David Frye | Nixon parodist, 77

David Frye, 77, whose wicked send-ups of political figures such as Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert H. Humphrey, and, above all, Richard M. Nixon, made him one of the most popular comedians in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, died last Monday in Las Vegas, where he lived.

The cause was cardiopulmonary arrest, a spokeswoman for the Clark County coroner's office in Nevada said.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Frye was a struggling impressionist working the clubs of Greenwich Village, relying on a fairly standard repertoire of Hollywood actors. Then he slipped Robert F. Kennedy into his act, basing his impression on a girlfriend's comment that Kennedy sounded like Bugs Bunny.

Audiences loved it, and Mr. Frye began adding other politicians, capturing not just their vocal peculiarities but also their body language and facial expressions. His LBJ, with a lugubrious hound-dog face and a Texas twang rich in slushy "s" sounds, became a trademark, as did his bouncy Hubert Humphrey.

But it was Nixon who made his comedic career. Shoulders hunched, his deep-set eyes glowering, Mr. Frye captured the insecure, neurotic Nixon to perfection. "I am the president" - his blustery tag line and the title of a comedy album he recorded for Elektra in 1969 - seemed to get at the essence of a powerful politician in desperate need of validation.

"I do Nixon not by copying his real actions but by feeling his attitude, which is that he cannot believe that he really is president," Mr. Frye told Esquire magazine in 1971. Nixon also played the starring role in Frye's later albums Radio Free Nixon (1971), Richard Nixon Superstar (1971), and the Watergate satire Richard Nixon: A Fantasy (1973).

Nixon's departure from the scene took most of the air out of Mr. Frye's career. He capitalized on Watergate, although some radio stations refused to play material from Richard Nixon: A Fantasy, which they thought cut a little too close to the bone for some listeners.

"Today I have regretfully been forced to accept the resignations of 1,541 of the finest public servants it has ever been my privilege to know," Mr. Frye's Nixon intones on the album. "As the man in charge, I must accept full responsibility, but not the blame. Let me explain the difference. People who are to blame lose their jobs; people who are responsible do not."

"It's a weird feeling, knowing that you can lose the guts of your act at any time," he told Time in 1974. Nixon's presidential successor, Gerald R. Ford, offered scant hope. "He looks like the guy in a science fiction movie who is the first one to see the creature," Mr. Frye said. - N.Y. Times News Service