Alex Carson
Barbara held on to most of Don’s belongings after his death. However, most of the personal items Don left behind, are put up for sale after Barbara’s death. These items include not only the home of Don and Barbara but also the memorabilia from Don’s time in entertainment. Join Facts Verse as we explore personal items that Don Rickles left behind when he died.
After Don Rickles’ death in April of 2017, his wife support him for nearly four years before passing away herself. Barbara passed away in March of 2021. The date of Barbara’s death would’ve been the 56th anniversary of her and Don’s wedding. According to a press release, the widow’s cause of death was non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Join Facts Verse to know more about Mindy Rickles.
Don and Barbara Rickles Married Life
Don and Barbara Rickles marry in 1965. They are incredibly faithful to each other over the time of their marriage, in comparison to other famous couples. Barbara isn’t an entertainer herself but had come to California from Philadelphia to escape the climate. Apparently, the air in Philadelphia gave Barbara a rash, so she fled to California to seek a change of environment. In California, she began working as an assistant for Don Rickles’ agent. Due to her new gig, it wasn’t long before she was face to face with the comedian himself.
According to legend, Barbara instantly impressed Don because she didn’t laugh at any of his jokes. The two tied the knot on March 14, 1965. Over the season of their marriage, Don and Barbara had two children. Those two children include daughter Mindy and son Larry. Sadly, Larry Rickles passed away in 2011 from respiratory failure.
By the time of Don Rickles’ death, he and his wife is married for over 50 years. One might wonder how their marriage is so successful, and a big part of it is that Don likes to take Barbara out with him when he went on the road. When Don was touring, he would often allow Barbara to accompany him. Don goes out on tour with fellow comedian Bob Newhart, and Barbara apparently becomes a close friend of Bob’s spouse. Barbara considers herself a homebody who prefers her own company, Ginny Newhart is one of the few people that she allows to get close to her.
Barbara Rickles Died in 2017
In addition to accompanying her husband during his professional career, Barbara Rickles maintains his Twitter account since his 2017 death. She helps maintain her late husband’s legacy before her own death in 2021, including by producing a documentary about him. Don Rickles talks disparagingly about his wife during his comedic routines, it seems that this is part of his persona. In reality, there was no one that the comedian adored more than Barbara.
Don Rickles was nearly 40 years old by the time he married Barbara. According to the comedian, it had taken him a long time to find someone that whom he was compatible. They manage to make things work for over 50 years, Don shares that his marriage isn’t without its issues. He expresses that he’s always intent on working through issues when they arise, saying that marriages can sometimes be difficult.
Don Guesting in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Don is a frequent guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He will poke fun at Johnny for the vast number of spouses that regards the host accumulation over his lifetime. Johnny marries five times before his death, while Don’s only spouse remains Barbara. Perhaps Johnny Carson could’ve learned a thing or two from Don and Barbara’s marriage ethic! Contrastingly, perhaps Don and Barbara got incredibly lucky by finding each other.
One likely wouldn’t have imagined that Don’s marriage was very successful if they only knew the comedian from his comedy. One of the comedian’s most popular bits saw him asking audience members to take his wife off of his hands. He can be in and heard making gags about being unfaithful to his wife and looking for a new lover. While Barbara takes ire with this type of comedy early on in their marriage, she eventually grew to accept it. It is her husband’s sense of humor and when he talks about her on stage isn’t how he actually felt.
Mindy Rickles expresses that she come to appreciate her mother’s ability to find the humor in her father’s jokes. According to Mindy, her mother’s sense of humor is one of her attributes and allows her parents to get along.
Don Rickles’ Death
After Don Rickles’ death in 2017, his wife Barbara Rickles held onto most of his personal belongings until her own death in early 2021. Until the time of her death, Barbara continued living in her and her late husband’s home in Los Angeles. Several months after Barbara’s passing, the home is finally put on the market and is on sale only a short time later for nearly $7 million. Don and Barbara had owned the home since 1989 and had purchased it for only a little over $2 million. Barbara was 84 years old at the time of her passing, while her husband had been 90 years old at the time of his.
Besides maintaining occupancy in their Los Angeles home, Barbara held onto many of Don Rickles’ personal items after his 2017 death. These personal items are in the auction. Some of it including items are memorabilia from the Toy Story franchise, tuxedos that the comedian wears during performances, scripts explained by him, as well as a variety of personalized celebrity photographs. The photographs say to feature custom ink inscriptions and depict such notable figures as Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Don Rickles Collection Memorabilia
Besides the aforementioned personal memorabilia from his career in entertainment, Don apparently had a pretty hefty collection of signed sports memorabilia. The collection of Don’s personal items also apparently contained some fine furniture. The collection also included a Friars Club 2013 Lifetime Achievement Award and a 2012 Johnny Carson Award, two awards that Don received later in his life. Over the course of his 90 years, Don accomplished a lot!
Don was born in 1926. He was born and raised in Queens, and growing up there helped him develop his sense of humor and skills as an insult comic. Don helped pioneer insult comedy throughout his career, though his harsh demeanor often found him reaping less success than some of his peers. Despite the fact that Don never gets a successful television series and is never quite as noticed as some other stand-up comedians of his time, he respectable and can be appearing on late-night shows. Join Facts Verse to know more about Mindy Rickles.
Don Rickles Television Series
Some of the television series that Don can be in the most include The Dean Martin Show and the aforementioned The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. After a career of mainly just seeing success as a stand-up performer, Don made an unlikely successful transition into a film in the 1990s. Don found himself cast in the films Toy Story and Casino, both of which went on to become major hits. In Toy Story, Don voiced the character of Mr. Potato Head, based on the classic American toy from the 1950s. In Casino, Don took on a much more dramatic and intimating role under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Don featured in the film alongside stars Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, receiving immense acclaim.
In the years leading up to his 2017 death, Don had continued performing and had also continued making sporadic appearances in the media. The comedian had reprised his role as Mr. Potato Head for Toy Story’s first two sequels, though died before finishing work on Toy Story 4. Before his death, he made a memorable appearance on Jerry Seinfeld’s unique talk show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. The episode premiered in 2013 on Netflix.
In 2014, Don Rickles: One Night Only premiered on Spike TV. The two-hour-long special was hosted by Jerry Seinfeld and featured some classic clips from Don’s career. The special was meant to commemorate Don’s good health after suffering from multiple issues over the preceding year. Of course, Don’s health ended up getting worse not long after this special aired, and he eventually died in April of 2017. Join Facts Verse to know more about Mindy Rickles.
Don Rickles Death
Before Don’s death at the age of 90, he sadly had to suffer through the death of his son Larry in 2011. Larry was only 41 years old at the time of his death from respiratory failure. The respiratory failure occurred as a result of pneumonia. Before his death, Larry had followed his father into entertainment. He had become a writer on Murphy Brown during the 1990s. In the wake of her brother, father, and mother’s passing, Mindy Rickles is now the only one left behind to carry on her late father’s comedic legacy. Mindy Rickles is a comedian and actress in her own right. She has appeared in the 2013 film Dealin’ with Idiots and has also performed her comedy on The Late Late Show with Crag Ferguson. Like her father, Mindy is more interested in stand-up comedy than acting.
Although wife Barbara Rickles held onto most of Don Rickles’ personal items after his 2017 passing, it appears that most of the personal items that Don left behind have now been sold off. Now it’s time to hear from you: did you know that Don Rickles and his wife were married for over 50 years, or did you think that the beloved comedian really hated her as much as he claimed to in his comedy?
