Emmy award winning comedian and actor died on Thursday night, aged 81.
He passed away after suffering complications from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago.
A prolific television star, he found his greatest film fame in Mel Brookes' movies, playing the outrageous Hedley ("It's not Hedy, it's Hedley") Lamarr in Blazing Saddles and the similarly amped up Dr Charles Montague in High Anxiety.
Brooks described him a "dazzling comic talent".
He said: "You could get rock-solid comedy out of him. He could lift the material. He always made it real, always made it work, always believed in characters he was doing."
He is survived by his wife, Kate, and four children.
