Entertainer Milton Berle dies

Berle (l) was great friends with Bob Hope

Milton Berle, the cigar-smoking comic who became known as Mr Television, has died at the age of 93.

He passed away at a hospice in Los Angeles with his wife Lorna by his side. He had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon last year.

Eighty-eight years in show business, a brilliant comedian, an accomplished actor, a lifelong friend

Bob Hope

Berle was one of the first stars of television and has been credited with boosting sales of sets in the early days.

Among the legends he worked with were Bob Hope, Mary Pickford and Mabel Normand.

"What a remarkable man, what a remarkable career," Bob Hope, 98, said in a written statement following the death of his friend.

"Eighty-eight years in show business, a brilliant comedian, an accomplished actor, a lifelong friend."

Dubbed Uncle Miltie, Berle was the success story of Tuesday night television as he sauntered onto screen in any number of funny costumes, with drag becoming a trademark.

He was also known as "The Thief of Bad Gags", a joke he would play on himself.

"I laughed so hard I nearly dropped my pencil," he said of a fellow comedian.

Dressing in drag became a trademark of Berle's act

Born Mendel Berlinger in New York's Harlem on 12 July, 1908, he took to entertaining from an early age.

At the age of five he won a vaudeville contest for his impersonation of Charlie Chaplin.

He became a child actor, appearing with Pickford and Normand and eventually Chaplin himself in Tillie's Punctured Romance

He began on Broadway in 1920 in a production of The Floradora Girl.

He went on to join the Ziegfeld Follies in 1936, and bringing his humour to guest radio slots.

Flippant

In 1948 he started on TV, becoming the new medium's highest-paid star and being watched on four out of five sets in the US.

But as tastes moved on, Berle found himself out of the limelight but he continued to perform at nightclubs, college campuses and fairs.

He admitted his humour was not sedate: "I guess you'd call my style flippancy, aggressiveness... a put-downer."

In 1983, he was among the first crop of inductees entered into the TV Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Success is just one long street fight

Milton Berle

Berle cited his influences as Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and Lou Holtz when he started out touring on the vaudeville circuit.

Berle's TV show started life as the Texaco Star Theater, but was soon renamed the Milton Berle show.

He went on to win an Emmy award for the programme, which finished in 1956.

His forceful character came to the fore during production as he wanted to be involved with everything.

Muppets

He said: "When I started out with the Texaco series in 1948, television was brand new, and I knew just as much about it as anybody else.

"I was in charge of everything because I wanted to be. Today there are experts for all phases of the medium... We didn't have any experts in 1948."

Berle like to take control of the TV production

He made more movies in the 1960s, including It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Lepke and The Muppet Movie.

Berle married, divorced and remarried show girl Joyce Matthews, and they adopted a daughter, Vicki.

In 1953 Berle married former publicist Ruth Cosgrove,. who died in 1989.

In later life he became the national chairman of the American Longevity Association, and was president of The Friars Club, the comedians' association.

Considered a pioneer in television, Berle always was ready to try something new.

"Too many people simply give up too easily," he said.

"You have to keep the desire to forge ahead, and you have to be able to take the bruises of unsuccess. Success is just one long street fight.