Sad reports this morning note that Dom DeLuise passed away in his sleep Monday evening at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 75. His reason for admittance and official cause of death isn't currently known. And at least one reaction has trickled in so far, with DeLuise's Cannonball Run co-star Burt Reynolds responding to the news within the last hour.
"I was thinking the other day about this," Reynolds told ET. "As you get older you think about this more and more, I was dreading this moment. Dom always made everyone feel better when he was around. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone. I will miss him very much."
We will too, for his brilliant recurring turns in Mel Brooks's ensemble, his underrated work in Anne Bancroft's Fatso, his culinary-arts adventures, and perhaps most of all, for his legendary 1974 "egg trick" appearance on The Tonight Show. Watch and learn, and rest in peace, D.D.
ยท Dom DeLuise Dies [TMZ]