Letters: Jonathan Winters, comic genius

Re “Comic had ark of characters,” Obituary, April 13

I first met Jonathan Winters in 1967 in Vietnam. Not many Hollywood people did USO visits to our remote location. We never hosted the Bob Hope-type entertainers.

Winters was brilliant. Before the “show,” some of us engaged him in what we would call just a conversation. Everything that was said turned into a joke or something original and funny.

In some ways it was hard to determine just who Winters really was; the continuous on-stage personality or someone masquerading as a regular person.

Nevertheless, he was very nice, gentle and genuinely interested and caring about those of us who were stuck in this out-of-the-way place.

His death has brought back many memories of a very difficult year in Vietnam — and what a gracious and wonderful human being Winters was, given what he and others did to make our lives better, even for a while.

Rod W. Brown

Playa del Rey

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