Friday, July 12, 2019

Rip Torn, and "The Larry Sanders Show"

The Larry Sanders Show, the HBO series (1992-1998) about a fictional TV talk show, starred Garry Shandling as Larry Sanders; Jeffrey Tambor as Hank Kingsley, the talk show's announcer and sidekick; and Rip Torn, as Artie, the show's producer.  Rip Torn died this week, at age 88.

The show--which I wrote about previously, in this space (when Garry Shandling died, in 2016)--was one of the great programs in television history.

Rip Torn was a vibrant, compelling, gifted actor. In 1996, he received the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series," for his performances on The Larry Sanders Show. He was nominated five other times for his work on the program.

An obituary about Mr. Torn, in The Washington Post, included the following, from Garry Shandling:

"He has his demons, Rip does, and you have to work through them," Shandling said in a 2011 interview with the Television Academy Foundation.“But you get something really deeply genuine. It’s so alive.”

Here is the full obituary from the Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/rip-torn-volatile-actor-who-gained-comic-renown-on-the-larry-sanders-show-dies-at-88/2019/07/11/23dc1d8e-a31b-11e9-b8c8-75dae2607e60_story.html