ABC · Public domain

Andy Kaufman rejected standard comedy outright — "I have never told a joke," he said — building a career instead on performance art staged as sincere confusion, from his gentle Foreign Man character to the deliberately obnoxious lounge singer Tony Clifton. He played Latka Gravas on Taxi while continuing to stage elaborate hoaxes, including a years-long fake feud with wrestler Jerry Lawler. He died of lung cancer in 1984 at 35.