Dangerfield Shows Heart
Like his battered comic persona, Rodney Dangerfield takes a licking, but keeps on ticking.
"We're very thrilled to say that he made it through," publicist Kevin Sasaki said Wednesday night after the 82-year-old Dangerfield emerged from seven hours of heart-valve replacement surgery.
Dangerfield, admitted to the hospital on Tuesday, is expected to remain at Los Angeles' UCLA Medical Center for one week.
That timetable likely works for the standup, who, in a statement prior to the procedure, quipped: "If things go right, I'll be there about a week, and if things don't go right, I'll be there about an hour and a half."
As of Wednesday night, Dangerfield was "resting comfortably" in the hospital's intensive care unit, Sasaki said.
While it may be a stretch to suggest Dangerfield was looking forward to going under the knife, he was working toward it. In April 2003, he underwent brain surgery to improve his blood flow and, in theory, help him withstand the planned heart surgery.
The tie-tugging, "no respect" gag man is no stranger to the world of post-ops. In recent years, he's notched surgeries for heart double bypass and an abdominal aortic aneurysm. For bad measure, he suffered a heart attack on his 80th birthday, back in 2001.
Still, Dangerfield, who didn't begin his professional show-biz career in earnest until the age of 40, isn't letting up now. The 1980s box-office star of Back to School and Caddyshack is set to turn up next month on an episode of CBS' Still Standing.
His latest surgery may keep Dangerfield out of the working loop for about two months. After, projects abound, including a potential movie based on his autobiography, published in May.
The book's title? It's Not Easy Bein' Me.
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