Andy Kaufman

Andrew Geoffrey Kaufman (January 17, 1949 – May 16, 1984) was an American entertainer and performance artist. Though many refer to him as a comedian, Kaufman did not self-identify as one. He disdained telling jokes and engaging in comedy as it was traditionally understood; instead, he was a practitioner of anti-humor or dada absurdist performance art.

Kaufman died in Los Angeles on May 16, 1984 of renal failure, caused by metastasized large cell carcinoma, a rare kind of lung cancer, and was interred in the Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York (Long Island). He was initially diagnosed with the disease in December 1983, after several family members at a Thanksgiving dinner that year were growing concerned over his persistent coughing. He was committed to fighting the disease from his diagnosis until his death. Despite massive amounts of emergency radiotherapy, the cancer had by then spread. His last stand for medical therapy was “psychic surgery”, performed in Baguio, Philippines.