Jonathan.

Jonathan Winters died Thursday, April 11, at age 87. Naturally the lazy and ignorant media announced his death with an immediate reference to the tv sitcom Mork and Mindy. Forget that Winters was one of the most brilliant and influential comics of our time, that he starred in the the Stanley Kubrick film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World and more than a dozen other films, often in dramatic roles.  No, all these naifs can think of is Mork and Mindy. Forget his long history of television specials including Omnibus, Playhouse 90, Hollywood Squares, The Twilight Zone, and the Wacky World of Jonathan Winters. No, their narrow little sitcom minds rush to Mork and Mindy. Forget his guest appearances on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, David Letterman and such brilliantly realized characters as Maude Frickert, or the speed with which his mind could take a single prop and created a dozen scenarios. It's a sad fact that when many of our greatest stars die, the unsophisticated little desk clerks assigned to write their obituaries have such a tiny frame of reference. Jonathan Winters, a giant of comedy, was born November 11, 1925 in Dayton, Ohio, and his death is a great, great loss.