Steve Lawrence, of Steve and Eydie fame, dead at 88
“The Tonight Show” once Johnny Carson took over in 1962 through the end of his run 30 years later.Lawrence was a top-selling recording artist with hits including “Go Away Little Girl,” which reached No. 1 on the US charts and was awarded a gold record, “Party Doll,” “Footsteps,” “Pretty Blue Eyes,” “I’ve Gotta Be Me” and “Portrait of My Love.”Over the course of their long career, Lawrence and Gormé won a Grammy (for their 1960 album “We Got Us”) and an Emmy in 1979 for “Steve & Eydie Celebrate Irving Berlin.”Lawrence also snared a Tony nomination in 1964 for his role as Sammy Glick in “What Makes Sammy Run.”Lawrence hosted “The Steve Lawrence Show” in 1965 — which ran for 13 weeks on CBS — and was a regular panelist on “What’s My Line?”He also appeared many times on “The Carol Burnett Show” (solo and with Gormé) and in dozens of episodic TV shows through the years including “Hot in Cleveland, “Night Gallery,” “CSI,” “Diagnosis: Murder,” “Frasier” and “Sanford and Son.”He also appeared on the big screen in “The Blues Brothers” and its sequel, “Blues Brothers 2000” and “Stand Up and Be Counted.”Later in his career, Lawrence played Morty Fine, the father of Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), on “The Nanny” in the CBS series’ final season.Lawrence went public with his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2019 and issued a statement that said, “I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and it’s in the early stages.“I am being treated with medications under the supervision of some of the finest doctors in the field.