Stand-up comedian was also sitcom star
Kevin Meaney, a headliner on the stand-up comedy circuit for more than 30 years, was found dead Friday at his home in Forestburgh, N.Y. He was 60.
Meaney’s former wife, Mary Ann Halford, confirmed his death. She said the cause was not yet known.
Meaney made numerous appearances on late-night television talk shows, including more than a dozen on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” beginning in 1987, a year after his first HBO special, according to his website.
He played the title role, an irresponsible slob saddled with raising his brother’s three children, on “Uncle Buck,” a CBS sitcom based on the John Candy movie of the same name. The show lasted only one season, but Meaney was seen frequently on television after it was canceled in 1991. In addition to appearing on the talk shows of David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Carson, he was seen on “Saturday Night Live,” “30 Rock,” “2 Broke Girls” and other shows.
An energetic live performer with the sensibilities of an old-style entertainer, Meaney skewered family life, in particular his mother’s seemingly boundless concern that his actions would cause them to “lose the house.”
“Anything in my house could poke an eye out when I was a kid,” he said in one routine, adding: “I’d be passing pizza across the table. ‘You’re going to take your brother’s eye out with that slice.’”
He sometimes incorporated music into his act. One signature bit was a lip-synced spoof of the hit fundraising single “We Are the World” in which he impersonated Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, Willie Nelson, Stevie Wonder and other singers who had performed on the song.
He later employed his singing skills when he was cast in the Broadway musical “Hairspray.” He played several roles and understudied the part of Edna Turnblad, played by Divine in the John Waters movie that inspired the musical.
Halford said Meaney’s experience on the show, which he described on his website as “life changing,” prompted a period of selfreflection that led him to realize he was gay.
He came out in 2008 while being interviewed on a satellite radio show. His sexual orientation would later figure in some of his stand-up routines.
In one, Meaney, who was raised Catholic, described a request from his mother that he go to confession.
“I told the priest I was gay, and it was very difficult to tell him that,” Meaney said. “And now we’re dating.”
Meaney was born in White Plains, N.Y., on April 23, 1956, the middle child of five. His father, John, was a firefighter; his mother, Patricia, was a librarian.
Later, while living in Los Angeles, he met Halford. They married in 1997 and had a daughter, Kathleen Ann, two years later. She survives him, as do his mother; three brothers, Jack, Tim and Thomas; and a sister, Cathy Paulsen.