Comedian Stewie Stone has died at the age of 88 following a long battle with Parkinson's. There was an online fund raiser for his medical expenses last year.
Stewie was one of the great opening actors and in his day, he opened for everyone. Back in this post, I had the following to say about him…
In 1978, I was the head writer on a Bobby Vinton special for CBS. The network flew me and two other writers back to meet with Bobby and see him perform at the Mill Run Playhouse in Niles, Illinois. His opening act was Stewie Stone…and Stewie had been doing it for years by then. He was one of those guys — and there have never been many of them — who expertly mastered the art of being an opening act: He kept the audience entertained for a solid twenty minutes and then finished his set right on time without having in any way upstaged the star to follow. That is only meant as a compliment.
Never a big star but he had a very long career and I doubt he was unemployed much during it. If some really famous singer dies in the next few days, let's all pause and think, "Stewie was opening for him…"