Which Late Comedian Has a Daughter He Never Knew?

A friend of the funnyman in question says he has DNA evidence proving paternity

By Natalie Finn Feb 18, 2011 1:00 AMTags
Sam Kinison, Chris Farley, John BelushiRon Galella/WireImage, Paramount Pictures, Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

Chris Farley, John Belushi and Sam Kinison were all gone before their time.

But only one of the iconic funnymen appears to have fathered a child with his buddy's ex-wife, a revelation that the buddy is hoping will get him off the hook for 13 years of unpaid child support.

So, which entertainer left an unknown heir?

That would be Kinison, the often screaming stand-up comedian who is still lovingly revered today by his fellow comics for his battering-ram approach. He died in a car accident in 1992, his epithet in an Oklahoma cemetery reading, "In another time and place he would have been called prophet."

Comedian Carl La Bove has filed a petition in L.A. Superior Court asking that he be released from back child support obligations worth $188,000, saying he has DNA evidence that Kinison is the biological father of his ex-wife's now 21-year-old daughter.

His court filing states that he was coerced into the child-support agreement when he and his wife divorced in 1998, a process that he claims took six years. La Bove says that his ex told him at the time that Kinison was the girl's father but that his own attorney never told him to take a paternity test to determine parentage.

DNA evidence submitted to the court shows that there's zero percent chance that La Bove is the father and that DNA taken from one of Kinison's brothers shows a 99.9 percent chance that she's a relation. La Bove told reporters that he has a good relationship with his "best friend's daughter," and that perhaps one day she'll benefit from the late comedian's estate.

A hearing on his petition is March 29.

Kinison married third wife Malika Souiri five days before he died. She survived the fatal crash. He had no children with any of his wives.

UPDATE March 29, 2011: A judge ruled that it's too late for La Bove to contest his unpaid child support and nullify his balance, thus keeping him on the line for the six-figure sum, despite the fact that the girl has been proven not to be his daughter.