Rip Taylor

Rip Taylor was an American comedian and entertainer known for his flamboyant, confetti-throwing stage presence, his enormous moustache, and decades of appearances on game shows, variety programs, and television specials, making an estimated 2,000 guest appearances across shows including Hollywood Squares, Match Game, To Tell the Truth, and Super Password. He was a fixture of The Gong Show (1976), played the sea-genie Sheldon on Sigmund and the Sea Monsters (1973), and appeared in The Brady Bunch Movie (1995) and many other productions. He came out as gay in 1999, acknowledging his 36-year relationship with his partner Robert Fortney -- a relationship that had been stable for decades while Taylor's persona was widely understood to be campy and queer. He was a beloved figure in entertainment who died in October 2019, at 88.