Joey Bishop, the deadpan comedian who was ABC’s answer to NBC’s late-night talk show king Johnny Carson in the late 1960s and was the last surviving member of Frank Sinatra’s legendary Rat Pack, has died. He was 89.

Bishop, who had been in failing health for some time, died Wednesday night at his home in Newport Beach, according to his longtime friend, publicist Warren Cowan.

An adept ad-libber with a dry, underplayed sense of humor, Bishop achieved his greatest fame in the 1960s. He was master of ceremonies for President Kennedy’s inaugural gala and joined Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford for the Rat Pack’s historic “summit” meetings on stage at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas.

Time magazine referred to Bishop as that swinging, fun-loving group’s “top banana.”

Jack Benny called him “one of the funniest men I’ve ever seen.” And Danny Thomas was so impressed with Bishop, he had a weekly situation comedy built around him.

For four years, between1961 and 1965, Bishop starred in the situation comedy “The Joey Bishop Show,” whose character, Joey Barnes, was changed from a low-level public relations man living with his mother the first season to being a married, late-night talk show host. Regis Philbin played Bishop’s announcer-sidekick.

In November 1969, with “The Joey Bishop Show” third in the ratings behind Carson and Merv Griffin’s new late-night talk show on CBS, ABC told Bishop it was canceling his show at the end of December.

A day later, Bishop shocked his Hollywood studio audience during his opening monologue by saying that he and the network had decided to end the show. After praising his staff, he announced that he was going home to have dinner with his wife. Then he walked off the stage, leaving Philbin to preside over the remainder of the show.

“It didn’t bother me a bit,” Bishop said of his show’s cancellation during a 1998 interview with the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t consider success doing a show for 30 years; I’m sorry. To me, you’re successful when you graduate from something. I did a series, I did a talk show, I did movies, I replaced Mickey Rooney [on Broadway] in ‘Sugar Babies.’ You understand?”

Bishop, whose wife died of cancer in 1999, is survived by his son, Larry; two grandchildren; and longtime companion Nora Garabotti.