Actor, Comedian Garry Shandling Dies

LOS ANGELES (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Comedian and actor Garry Shandling has died at the age of 66.

Los Angeles Police officer Tony Im said Shandling died Thursday in Los Angeles of an undisclosed cause.

The Chicago-born Shandling moved from a short stint in the advertising business to comedy writing and standup.

Then in the 1980s he began to experiment with TV comedy with his first series, ``It's Garry Shandling's Show,'' a Showtime sitcom that called attention to its artificial nature with the actors routinely breaking the fourth wall.

In 1992, he created his comic masterpiece with ``The Larry Sanders Show,'' which starred him as an egomaniacal late-night TV host with an anxiety-ridden show-biz life behind the scenes.

Shandling had also hosted both the Grammy and Emmy Awards numerous times.

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