George Kirby; Comic Known for Impressions

George Kirby, the rotund comic known both for his deft impressions and drug problems, died Saturday at a Las Vegas nursing home after a long bout with Parkinson’s disease.

Kirby, who was 71, had suffered from Parkinson’s disease and had been paralyzed for several months, his longtime friend, dancer Norma Miller, told the Associated Press.

Kirby, a native of Chicago, first came to Las Vegas in the late 1940s when black entertainers were not allowed to sleep, gamble or change their clothes in the hotels where they performed.

“I played every one of the Strip hotels,” he recalled in a 1978 interview with The Times. “The Stardust was called the Royal Nevada, and I remember our dressing rooms were outside. At the Flamingo, I had the first and only craps table backstage. The black chefs and waiters came by to gamble.”

Kirby rode to fame with his impressions of fellow entertainers, including Pearl Bailey, John Wayne, Louis Armstrong, Bill Cosby, Walter Brennan and Nat King Cole. He made frequent appearances on television variety and talk shows with hosts Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas.

However, Kirby’s career took a tumble after his arrest in 1977 at his Las Vegas home on charges of distributing about $400,000 worth of heroin and cocaine.

Early the next year, he was sentenced to a 10-year federal prison term for selling narcotics to an undercover agent. Later that year, he was sentenced to a 20-year Nevada state prison term for selling cocaine and supplying heroin samples to the same undercover agent.

Kirby, who had first become addicted to heroin in the late 1950s, was released after serving 3 1/2 years in prison. He returned to performing, albeit on smaller stages, appearing at clubs such as Marla Gibbs’ Memory Lane Supper Club in Los Angeles during the early 1980s.

The ailing comic’s last public appearance was in May, when friends including Della Reese, Barbara McNair, Joe Williams, Debbie Allen, O.C. Smith, Sherman Helmsley and Rip Taylor organized an all-star benefit to help pay his medical bills.

Kirby is survived by his wife of 34 years.