"Where do you want to be buried?" a family member asked Bob Hope as his life slipped away. "I don't know - surprise me," he replied. The master of the wisecrack was apparently still up to the task just before he died at his home in Toluca Lake, California, yesterday morning aged 100, at least according to his daughter Linda yesterday. Conor O'Clery North America Editor reports
Fittingly for one of the world's greatest entertainers, there was a "little audience" gathered around, of family and friends, as he passed away from complications caused by pneumonia, she told a press conference outside his six-acre residence in Los Angeles County.
That "warmed dad's heart", she said. "He left us with a smile on his face . . . He just gave us each a kiss and that was it. At a hundred, people are kind of a little prepared.
"I think all the good vibes he gave off during his lifetime came back to take him up.
"Dad had an amazing send-off. It's been an amazing life. You couldn't ask for a more beautiful, peaceful time."
A priest said Mass in the bedroom, and Dolores Hope, his wife of 69 years, was at his side along with nurses who had cared for him.
The entertainer will be buried at a private family ceremony at an undisclosed location. His daughter asked that instead of flowers, well-wishers should send donations to the Bob and Dolores Hope Foundation in Toluca Lake.
A Mass will be held on August 27th and a memorial celebration at the Academy for Television Arts and Sciences in Hollywood on the same day.
Tributes came from all over the world after the announcement of the death of the internationally-known and loved comedian whose career spanned every medium in the 20th century, from vaudeville to television.
US President, Mr George Bush - the only one of the last 12 US presidents whom Mr Hope did not personally entertain as he was too old - said America had lost a great citizen who "served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations." US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, a former head of the US armed forces, called Hope "a friend of every American GI for 50 years" for his record as an entertainer of American troops, first in the second World War, then in Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf.
In May to mark his 100th birthday Mr Bush announced the establishment of the Bob Hope American Patriot Award for civilians who have "demonstrated extraordinary love of country and devotion to the personnel of the United States Armed Forces". In 1997 the US Congress awarded Hope the title of "honorary veteran" of the US armed forces. Eight months later Congress members paid tribute to him on Capitol Hill after the mistaken release of a news agency obituary. "They were wrong, weren't they," Hope told friends who called to commiserate. Yesterday however reports of his death were not exaggerated and the country mourned for a remarkable performer, who was born Leslie Townes Hope in England, and who for half-a-century reflected to Americans, with a sharp, self-deprecating wit, a confident and brash image of themselves.
Though he starred in 58 movies, Hope never won an Oscar, and one of the most frequently-played archive clips in television tributes yesterday - apart from the replaying of his signature tune Thanks for the Memories from a 1938 movie - was of Hope's comment on one of the 18 occasions he hosted the Oscars: "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as its known in my house, pass-over."
Hope made a number of visits to Ireland. As far back as May 1951, he gave two performances at the Theatre Royal in Dublin - to popular reviews.
In October 1953, he played the Royal again and presented a cheque for £500, raised by parents of children with cerebral palsy, to a director of the Irish National Cerebral Palsy Clinic.
In later years, he came to Ireland to play golf particularly when he was filming in London.
In May 1972, he celebrated his 69th birthday in Limerick with a game of golf at Castletroy.