David Frye Dies At 77

David Frye Dies At 77

After doing impersonations of movie stars, Mr. Frye began to introduce politics to his act in the mid-1960s and his career exploded. His subjects included a drawling President Lyndon B. Johnson, a gravel-voiced Nelson Rockefeller and an excitedly cheerful Hubert H. Humphrey.
But his most memorable character by far was Nixon, whom Mr. Frye portrayed as a tortured soul with darting eyes, flaring brows, scowling lips and deep-seated insecurities. The longer the president stayed in office, the deeper Mr. Frye's impressions drilled into Nixon's psyche.
"My administration has taken crime out of the streets," Mr. Frye's Nixon said in one Watergate-era routine, "and put it in the White House where I can keep an eye on it."
Mr. Frye perfected his impression by matching Nixon's vocal tones and modulations, by adopting a few of the president's catch phrases, such as "Let me make this perfectly clear," and by creating a few of his own, including "I am the president, and make no mistake about that." He practiced in front of a mirror every day.
Whether he intended it, Mr. Frye transformed nightclub mimicry into sharp-edged political satire that drew a national following. The mere title of his best-selling 1969 comedy album "I Am the President," managed to make Nixon sound both pompous and weak-kneed.
Reviewing the album, a Time magazine writer noted, "Nixon's singsong baritone is so close to the mark, it makes one hope Frye never gets near the hot line."
Mr. Frye did more than imitate the sound of Nixon's voice, commentators often pointed out: He seemed to inhabit his very being.
"I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is President," Mr. Frye told Esquire magazine in 1971. "He's trying to convince himself when he says, 'I am the President!' And the moving eyes and tongue merely symbolize the way his mind is working."
After the Watergate scandal began to engulf Nixon in 1972 and 1973, Mr. Frye's satire became even more pointed.
"As the man in charge," his version of the president said in the 1973 album "Richard Nixon: A Fantasy," "I, of course, accept the full responsibility. But not the blame. Let me explain the difference. People who are to blame lose their jobs. People who are responsible do not."
Mr. Frye was born David Shapiro in Brooklyn, N.Y., in June 1934. While attending the University of Miami, he began doing mime and vocal impressions in campus shows and in Miami strip clubs.
He did first-rate impressions of Kirk Douglas, Jimmy Stewart, Rodney Dangerfield and other entertainers, but Mr. Frye's breakthrough came in 1966, when he began doing an impersonation of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
A substitute performance at the Village Gate in New York became a six-month stint, and a guest appearance on "The Merv Griffin Show" brought him nationwide acclaim.
Although he was best known for his devastating Nixon impression, Mr. Frye said he did not vote and professed little interest in politics beyond using it as material for his act.
He was an equal-opportunity offender and often spoofed Nixon's 1968 presidential opponent, Humphrey.
"When I wake up in the morning, I say 'Whoopee!' " Mr. Frye said in character as Johnson's former vice president. "When I go to bed at night, I say 'Whoopee!' And I want to say I'm proud as punch to be running for the presidency of the United States."
After Nixon resigned in 1974, Mr. Frye had a final flurry of popularity before receding into show-business obscurity. He moved to Las Vegas, where he lived alone. Survivors include a sister.
In later years, Mr. Frye attempted comebacks with new impressions of Bill Clinton and both George Bushes, but he knew his heyday had come and gone with Nixon.
"Frankly, I would prefer him to remain in office," Mr. Frye told Newsweek in 1974. "There's no one as funny as he is. It's his gestures, his movements, his neurosis. . . . Nixon is a neurotic. He's as neurotic a president as we can imagine.
"I'm a neurotic man, and neurosis comes easy to me."