Nipsey Russell

Nipsey Russell — American comedian and actor whose quick rhyme turned game-show panels into poetry slams before the phrase was fashionable — died in New York City on October 2, 2005. He was about eighty-one. Born October 15, 1924, in Atlanta, Georgia (records of his age were long informal), he became a late-night and daytime television regular whose couplets arrived faster than the applause light. Audiences knew him from The Hollywood Squares, talk-show couches, and film and stage turns that treated wit as a civic skill. He lived for years in New York and died of cancer at Lenox Hill Hospital, still remembered as the poet laureate of television banter. Managers and friends called the rhymes effortless; writers knew better. Atlanta gave him the cadence; Manhattan gave him the stages. He performed as if laughter could also scan. He died in New York on October 2, 2005. Somewhere a panel is still waiting for the four-line snap. Russell's gift was improvisational grace — making rhyme feel like conversation. Notice Nearby keeps the death date so October 2 remembers the Atlanta comedian who versified America's weeknights.