From CNN.com:

(CNN) — Jonathan Winters, the wildly inventive actor and comedian who appeared in such films as “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” and “The Loved One” and played Robin Williams’ son on the TV show “Mork & Mindy,” has died. He was 87.

Winters died Thursday evening of natural causes at his home in Montecito, California, according to business associate Joe Petro III.

Winters was known for his comic irreverence, switching characters the way other people flick on light switches. His routines were full of non sequiturs and surreal jokes. Williams, in particular, often credited him as a great influence.

I watched Jonathan Winters on his own and other numerous television shows.  He was in fact a comic genius and also challenged mentally, spending eight months in a mental hospital in 1959 and again in 1961.  He was diagnosed as bipolar.

A truly unique man passes, an individual who had the capability to actually make me laugh out loud — something that seldom happens with regard to myself and comedy.

“The first time I saw Jonathan Winters perform, I thought I might as well quit the business,” tweeted Dick Van Dyke after hearing of Winters’ death. “Because, I could never be as brilliant.”

His wife, Eileen, died in 2009. He is survived by two children and five grandchildren.

God, apparently, needed a bit more joviality in heaven.

BZ

P.S.
Mr Winters was also an artist.  Below, his work entitled “A New Member.”