Seattle native George Miller was a regular on Letterman

LOS ANGELES — George Miller, 61, a Seattle native and longtime comedian who appeared on close friend David Letterman's late-night shows more than any other comic, died Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center of complications from a blood clot.

Mr. Miller had had leukemia for years.

In all, he appeared on NBC's "Late Night with David Letterman" and CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman" 56 times in two decades. His caustic but clean monologues often needled Letterman.

"George was my oldest friend, and one of the funniest people I ever knew," Letterman said in a statement released through his publicist. "We are all very sad that he is gone."

The two had met in Los Angeles in the early 1970s, when both were emerging comics. They lived in the same apartment building across the street from the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard and were part of a class of young comedians that included Jimmie Walker, Jay Leno and later Robin Williams and Garry Shandling.

Their early goal was to get a spot on NBC's "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson," on which Mr. Miller was to appear many times.

Born George Dornberger in Seattle, Mr. Miller was reared by his mother, Helen, in the Northgate area. His father left the family when George was an infant.

Mr. Miller told Seattle Times columnist Erik Lacitis in 1985 that he picked "Miller" for a stage name when "Dornberger" wouldn't fit on the marquee at the now defunct Colony nightclub downtown, one of the first places he performed.

Mr. Miller graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1959 and attended the University of Washington, where he "majored in registering." As he told Lacitis, "there seemed to be some confusion about a grade-point average."

When he was young, his mother bought him a pool table, and he became quite good at it.

"I was what they call a pool hustler," Mr. Miller told the Chicago Tribune. "For long periods of time I got by, barely skimmed by, just playing pool." He was known as "Palladium George," after the now-closed Aurora Avenue pool joint, Lacitis reported.

Mr. Miller decided to try to make it as a comedian in 1965 when he was able to sell jokes to George Gobel, who was in performing in town.

He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1960s and performed at clubs such as The Horn in Santa Monica, the Ice House in Pasadena, and several years later The Comedy Store.

By the end of his life, he was living both in a Los Angeles apartment and at his childhood home here.

Mr. Miller's last appearance on "Late Show with David Letterman" was Sept. 4.

Material from The Seattle Times archives is included in this report.