Cy Saks

Cy Saks (b. 10/12/1935 – d. Pretoria, 29/05/2014) was a stand-up comedian, actor and musician. Also credited as Cy Sacks.

Biography
Born Cyril Alan Saks, he attended Sea Point High School in Cape Town. Before becoming one of South Africa’s most popular stand-up comedians, he was an accomplished musician, playing the piano and singing both jazz and ballads. Although he toured throughout the country and also ventured overseas, for many years he had his own nightspot in Durban North. Called Cy’s Place, he performed there on a regular basis and hosted other comedians, while during the early 1990s he ran a small theatre at the Astor Hotel in Norwood, Johannesburg.

He was the first comedian to be given his own half hour television show by the SABC and became even more widely known though the programme Biltong & Potroast, first broadcast in 1976. On this he and other local stand-up comedians such as Mel Miller, Cyril Green, Len Davis, Noel Glover and Eddie Eckstein competed against each other and visiting artists in a show hosted by Clark McKay. Saks had a special facility with one-liners and became the first South African comedian to be featured on Canadian television. He also appeared in a number of local films. During the last years of his life he was in poor health and he died in a frail care home in Pretoria. He is survived by his second wife, Norma, and David, a son from an earlier marriage to Andrée. (FO)

Filmography
Tokoloshe (Peter Prowse/1965), Africa Shakes (Basil Mailer/1966), Magic is alive, my friends (Jan Scholtz/1985), You’re Famous (uncredited) (Yehuda Barkan/1989), Funny Face (Alain D. Woolf/1989)

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