Edd Byrnes, a onetime teen heartthrob who parlayed his popularity as the hair-grooming hipster Kookie on the TV detective series "77 Sunset Strip" into a hit 1959 record, "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)," died Jan. 8 at his home in Santa Monica, California. He was 87.
The cause was a stroke, said his son, Logan Byrnes.
Byrnes, who struggled to escape poverty and a troubled youth by briefly turning to prostitution, began to land small TV and film roles after arriving in Hollywood in the mid-1950s. In one of his films, "Girl on the Run" (1958), he played a killer who was constantly combing his hair - a bit of stage business he said he improvised on the set.
The film, which included Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as a suave detective named Stuart Bailey, was basically a pilot for "77 Sunset Strip," which premiered on ABC in 1958. The series featured Zimbalist and Roger Smith as Los Angeles private detectives, with Byrnes as Kookie, a slang-slinging parking-lot attendant.
The jazzy, fast-moving show had adult themes, often featuring young women causing or narrowly escaping trouble, and was an immediate success.
Byrnes's Kookie was originally slated for one guest appearance, but he was so popular - particularly with younger viewers - that he became a regular on the show, with third billing on the credits. At first, his role was to jog up as Zimbalist's character drove into the parking lot in his Thunderbird convertible. Then, often while combing his slicked-back golden hair, he engaged in some hepcat patter as he took the car keys.
He called almost everyone "Dad" and seemed to know, from "the word on the street," about every scheme and dust-up in the fictional universe of "77 Sunset Strip."
"Hi, Dad," he said in one episode, greeting Zimbalist's Bailey. "Man, I dig how you had yourself a rumble with that Dixon square this a.m."
Bailey: "There's not much you don't dig."
In Kookie-speak, anything desirable - most certainly including charming young women - was "the ginchiest" or "the maximum utmost."
With his popularity soaring, Byrnes recorded the novelty song "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)" with Connie Stevens. It sold more than 1 million copies and reached No. 4 on the Billboard pop chart.
He also found success with a role as Vince Fontaine, a dance-show host modeled after Dick Clark, in the 1978 movie musical "Grease."