RIP MORT SAHL

1927-2021

Mort Sahl was a Canadian-born comedian, actor, and social satirist who poked fun at political and current event topics using improvised monologues and only a newspaper as a prop.

He spent his early years in Los Angeles and moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he made his professional stage debut in 1953. In 1960 he became the first comedian to have a cover story written about him by Time magazine. He appeared on various television shows, played a number of film roles, and performed a one-man show on Broadway.

Television host Steve Allen said that Sahl was “the only real political philosopher we have in modern comedy”. Woody Allen. Allen credits Sahl’s new style of humor with “opening up vistas for people like me”.

“Television is never more false than when it’s openly sincere.” ~ Mort Sahl

Sahl’s only acting gig with Lucille Ball was in the 1962 CBS special “The Good Years” co-starring Henry Fonda. The narrator was Margaret Hamilton.  

Ball and Sahl (a good name for a comedy team) were together on the dais in 1986 for “An All-Star Party for Clint Eastwood”. As a former honoree herself,  Lucy had done similar honors for Carol Burnett.

He was married three times, and had one son, who pre-deceased him. Sahl died at his home in Mill Valley on October 26, 2021, at age 94.