Comedian Jonathan Winters, whose breakneck improvisations inspired Robin Williams, Jim Carrey and many others, has died at age 87.

Longtime family friend Joe Petro III says the Ohio native died Thursday evening at his Montecito, Calif., home of natural causes.

Winters was a master of improvisational comedy, with a grab bag of eccentric personalities and facial expressions. Characters such as the dirty old lady Maude Frickert were based on people Winters knew growing up in Ohio.

In the mid-1950s, "The Jonathan Winters Show" pioneered the then-new videotape technology on to do stunts like showing up as two characters on screen together.

He was introduced to millions of new fans in 1981 as the son of Williams' goofball alien in the final season of ABC's "Mork and Mindy."

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/groundbreaking-improv-comic-jonathan-winters-dies-165302142.html

R.I.P. oh king of the punch line.

Truly sad, I grew up listening to his records, watching him in movies like It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and his stint on Mork & Mindy as their son.

Oh damn!
Now there was a funny Guy!

He was a hoot :-)

He was an awesome actor. I think he had his own show at one time.

Yup. I can remember him on television. He sure will be missed.

No more Maudie Frickert??? Nooooooo.

I absolutely loved him, you could never tell what he'd do next but he never seemed mean. The New York Times has a good obituary of him.

I saw some of his artwork several years ago and it seemed just like him. Kind of Klee-ish if I remember correctly, and I thought it was very good.

There's nobody like him around any more.

This is a real bummer, he was funny without even trying to be funny.