Tributes flood in for legendary entertainer

THE friends and family of Bob Hope have paid tribute to the comic, who has died aged 100.

Miranda Hope, the entertainer’s granddaughter, said that making people laugh was his only goal in life.

“He wanted to make people happy, to bring joy to whatever room he came into,” she told CNN.

“He shared that with his family as much as he did with the world.”

She said his favourite work was entertaining US servicemen.

“He felt so strongly that those troops needed a bit of home to come to them in their darkest hour.”

Ms Hope last saw her grandfather a few weeks ago at his 100th birthday, where he had been weak but still showed his sense of humour.

She said his family was at his bedside when he died on Sunday and that he had passed away peacefully.

Golfer Arnold Palmer, a friend of the entertainer’s, said no modern comics could compare to Hope.

“Bob Hope dedicated himself so much to entertaining and to being part of the world of entertainment that it would be difficult for anyone to come close to him.

“His life was dedicated to making people laugh, and he thoroughly enjoyed it.

“It was an ambition. Right up to the end he never stopped entertaining.”

US President George W Bush said America had lost a “great citizen”.

“Bob Hope made us laugh and he lifted our spirits. Bob Hope served our nation when he went to battlefields to entertain thousands of troops from different generations.

“We extend our prayers to his family as we mourn the loss of a good man.”

Former talk show host Johnny Carson said that Hope was “the best-loved, most admired and most successful entertainer in all of history. He is quite simply irreplaceable.”

Woody Allen has described Hope as “the most influential comedian for me”, saying that he was an inspiration to a generation of younger comics.