A man who knew how to make you laugh

Richard Dawson, who made ’em laugh on ‘Family Feud,’ dies at 79

Richard Dawson brought a saucy, unabashedly touchy-feely style to TV game shows as host of “Family Feud.”

The British-born entertainer, who died Saturday at age 79 from complications related to esophageal cancer at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, earlier had made his mark in the unlikely 1960s sitcom hit “Hogan’s Heroes,” which mined laughs from a Nazi POW camp whose prisoners hoodwink their captors and run the place themselves.

But it is as the kissing, wisecracking quizmaster of “Feud” that he will be remembered.

I loved "Hogan's Heroes", watching re-runs late into the night in junior high school when I should have been asleep, and Dawson was charming and personable in "Family Feud". YKWIA told me of his death earlier today, and although it makes me a little sad, it brought the laughs he inspired to mind, which I guess is the best way of remembering someone.