Remembering Bill Dana (Jose Jimenez) and His Many Characters

Last week we lost one of our favorite Jewish comedians, Bill Dana. Bill, who passed away last week at the age of 92, was born William Szathmary to Jewish-Hungarian parents.

A character actor and script writer who adopted a variant of his mother's name Dena as his surname, Bill was most widely known in his role as Jose Jimenez, the Colombian-accented hapless astronaut, bellhop, and karate expert.

We've featured Bill a few times on Jewish Humor Central, including an interview in which he explained the origin of the Jose Jimenez character.

Today we're sharing one of his original appearances in 1968 on The Ed Sullivan Show as Jose Jimenez the astronaut. Enjoy!

A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.