Comic Bill Dana, who won fame as ‘Jose Jimenez,’ dies at 92
NEW YORK — Comedy writer and performer Bill Dana, who won stardom in the 1950s and ’60s with his character Jose Jimenez, has died.
Dana died Thursday at his home in Nashville, according to Emerson College, his alma mater. He was 92.
Born William Szathmary and a Massachusetts native of HungarianJewish descent, Dana first appeared as Mexican immigrant Jimenez in a 1959 edition of “The Steve Allen Show.” It was for one of the show’s “Man on the Street” interviews conducted by fellow cast member Pat Harrington Jr.
Introducing himself in broken English, “Jose Jimenez” cracked up the studio audience and convinced Dana he had a hit on his hands.
He did. “My name … Jose … Jimenez” was soon a national catchphrase.
The character was embraced by the Latino community and, Dana once said, “was a perfect example of a person that wanted to be assimilated into American culture, learn the language, always looked spiffy.” But Dana bowed to changing standards and criticisms of stereotyping and retired Jimenez in 1970.
Looking back on his formative years in comedy for a 1998 interview with The Associated Press, Dana said, “America was so uptight sexually you couldn’t show a close-up of the stork on ‘Zoo Parade.’ We were blessed with having to get our laughs out of pure comedy, pure in the sense of universality.”