LOS ANGELES Legendary comedian, composer, author, actor and television pioneer Steve Allen, who started TV talking as the first host of NBC's Tonight Show, died in his sleep at age 78, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Spokesman Kevin Sasaki said Allen died of an apparent heart attack while napping on Monday night at the home of his youngest son Bill in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino after carving pumpkins with his grandchildren.
The Guinness Book of World Records called him the "most prolific composer of modern times" and among his songs were "Impossible", "This Could Be the Start of Something Big," the theme from "Picnic" and the Grammy-winning "Gravy Waltz." As a result of his tonight show work, many credit him with creating the television talk show. Allen, was born Stephen Valentine Patrick William Allen in New York City on Dec. 26, 1921. Tall, broad-shouldered and famed for an owlish look enhanced by his thick, horn-rimmed glasses, Allen once said, "One of the secrets of my success, if you can call it that, is that I don't waste any time.
If they invented a nine-day week I would work nine days a week." Known for his nonstop inventiveness, the veteran entertainer was never without a small tape recorder that he carried everywhere, frequently dictating notes to himself with ideas for his next song, joke or book project. He wrote 40 books plus poetry, philosophy, songs, newspaper columns and the Broadway revue "Seymour Glick Is Alive But Sick." He was once described by his friend, singer Andy Williams, as "the only man I know who is listed in every one of the yellow pages." (Reuter)