A family member told NBC News that Gallagher, the prop comedian known for smashing watermelons onstage and dousing audience members up close, passed away today at his Palm Springs home due to organ failure. He was 76.
According to his son-in-law, Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr. had a precarious physical condition and had previously experienced heart attacks.
Gallagher was a prop comedian who flourished in the late 1980s and early 1990s Golden Era of stand-up comedy. His trademark routine involved using the “Sledge-O-Matic,” a wooden mallet resembling a sledgehammer to smash watermelons and other objects. In order to avoid the sticky mess, audience members in the front rows had the option of donning transparent plastic wraps.
He made numerous TV special appearances between 1980 and 2000, many of which were for Showtime. He also frequently made appearances on discussion and variety shows, such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Among many other small-screen appearances, he also made appearances on David Letterman’s NBC and CBS shows, Howard Stern’s TV and radio shows, a Bob Hope special, and game shows like Match Game, The Hollywood Squares, and Make Me Laugh. He also made appearances on late-night performance shows like The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.
Born at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on July 24, 1946, Gallagher began his career in show business as Jim Stafford’s road manager in the late 1960s. Stafford went on to have a number of novelty successes and his own brief variety series. On The Jim Stafford Show, an ABC summer replacement series that aired for a few months in 1975, Gallagher made his debut on television.
In the late 1970s, Gallagher appeared on television for a number of additional times, frequently on The Mike Douglas Show, a well-liked daytime chat show. He began producing more than a dozen Showtime comedy specials in 1981, and he kept doing so until 2000.
On Comedy Central’s 2004 list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians ever, Gallagher came in at number 100.