He began his career working as a stand-up comic in the Borscht Belt resorts of the Catskill Mountains north of New York City. His act grew in notoriety as he became a mainstay on late-night talk shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s, eventually developing into a headlining act on the Las Vegas casino circuit. A few bit-parts in films such as The Projectionist appeared throughout the 1970s, but his breakout film role came in 1980 as a boorish nouveau riche golfer in the ensemble comedy Caddyshack, which was followed by two more successful films: 1983\'s Easy Money and 1986\'s Back to School. Additional film work kept him busy through the rest of his life, mostly in comedies, but with a rare dramatic role in 1994\'s Natural Born Killers as an abusive father. Health troubles curtailed his output through the early 2000s before his death, in 2004 after a month in a coma due to complications from brain surgery.\n', '

Cohen was born in Babylon, in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. He was the son of Jewish parents, Dorothy "Dotty" (Teitelbaum) and the vaudevillian performer Phil Roy (Phillip Cohen). His mother was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Cohen\'s father was rarely home; he would normally see him only twice a year. Late in life, his father begged him for forgiveness, and the son obliged.\n', '

After Cohen\'s father abandoned the family, his mother moved him and his sister to Kew Gardens, Queens, and he attended Richmond Hill High School, where he graduated in 1939. To support himself and his family, he sold newspapers and ice cream at the beach, and delivered groceries.\n', '

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