Joey Bishop Dies

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of Frank Sinatra and The Rat Pack. Joey Bishop was the last surviving member of the group. From The New York Times:

Joey Bishop, the long-faced comedian and the last surviving member of the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra’s celebrated retinue of the 1960’s, died Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach, Calif. He was 89.

His death was of multiple causes, said his longtime publicist, Warren Cowan.

Mr. Bishop was the least flamboyant of the Rat Pack and no match for the others — Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Sinatra himself — in their dedication to hell-raising.

But he shared in their phenomenal success in the early 1960s, when they headlined music and comedy shows in Las Vegas, appearing at the Sands, and made movies like “Ocean’s 11” and “Sergeants 3.” When John F. Kennedy, a friend of Sinatra’s and a brother-in-law of Lawford’s, was elected president in 1960, Mr. Bishop was master of ceremonies at the inaugural ball.