Harvey Korman’s son reveals how the comedy legend was his biggest hero.
THE COMEDIC ACTOR BROUGHT LAUGHTER TO MILLIONS, BUT HE ALSO BECAME A TIRELESS ADVOCATE FOR HIS LEARNING-DISABLED SON
Growing up, Chris Korman couldn’t wait for Friday nights. Starting around 1972, he and older sister Maria would go to CBS and have dinner with their dad, Harvey, and his Carol Burnett Show co-stars, then watch them tape the classic sketch-comedy series. “I loved it,” Chris tells Closer. “Especially when the lights went out and the orchestra started playing the theme, ‘I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together.’ ”
The song’s sentiment applies to Chris’ relationship with his dad. “He was my best friend and my hero,” says Chris, 49, whose childhood was no laughing matter. After suffering a lack of oxygen to his brain at birth, he was diagnosed with hyaline membrane disease. “It caused a delay in the way I process information as well as a speech impediment and hand-eye coordination issues,” says Chris. “I had eye surgery when I was 2 and later reconstructive jaw surgery.”
Harvey became his son’s greatest advocate. He was national spokesperson for the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) and hosted an annual golf fundraiser that attracted celebs like Clint Eastwood, Bob Hope and Sidney Poitier. Harvey taught Chris not to let his disease hold him back. “He told me early on, ‘Learning disability or not, people are going to judge you on how you articulate yourself,’ ” says Chris, who overcame his speech impediment and followed in his father’s charitable footsteps. “I was one of the speakers at the LDA’s conference earlier this year, and it was a really amazing experience.”
FUNNY BUSINESS
The Chicago-born WWII vet’s 1967 to ’78 run with
“I get all these wonderful letters, and I wish I could
be more appreciative of what I do. But it’s hard for me.”
— Harvey
Carol practically made her an aunt to Chris. “I have pictures of her holding me as a baby,” he says. “Carol never acted like a diva. She was loving and unselfish, and it was a family show.”
Not that Harvey enjoyed everything about the series. “He hated doing the ‘Mama’s Family’ sketches because he thought his character, Ed, was an idiot,” Chris reveals. He agreed to appear on the spin-off sitcom “because Vicki Lawrence asked him. He loved the cast, except Rue McClanahan. She complained about everything.”
Although Harvey became famous for cracking up during skits with Tim Conway, “He considered it amateurish,” says Chris. “He was a classically trained actor and hated going off script.”
Harvey found big-screen success with pal Mel Brooks. “His wife, Anne Bancroft, recommended my dad for Blazing Saddles,” says Chris, who visited Harvey on the London set of History of the World, Part 1. “Mel even let me sit in his chair!”
Through it all, Harvey maintained his humility. Three’s Company stars John Ritter and Richard Kline often spent their lunch breaks on the CBS lot watching Carol Burnett Show rehearsals. “They’d pick my dad’s brain about comedic timing,” Chris says. “To me, this is the essence of my father’s legacy — he was such a humble person that without even realizing it, he was a mentor to others.”
That includes his son. Harvey remained close to Chris after divorcing Chris’ mom, Donna, in 1977, and having two kids with second wife Deborah, who was with him until his 2008 death at 81. Chris is happily married with a teen son and works as a Las Vegas casting director. “I have a huge advantage since I know what actors go through,” he says. “But I never seriously pursued acting because I didn’t want to try to live up to what my dad did.” — Bruce Fretts,
with reporting by Tripp Whetsell