George Carlin

George Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author from Manhattan, New York. Over five decades he went from a clean-cut nightclub act to one of the most influential comics in the history of stand-up.

His 1972 album Class Clown introduced the "seven words you can never say on television" bit. A later version, "Filthy Words," aired on the radio station WBAI in 1973 and led to the Supreme Court case FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978). The court ruled 5–4 that the government could regulate indecent material on broadcast radio and TV.

Carlin hosted the very first episode of Saturday Night Live on October 11, 1975, and made 14 stand-up specials for HBO, starting in 1977. He won five Grammy Awards for Best Comedy Album and wrote best-selling books, including Brain Droppings.

Kids of the 1990s know him as Mr. Conductor on Shining Time Station (1991–1995) and as the American narrator of Thomas & Friends. He died of heart failure in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2008, at 71. Days earlier, the Kennedy Center had named him that year's winner of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.