“I wanted to be a jockey. But at this weight even the horses ask you to get off,” he joked, in a never-before-seen interview left on the cutting room floor of thedocumentaryWait for Your Laugh. “[Dick Van Dyke Showstar] Rose Marie is responsible for my being here, not in this chair, but in Hollywood.”
“I met him, I said ‘You’re funny’ … I said, ‘Do you have anything on tape?'” Marie recalled in the interview.
Conway deadpanned, “I have a band-aid on my foot.”
Tim Conway.Albert L. Ortega/Getty
“Steve [had] the originalTonight Show,” said Conway. “She showed it to Steve,” and the rest is history. After his appearances onThe Steve Allen Show, Conway was asked to appear on the WWII sitcomMcHale’s Navy, which eventually led toThe Carol Burnett Show.
Marie also helped Conway change his name — from Tom Conway to Tim Conway.
“His name is Tom Conway,” Marie said. “We changed it to Tim because there is a Tom Conway who’s a movie actor.”
Tim Conway.ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty
“His family came out here [to L.A.], I became his oldest daughter Kelly’s godmother,” Marie said.
“She told me about the business,” Conway recalled. “I would go over to her house for dinner. I’ve never had so much food in all my life.”
“And that’s the story of Tim Conway,” quipped Marie. “He became a big star.”
Conway died Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 85. Prior to his death, he suffered complications from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) and had no signs of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
For more of Conway’s final interview, check out his stories and showbiz memories inWait for Your Laugh.
source: people.com
