Pat Paulsen, the deadpan, droopy-faced comic whose career was launched on the Smothers Brothers' TV show and sustained by satirical campaigns for the White House, has died at age 69.
Mr. Paulsen, who had colon and brain cancer, died Thursday [April 24, 1997] in Mexico from pneumonia and kidney failure after recent surgery to remove scar tissue from previous surgery, publicist Glenn Schwartz said Friday.
Doctors had said Mr. Paulsen's cancer was inoperable, and he had been undergoing alternative cancer treatment in Mexico for about a month.
Mr. Paulsen made his name on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in 1968 when he announced he was running for president under the S.T.A.G. (Straight Talking American Government) Party. He won an Emmy that year.
The Smothers show, controversial for its liberal jabs at the Vietnam War and the White House, was canceled by CBS in 1969 after three seasons.
Mr. Paulsen, however, was not through. He became a perennial presidential candidate. He was on the ballot in 1972. All told, he campaigned in five presidential elections and claimed to have finished second to President Clinton in last year's New Hampshire primary.
"If elected, I will win," he said at last summer's Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Dressed in a dapper suit, the stone-faced comic would blandly recite a platform that combined loony one-liners and sarcasm. He sometimes ran as a Democrat and other times as a Republican.
Mr. Paulsen was diagnosed with colon cancer in November 1995. He continued to perform until last November.
Patrick L. Paulsen was born July 6, 1927, in a fishing village in Washington state. His family later moved to the San Francisco area.
As a Marine during World War II, he guarded Japanese POWs in China.
"We were surrounded by the communists but never attacked. Many people think I was captured by their troops, who installed a receiver in my head that keeps commanding me to run for president," he once said.
He attended San Francisco City College, then joined a troupe called "The Ric-y-tic Players." He briefly had a comedy act with his brother, Lorin, and then, with a guitar, went solo in folk clubs.
© 1997 The Associated Press