“[He was] a sharp judge of talent who saw more than a shy gag-writer in Woody Allen and believed that the manic improvisations of Robin Williams would crack up audiences … To his clients – who also included Billy Crystal, David Letterman, Lenny Bruce and the team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May, an American pantheon of hilarity – he was a father-confessor, real estate agent, psychiatrist, marriage counselor and financial guru.”