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His
wife of 41 years, Marie Musso Greene, told the Las Vegas
Review-Journal that her husband, born Fred Sheldon Greenfield in
Chicago, died of natural causes at their home in Las Vegas,
Nevada.
Greene, who served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, headlined
Vegas acts in the 1950s and 1960s where he was famous for
foregoing his planned comedic routines and improvising jokes
while walking through the audience with a microphone in hand.
He was a frequent guest on early variety television programs
such as the Ed Sullivan Show and made more than 40 appearances
on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Even on television he
would perform ad-libbed jokes with the occasional pratfall while
the show's host would try to keep up.
In the Las Vegas nightclubs he worked alongside entertainment
giants such as Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
But offstage, he battled a host of personal problems including
gambling, alcohol and drug addictions and depression, which at
times he joked about.
He once told his audience that he suffered from bipolar disorder
and quipped, “I’m more than bipolar. I’m South Polar, North
Polar. I’m every kind of polar there is. I even lived with a
polar bear for about a year,” the New York Times reported.
And at times he talked seriously about struggling with mental
illness and issues including stage fright.
“I’d get a standing ovation, then I’d burst out crying as soon
as I left the stage,” he told Las Vegas Review-Journal in 2009.
Greene was also an avid fan of thoroughbred racing and once
owned a race horse also named Shecky Greene, an online biography
says.
Along with his widow, Greene is survived by his two adopted
daughters, Dorian Hoffman and Alison Greene.
No public services were announced.
(Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Mark Porter)
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