Lord Buckley

Innovative American Jazz and Beat Poet Performer

US comedian, and raconteur. Born: 5 April 1906 in Toulumne, California, USA. Died: 12 November 1960 in Columbus Hospital, New York, USA (aged 54). Ground-breaking American hip comedian, raconteur & stand-up, who recounted his view of incidents from history and mythology with a patois that blended scat-singing, black jive-talk, and the King's English. All this whilst often wearing a pith helmet, robes, or dinner suit, and chain-smoking or preening his waxed Dali-esque moustache. A self-proclaimed 'Lord' and six-foot-six, larger-than-life funster, who had a great time with other people's money, drunk like he had a thirst you could photograph and courted anything that owned a handbag. Buckley worked the San Francisco club circuits like "The Hungry I" and "Purple Onion", which also featured such talent as Mort Saul, Dick Gregory, and Lenny Bruce. He also performed at "The Gate Of Horn" in Chicago. He never really made the grade into films, but did appear in "We're Not Married" (1952), starring Fred Allen, Ginger Rogers, and Marilyn Monroe. He also had a walk-on part in Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus" (1960). Buckley died shortly after having his 'Cabaret Card' permit confiscated by the vice squad on a raid of the "Jazz Gallery" in New York in October 1960. Stress, caused by the loss and his penurious state, apparently led to a stroke and kidney-failure.