re: Comic Arte Johnson has died

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On “Laugh-In,” he was most familiar as Wolfgang, the heavily accented German soldier who thought World War II was still going on. His catchphrase “Very interesting …” was one of many that caught on from the hit show.

Johnson won one Emmy for the show in 1969 and was nominated two more times.

Appearing on the NBC series for its full run from 1968 to 1973, his other well-known character was as the dirty old man Tyrone F. Horneigh who sat down on a park bench and made off-color remarks to Ruth Buzzi. In a 1970 episode, the two appeared in a wedding scene with Tiny Tim as best man. Though the character probably wouldn’t have worked in modern times, he and Buzzi reprised their characters in the 1977 cartoon series “Baggy Pants and the Nitwits.” Buzzi paid tribute to Johnson on Wednesday afternoon via Twitter: “Thank you for a wonderful half-century of friendship. I could not have shared the spotlight with a nicer guy. Rest in peace. And yes, Arte Johnson, I believe in the hereafter.”

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