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Hank Bradford Dies: Head Writer On Johnny Carson’s ‘The Tonight Show’ Was 88


The former head writer of the Tonight Show, Hank Bradford, has died at 88.

“As head writer on The Tonight Show, he was admired and beloved by his fellow writers for both his pitch-perfect sense of humor and his relatively-sane leadership style in a job (and profession) which tended toward the weird and chaotic,” Bradford’s family said in a prepared obituary. Bradford later served as head writer for “The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers” between 1986 and 1987. He appeared at nightclubs and opened the show for such acts as Simon & Garfunkel and the Temptations.

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