Famed Borscht Belt comedian Jackie Mason, who rose from a modest childhood on the Lower East Side to become one of the most famous funnymen of all time, has died. He was 93.
Mason died at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan Saturday, with his wife Jyll and a few friends by his side, longtime pal and lawyer Raoul Felder told The Post.
There will be a small, private funeral service Sunday in New York, said Felder, who declined to name the location. A larger, public memorial service is expected at a later date, the lawyer noted.
Mason was born in Sheboygan, Wis., to immigrant parents from Belarus. The family moved to Manhattan when little Yacov Moshe Maza, as he was then known, was just 5-years old, according to The New York Times, which first reported his death.
His famed one-man show, “The World According to Me!” made him a triumph of Broadway in the 1980s, and in 1968, he was banned from “The Ed Sullivan Show” after the host mistakenly believed Mason gave him the middle finger during an interruption.
Photo by Jennifer Lourie/Getty Images
The doctors and nurses attending to Mason, who had been hospitalized for two weeks and three days, wept when he died, Felder said.
“I think the world has lost a very unique individual.”
