British Actor Marty Feldman on This Day in History

Walk This Way

This Day in History: British Actor Marty Feldman was born on this day in 1934. Known for his misaligned eyes, Feldman suffered from thyroid disease and developed Graves' ophthalmopathy, causing his eyes to protrude and become misaligned. His best known role is as Igor in Young Frankenstein, and the "Walk This Way" scene inspired Aerosmith to write their hit song of the same name. "Walk this way" is a recurrent pun in a number of comedy films and television shows. One version of this old joke goes like this: A heavy-set woman goes into a drug store and asks for talcum powder. The bowlegged clerk says, "Walk this way," and the woman answers, "If I could walk that way I wouldn't need talcum powder!"

Marty Feldman died of a massive heart-attack in Mexico in 1982 at age 48 after eating shellfish, though Mel Brooks says a contributing factor may have been his diet: "He smoked sometimes half a carton (5 packs) of cigarettes daily, drank copious amounts of black coffee, and ate a diet rich in eggs and dairy products."