Gallagher, the comic famous for smashing watermelons onstage and drenching up-close crowd members, died today of organ failure at his Palm Springs home, a family member told NBC News. He was 76.
Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. had been in ill health and suffered multiple heart attacks, his son-in-law told the outlet.
Thriving during the late ’80s/early-’90s Golden Era of stand-up comedy, Gallagher was a prop comic whose signature bit was deploying the “Sledge-O-Matic” — a wooden hammer he used to pulverize watermelons and other items. Audience members in the front rows were given the option to wear see-through plastic wraps to avoid the gooey mess.
He appeared in dozens of TV specials from 1980-2000 — many for Showtime — and on talk/variety shows including many visits to the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He also appeared on David Letterman’s NBC and CBS shows; Howard Stern’s TV and radio programs; a Bob Hope special; and game shows including Match Game, The Hollywood Squares and Make Me Laugh; and late-night performance shows The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert; among many other small-screen appearances.
Born on July 24, 1946, in Fort Bragg, NC, Gallagher got his start in showbiz in the late 1960s as the road manager for musical comic Jim Stafford, who went on to have a number of novelty hits and his own brief variety series. Gallagher’s first TV appearance came on ABC’s The Jim Stafford Show, which aired for a few months as a summer replacement series in 1975.
Gallagher had several more TV stints in the late 1970s, including frequent visits to the popular daytime talker The Mike Douglas Show.
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