NEW YORK ? Comedian and actor Milton Supman, better known by his stage name Soupy Sales, has died in New York at the age of 83, US media reported Friday.

Born in 1926 and starting his career in television in Detroit, Michigan, Supman made his name on screen as an improvising slapstick performer in Los Angeles in the 1960s and later in New York.

His biggest break came with the wildly successful children's program "The Soupy Sales Show," in which the actor delighted the nation's youngsters with wacky physical comedy, including his trademark gag of taking a pie in the face.

"The more you can make a performance seem spontaneous, the better an entertainer you are," he wrote in his 2001 memoirs.

Soupy, who died late Thursday, said he was happy to go down in television history for appearing in over 5,000 live shows and receiving some 20,000 pies to the face, by his own count.

Soupy's "zany television routines turned the smashing of a pie to the face into a madcap art form," the New York Times wrote on Friday.