(Reuters) - American comic Tom Smothers, one-half of the musical-comedy duo the Smothers Brothers, died on Tuesday at 86 at home in California after being diagnosed with cancer, his family said in a statement released by the National Comedy Center.
Smothers and his younger brother, Dick, started out wanting to be folk singers but found success weaving comedy into their act, a formula they perfected in 1967 with the CBS show "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour," a precursor of "Saturday Night Live" and other satirical television shows.