Nationality | American |
| Years active | 1950–1996 |
| Influences | Michael Gough, Dean Martin, Pat Hingle, James Brown, Milton Berle, Foster Brooks, Orson Welles, Redd Foxx |
| Influenced | Michael Jackson, Mike Tyson, Nipsey Hussle, Bernie Mac |
Julius "Nipsey" Russell (September 15, 1925 – October 2, 2005)[2][3] was an American comedian, best known today for his appearances as a guest panelist on game shows from the 1960s through the 1990s, especially Match Game, Password, Hollywood Squares, To Tell the Truth and Pyramid. His appearances were distinguished in part by the short, humorous poems he would recite during the broadcast. These lyrics became so closely associated with Russell that Dick Clark, Bill Cullen, Betty White, and others regularly referred to him as "the poet laureate of television." He also had a leading role in the film version of The Wiz as the Tin Man. Russell was also a frequent guest on The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.
|
Contents
|
Early life
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Russell went to Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta and attended the University of Cincinnati for one semester in 1943.[4] He served as a medic in the United States Army during World War II, enlisting as a private on June 27, 1941, and returning from Europe in 1945 as a second lieutenant.[5][6] He got his start in the 1940s as a carhop at the Atlanta drive-in The Varsity, where he increased the tips he earned by making customers laugh. He was discovered after he began performing in nightclubs in the 1950s. He subsequently made many "party albums," which were essentially compilations of his stand-up routines.
Early career
In the mid-1950s Russell joined forces with the popular movie comedian Mantan Moreland for a stage act, replacing Ben Carter as Moreland's dapper straight man. One of their bits was an old routine that Moreland and Ben Carter had preformed in vaudeville and in Charlie Chan films. In the "interruption routine" (or "incomplete sentences") Moreland would engage Russell in conversation, only to be interrupted by Russell, who in turn was interrupted by Moreland:
-
- Moreland: Guess who I saw? I saw old —
- Russell: Is he back again? I thought he was —
- Moreland: He was, but he got out.
- Russell: Is that so?
- Moreland: Yeah, he was over —
- Russell: Is that so?
Soon the entire conversation was conducted in incomplete sentences, with each man anticipating or contradicting the other. Moreland and Russell's act can be seen in two all-black-cast compilation films, Rhythm and Blues Review and Rock and Roll Revue; another variation of the "interruption routine" performed by Tommy Davidson and Savion Glover, was featured in Spike Lee's 2000 film Bamboozled.
In the late 1950s, Russell appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, which led to a supporting part as a New York policeman in the sitcom Car 54, Where Are You? in 1961. In 1965 he became a co-host of ABC's Les Crane Show. During the 1970s, he was a co-star in the ABC sitcom Barefoot in the Park and appeared regularly on The Dean Martin Show and The Dean Martin Comedy World. Scattered appearances on television series followed, as well as occasional guest-host stints on The Tonight Show during the Johnny Carson era. Russell also appeared frequently in Las Vegas; including a series of appearances with Sergio Franchi at the Frontier Hotel in 1978 and 1979,[7][8][9] and with Franchi in 1979 at the Sands Hotel Copa Room.[10]
Game show career
Russell became the first black performer to become a regular panelist on a weekly network game show when he joined ABC's Missing Links in 1964. Another ABC show, Rhyme and Reason, had poetry for a premise, making Russell's participation a necessity:
-
- Host: Conny Van Dyke looks like a girl I once dated...
- Russell: And now, all my dreams are strictly X-rated!
-
- Host: Jack said to Jill as they went up the hill...
- Russell: We're not going for water — I hope you're on the pill!
In 1971 he started as a featured panelist on To Tell the Truth, which led to his being hired for The Match Game when Goodson-Todman Productions revived it two years later. He also served as panelist on the 1968 revival of What's My Line? Producer Bob Stewart featured him regularly as a panelist on Pyramid throughout its 1970s and 1980s runs. Russell would also host the short-lived 1985 game show Your Number's Up as well as the early-'80s revival of Juvenile Jury.
During his appearances on game shows, at some point in the broadcast the host would give the floor to Russell, who would recite a self-penned poem from memory, looking straight into the camera. These poems from 1980s episodes of The $25,000 Pyramid and The $100,000 Pyramid and even one from the 2004 Hollywood Squares are typical of his style and wit:
-
- The girl who would make my life complete
- need not be young and fair;
- Just be a nymphomaniac
- and a multimillionaire.
(To which Betty White replied, "I'm not a multimillionaire but one out of two ain't bad.")
-
- What is the secret of eternal youth?
- The answer is easily told;
- All you gotta do if you wanna look young
- Is hang out with people who are old.
-
- If you ever go out with a schoolteacher,
- You're in for a sensational night;
- She'll make you do it over and over again
- Until you do it right.
-
- The young people are very different today;
- And there's one sure way to know;
- Kids used to ask where they came from;
- Now they'll tell you where you can go!
-
- I got a new girlfriend,
- No guy could ask for more,
- She’s deaf, dumb, oversexed
- And owns a liquor store!
-
- Those who think of women as the weaker sex
- Just can't see the trees for the woods
- Cause no matter how loudly a rooster may crow
- It's the hen who delivers the goods.
-
- The opposite of 'pro' is 'con'
- This fact is clearly seen
- But if 'progress' means move forward
- What does 'Congress' mean?
-
- Hurricanes are named after women
- Because they start on the very same plan
- Start up over nothin', make a whole lotta noise,
- And can't be controlled by man!
-
- Washington threw a silver dollar
- Across the Potomac one day
- Since then politicians in Washington
- Have been throwing our money away.
-
- I am a bachelor, and I will not marry
- Until the right girl comes along
- But while I'm waiting, I don't mind dating
- Girls that I know are wrong.
-
- Pyramid is the best show on TV.
- Dick Clark is surely the best emcee.
- They won the Emmy, they pay a high fee
- How 'bout a few bucks for the audience and me?
-
- Show business should really change its style from the vulgar and the crude.
- People on stage should be properly dressed. The audience should be nude.
-
- More people are killed on the roads than they are on the battlefield.
- It's not the tiger in the tank, it's the jackass behind the wheel.
When Russell appeared on Family Feud during a special game show emcee week, he had two poems to give:
-
- Playing Family Feud today
- Are some talented women and men;
- Lost their jobs giving money away,
- So now, they're trying to win!
-
- Each day we turn another page.
- You know you're reaching middle age
- When your pimples and your rashes
- Turn to wrinkles and hot flashes.
He was a trained dancer, influenced in his youth by legendary performer Jack Wiggins. Russell put these talents to use in the 1978 musical The Wiz as the Tin Man. He also appeared on the big screen in 1994's adaptation of Car 54, Where Are You?, reprising his role as Anderson, who had now been promoted from sergeant to captain.
Later career and death
During the 1990s Russell gained popularity with a new generation of television viewers as a regular on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Russell would often appear during comedy sketches between scheduled guests and deliver his trademark rhymes.
Russell's final TV appearance was as a panelist for one week (specifically, a game show-themed week) on the final season of the Tom Bergeron version of Hollywood Squares.
He died in 2005 in New York City, after suffering from stomach cancer. His ashes were scattered into the Atlantic Ocean.
References
- ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/arts/04russell.html
- ^ Nipsey J. Russell, born 15 September 1925, died 2 October 2005. Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index (Death Master File).
- ^ U.S. Census, 1 January 1920, state of Georgia, county of DeKalb, city of Atlanta, enumeration district 180, page 4-A, family 75, Julius Russell, age 1 year 2 months.
- ^ Gail Fredensborg, Associate Registrar, University of Cincinnati, 9 January 2006.
- ^ National Archives and Records Administration. U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946 [database online]. Provo, Utah: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2005.
- ^ Passenger list of the S.S. General Harry Taylor, Port of New York, 13 September 1945, p. 233.
- ^ Entertainment in Las Vegas. (September 1, 1978). Seattle Daily Times, Seattle, WA
- ^ Entertainment in Las Vegas. (January 14, 1979). Seattle Daily Times, Seattle, WA
- ^ Entertainment in Las Vegas. (May 18, 1979). Seattle Daily Times, Seattle, WA
- ^ Entertainment in Las Vegas. (February 15, 1979). Seattle Daily Times, Seattle, WA
External links
 |
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Nipsey Russell |
- Nipsey Russell at the Internet Movie Database
- Interview with Christine Jorgensen, 1957.
- CBS 2: Nipsey Russell Dies At 82 [sic]
- Rhyming Funnyman Nipsey Russell Dies - The Washington Post
- Nipsey Russell, a Comic With a Gift for Verse, Dies at 80 [sic] - The New York Times
- A Tribute to Comedian Nipsey Russell - audio clip from NPR's All Things Considered, October 4, 2005
- Nipsey Russell at Find a Grave
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
Mentioned in
Rhythm and Blues Revue
(1955 Music Film)
Laffs From the Hood, Vol. 2 (TV Episode)
(2003 Comedy TV Episode)
Season 16, Episode 31: The Red Skelton Hour (TV Episode)
(1967 Comedy TV Episode)
Season 17, Episode 31: The Red Skelton Hour (TV Episode)
(1968 Comedy TV Episode)
The Wiz
(1978 Musical Film)
» More