LOS ANGELES — He was the surly pizza man who interrupted a class at Ridgemont High to deliver a double-cheese-and-sausage to the cool-guy student played by Sean Penn.

He was the Olsen twins’ prissy, Spanish-accented nanny, Manuelo, on “So Little Time.” He was the nutty hairdresser on “Seinfeld” who suggested drenching Elaine’s hair with tomato sauce. He was a sadistic, would-be assassin chewed up by a churning helicopter rotor in “The Last Boy Scout” (1991).

A comedian and an actor, Taylor Negron wrote plays and delivered acerbic, hilarious, story-length monologues but his name wasn’t nearly as well known as his face.

“I’m not famous,” he said in a 2013 Ted talk. “I’m fame-ish.”

Negron, a Los Angeles native who nostalgically recalled his hometown “when the palm trees were short and Tomorrowland was modern,” died Saturday at his LA home, surrounded by friends and family members. He was 57.

Negron had battled liver cancer for seven years, his mother, Lucy Negron, said.

In his monologues, Negron cherished the show business lore he was steeped in as a boy. Influenced by a Puerto Rico-born grandmother he described as a movie-loving free spirit, he developed an early admiration for Mae West, an interest that was mentioned in print by a Hollywood columnist who lived next door to his aunt.

When West surprised the star-struck 13-year-old with a telephone call, she gave him two show-biz tips in her trademark, va-va-voom cadence: “Pay attention to the box office,” she said. “And be yourself.”

Decades later, Negron said West inspired him to become a stand-up comic when he was 19. “She was my muse,” he told interviewer Richard Balzer.

Over the years, Negron worked in films including “Punchline” (1988), “Angels in the Outfield” (1994), “Stuart Little” (1999), “The Aristocrats” (2005) and “The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas” (2000). His TV credits included “Hill Street Blues,” “ER,” “Hope and Gloria,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Reno 911” and “Friends.”

Negron also was an accomplished painter, earning pocket money early in his movie career by sketching other extras on movie sets.

“I’d say, ‘Your mom would love a painting of you!’ ” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1995. “A salesman! I’d hawk paintings.”

Born in Glendale, Calif., on Aug. 1, 1957, Negron worked as Lucille Ball’s personal assistant and in comedy clubs with Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhard and other aspiring stars.

Copy the Story Link