Patrick Carlin, Comedy Writer and Brother of George Carlin, Dies at 90

By Adam Barnhardt

Patrick Carlin, writer and brother of the late George Carlin, has died. Carlin's niece Kelly announced the news Saturday evening, sharing a tribute to both he and her father George. He was 90.

"My dear Uncle Patrick has moved onto the spirit world. He's currently spinning tunes, smoking a jay with my Aunt Marlene and shooting the shit with his brother," Kelly tweeted. "He was a philosopher and a tough mofo all wrapped up in one."

Carlin got his start in Hollywood by writing for The George Carlin Show, a Fox series that ran for 27 episodes over two seasons between 1994 and 1995. Carlin also released two books in the 2000s, Highway 23: The Unrepentant and Quien F!*kin' Sabe?.

He also lent his voice to the audiobook version of his brother's posthumously-released autobiography. In that book, George called his brother his role-model.

"He's the one who taught me: 'George, if you're gonna steal, never get caught,'" George wrote. "His idea of honest. We took care of each other and fought my mother and were partners in that struggle."

He added, "When I started first grade at Corpus Christi, Patrick was in seventh grade. One day he showed up in my classroom. Not because my mother had gotten sick or our house burned down. No, he'd been acting up in class, so Sister Marion had sent him down to first grade where he could be with children 'closer to his own emotional level.' He perched on one of those tiny first-grade chairs and settled in. I came over and offered him a hunk of clay. We made little balls out of them and pegged them at the other first-graders. Yeah. He's always been my best pal."

Most recently, Carlin had taken to podcasting by launching Patrick's Hollywood-stock Connection, with 48 episodes shared to the show's Soundcloud account. In an update shared on April 6th, Carlin's son Dennis shares his father had suffered a fall on April 1st and was rushed to the hospital, where he was outfitted with a temporary peacemaker, intubated, and admitted to the ICU. In an update shared on April 13th, Dennis shared a voice message from Patrick, who had been removed from his ventilator after his condition seemingly improved.

Carlin is survived by his sons Dennis and Patrick.

Cover photo by Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage

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