WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the “Tonight Show” and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.
Police found the 49-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call Saturday morning from Jeni’s girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.
Jeni died at a nearby hospital.
Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing.
Jeni regularly toured the country with a standup act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently “A Big Steaming Pile of Me” during the 2005-06 season.
Jeni’s movie credits included “The Mask,” “The Aristocrats,” “National Lampoon’s Dad’s Week Off,” and “An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn.”
HARTFORD, Conn. – Billy Walkabout, a native Cherokee whose actions in Vietnam made him among most decorated soldiers of the war, died March 7, his stepdaughter said Sunday. He was 57.
He received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart, five Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars.
Walkabout, who lived in Montville, died of pneumonia and renal failure at a Norwich hospital, said his stepdaughter, Randi Johnson of Norwich.
Walkabout, a Cherokee of the Blue Holley Clan, was an 18-year-old Army Ranger sergeant when he and 12 other soldiers were sent on an assassination mission behind enemy lines on Nov. 20, 1968.
However, they ended up in the enemy’s battalion area and came under fire for hours, during which he was seriously wounded. Several of the other 12 men were killed at the scene, while the rest later died of their injuries.
Walkabout’s citation for the Distinguished Service Cross said he simultaneously returned fire, helped his comrades and boarded other injured soldiers onto evacuation helicopters.
In a 1986 interview with the Associated Press, Walkabout said his 23 months in Vietnam left him with disabling injuries and memories that refused to fade.
“War is not hell,” Walkabout said. “It’s worse.”
His family is requesting a military burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Johnson said.
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