Sad to hear about another funny man dying. Vic Dunlop was just one of those naturally-funny guys. You couldn't not laugh at him and he was much loved among other comedians. He was always helping out others, running benefits and showing up at benefits that others ran. Just a funny, nice guy.
He hailed from New York and was the son of a prominent character actor, Victor Marko. Despite his weight, which was often way out of control, our Vic served in Vietnam and would later speak of it as good training for a comedian. Out of the service, he soon became a regular at The Comedy Store and then made his TV debut on the TV series, Make Me Laugh. For a long time, he commuted between Vegas, where he opened for Tom Jones, Gladys Knight and other top singing acts…and Los Angeles, where he appeared on a number of TV series including Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Harper Valley, P.T.A. and the short-lived Richard Pryor Show. (A few days ago here, I posted a clip from a series I worked on called The Half-Hour Comedy Hour. Vic was a regular on that show, too.)
Medically, Vic was an absolute mess. He was Diabetic and he couldn't handle it. It seemed like every time I ran into him, he'd just lost a toe or part of a leg…and those were just the problems he had from the waist down. There were plenty above. Still, he never seemed to let any of it nuke his spirit or harm his sense of humor. I'm not sure which of his many ailments ended his life but he had surgery for one of them about a week ago and it obviously didn't help. He was 63 years old.
Here's a video of Vic in action. You'll notice that in both this clip and the photo above, he's wearing the same pair of Three Stooges suspenders. Vic loved the Stooges and I always thought that on stage, he somehow managed to play Moe, Larry and Curly all at the same time — with maybe a touch of Joe Besser in there…