Marty Roberts, one half of the irrepressible, crowd-pleasing lounge duo Marty & Elayne — the beloved L.A. partnership that serenaded everyone from Frank Sinatra to Nicolas Cage and stole the 1996 film “Swingers” out from under Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau — died from cancer on Thursday. He was 89.
The news was announced Tuesday on Marty & Elayne’s Facebook page. Roberts died at his daughter Hali Gillin’s home in Henderson, Nev.
“My mom and I are devastated by his loss and there is nobody that could ever take his place,” Gillin wrote. “He had a joke and a smile (smiling is free, he would say!) for everyone he met and was the kindest, most self sacrificing man in the world.”
Los Feliz’s Dresden Room was Marty & Elayne’s living room, and the space they made of it was a sublimely Los Angeles one. For almost 40 years, six nights a week, the married couple put on a show: Marty crooning and playing the drums and standup bass; Elayne on piano and flute, sweetly winding him up while harmonizing.
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