Curb Your Enthusiasm actor and comic Shelley Berman

Comedian Shelley Berman, who won gold records and appeared on top television shows in the 1950s and 1960s delivering wry monologues about the annoyances of everyday life, has died. He was 92. Berman died at his home in Bell Canyon, California, from complications from Alzheimer’s disease, according to spokesman Glenn Schwartz.

Berman was a pioneer of a new brand of comedy that could evoke laughter from such matters as air travel discomforts and small children who answer the telephone.

He helped pave the way for Bob Newhart, Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld and other stand-up comedians who fashioned their routines around the follies and frustrations of modern living.

Late in his career, he played Nat David, father of Larry David, on US sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm.

With dialogue improvised by its cast, the comedy series gave Berman the opportunity to return to his improv roots and introduced him to a new generation of TV viewers.

Comedy was not a childhood ambition for him. He trained as an actor, with the Goodman School of Drama in his native Chicago and with the prestigious actress-teacher Uta Hagen in New York.

He made his acting debut in a Broadway play, The Boys Against The Girls, in 1959.

His film debut came in 1964 with the adaptation of Gore Vidal’s hit political stage drama The Best Man, starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson.

He found work in television series such as The Twilight Zone, Rawhide and Peter Gunn and occasional movies including Divorce American Style.

He became active in regional theatre and also worked his old routines before college and lecture audiences.

For more than 20 years he taught comedy at the University of Southern California.

In recent years, he landed guest roles on series including The King Of Queens, Boston Legal and CSI: NY, and appeared in the film Meet The Fockers.

He retired from performing in 2014 after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Berman is survived by his wife Sarah and daughter Rachel.

He once said of his marriage: “The love we have and the way it has grown, that’s what I’d like to be remembered for.”