Rodney Dangerfield, the US comedian best known to Irish audiences for his roles in the films 'Caddyshack', 'Back to School' and 'Natural Born Killers', has died in Los Angeles. He was 82.
Dangerfield, who had been in ill health for a number of years, had undergone heart valve replacement surgery at the UCLA Medical Centre in August but suffered a stroke afterwards and lapsed into a coma.
He emerged from the coma this week but a hospital spokesman said that Dangerfield had "developed infectious and abdominal complications from which he did not recover".
Dangerfield's comic career only began to blossom when he was in his 40s; he went on to become a major star in the US and open his own comedy club, the world famous Dangerfield's in Manhattan.
He is credited with helping launch the careers of the likes of Jim Carrey, Jerry Seinfeld, Roseanne Barr and Tim Allen on the 'Young Comedians' TV shows he hosted in the 1980s.
Dangerfield released his autobiography, 'It's Not Easy Bein' Me', in June of this year.
