Standup comedian Pat Cooper, perhaps best known to this generation for his frequent appearances on The Howard Stern Show and his guest role on Seinfeld, has died at age 93.
Cooper’s producer and writing partner Steve Garrin confirmed the news, sharing that the comedian died on Tuesday (June 6) in his Las Vegas home. Said Garrin: “There was nobody like Pat Cooper, who burned every bridge that he went over. I put out a lot of the fires. He was one man who was honest. You could depend on him. You could trust him. If he gave you his word and said he was going to do something, he did it. And he helped so many people.”
Cooper — who was nicknamed the “Comedian of Outrage” due to his anger outbursts— first found success while opening for Frank Sinatra at the Sands in Las Vegas. Years later, he starred as himself in the 1996 Seinfeld episode titled, “The Friar’s Club.” According to Garrin, Cooper improvised his entire scene on that show: “Pat ad-libs and says — if you look at Jason Alexander’s face — he goes, ‘Are you in show business?’ Jason looks at him like he doesn’t know what’s going on, but they went with it, and he goes, ‘No,’ and he goes, ‘Well, what am I talking to you for?’ And boom — that was the take, and they kept it.” Cooper went on to star opposite Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal in the mafia comedy movie Analyze This (1999), where he played Salvatore Masiello; he reprised the role in the film’s 2002 sequel, Analyze That.
Cooper is survived by his wife, Emily Conner, two daughters and one son.
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