Tim Conway passed away today.

His comedic genius spanned generations starting with Baby Boomers who first saw him on the TV show, McHale’s Navy, then enjoyed his appearances on The Carol Burnett Show where he made co-actors crack up with improvised humor delivered with a deadpan expression. “We really didn’t attack people or politics or religion or whatever. We just made fun of, basically, ourselves,” Conway once said in reference to the show’s successful eleven year run.

It’s possible that today’s generation would find the skit below “lame,” a story line that has Conway’s character displaying canine behavior after having been accidentally injected with medication intended for his dog. These were innocent times, and viewers got as much enjoyment out of Harvey Korman’s effort to keep from laughing as Conway’s acting, itself:

Children of Baby Boomers were introduced to Conway through a long line of family movies including The Shaggy D.A., The World’s Greatest Athlete, The Apple Dumpling Gang, and The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Gus, The Billion Dollar Hobo, The Prize Fighter, and Private Eyes. Still another generator knew him as the voice of “Barnacle Boy” in  “Spongebob Squarepants.”

By all accounts, Conway was a gentle soul, and he will be missed. We conclude with a photo of him with his Bichon Frise, “Leo.”