Edd Byrnes, Who Combed His Way to TV Stardom, Dies at 86
He became one of
television’s first teen idols as Kookie, the hair-combing, jive-talking
youth on the hit series “77 Sunset Strip.”
Edd Byrnes, who became one of television’s first teen idols as Kookie — the hair-combing, jive-talking youth on the hit series “77 Sunset Strip”
— but found ever after that he could not live the character down, died
on Wednesday at his home in Santa Monica, Calif. He was 86.
The video outtake is very much worth watching.
Broadcast on ABC from 1958 to 1964, “77 Sunset Strip” starred Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and Roger Smith
as a pair of suave Los Angeles private eyes and Mr. Byrnes as the
parking-lot attendant at the restaurant next door to their office.