Comedian Jackie Mason has died at the age of 93.

Reports say the American comedian had been in hospital in Manhattan and died in his sleep.

Mason had a long career in stand-up comedy appearing on the legendary Borscht Belt circuit before becoming a TV and national star.

His curmudgeonly style, skewering everything from pop culture to politics, won him countless fans around the world, with his one man shows selling out on Broadway and in London.

He had previously been a rabbi in real-life and also voiced Rabbi Hyman Krustofsky in The Simpsons.

Mason also appeared in films including Caddyshack II, The Jerk and Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I in 1981.

He last came over to the UK in 2015 to play the Adelphi Theatre. At the time he told Beyond The Joke: "My parents never knew I was a comedian, my father was an orthodox Rabbi who felt that all his sons should also become Rabbis, being a comedian would be tantamount to being a murderer so to protect him I never told him. As you may know I first became a Rabbi to make my father happy and I snuck around to do comedy on the side."

He also joked that performing standing up was the worst thing about being a comedian: "I would much rather tell the jokes while sitting on a couch with a pastrami sandwich in my hand. I also find it hard to be told (as I often used to be) that I was “too Jewish”. This is like saying to a bear “You have too much fur” (although, admittedly, not as dangerous)."

Mason used to joke that he was rich enough to retire: “I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.” 

Read a Beyond The Joke interview with Mason here.

Watch Jackie Mason at the Royal Opera House below