BY DENNIS LYNCH | Alan Colmes, a liberal radio personality, Fox News television host and Greenwich Villager, died at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center late last month at the age of 66 of a rare form of lymphoma, his wife said on Feb. 23.
Colmes was perhaps best known as the liberal voice across the table from Sean Hannity on their “Hannity & Colmes” show on Fox News, which ran from the cable station’s founding in 1996 until 2008, when Colmes left to focus on his own projects.
The two couldn’t have been more opposite — Hannity a bullish conservative firebrand, Colmes a laid-back, joke-cracking moderate liberal. The odd couple regularly vied for top cable ratings during their 12-year run.
Colmes was sometimes criticized by liberals for not ratcheting his energy up to Hannity’s level. He was one of the only, if not the only, liberals that regularly appeared on Fox News. Some people thought he should have put up more of a fight, considering his unique position to debate Hannity’s viewpoints on the most prominent conservative media outlet — and still the most-watched cable news network — in the country. But Colmes attempted to defuse and debate with a calmer tone. He described his style in an interview with the Associated Press in 2003 that was recently cited by The New York Times.
“People say to me, ‘Why don’t you fight fire with fire?’” he said in the interview. “You fight fire with water, not fire.”
At home, Colmes was just as he was on TV, his wife told The Villager — easygoing, funny and friendly to all. He “brought that gift” of affability to their marriage, said Jocelyn Elise Crowley, a Rutgers professor and self-described “Type A” personality.
“He made me laugh every day of our marriage, that was the best part. He made people laugh,” Crowley said. “I would always say to everyone that he made my life more fun.”
Colmes was born in Brooklyn and grew up on Long Island. He started his radio career as a communications major on Hofstra University’s radio station and soon moved to Greenwich Village following graduation. It was there that the young Colmes further honed his skills in front of a microphone — not as a radio or television host, but as a stand-up comedian (which you can see in some grainy clips on YouTube) at the Comedy Cellar.
His radio career would have him hopping from station to station around the Northeast, but he fell in love with the Village and lived there for most of his adult life. When not traveling up to the Fox News studios in Midtown, Colmes tended to hang around his neighborhood, his wife said.
“He used to say, ‘If I have to go above 14th St., I’ll get a nosebleed,’” Crowley said. “This was his neighborhood. He worked in Midtown, but he loved being here, he loved being home.
“Alan lived in the Village for most of his later life, on 10th St., Mercer St., 12th St., Fourth St. and now where we live on lower Fifth Ave.,” his wife said.
He was known among the staff at his favorite local restaurants, including Volare, at 147 W. Fourth St., and Monte’s, at 97 MacDougal St. He even had a favorite waiter at Cozy Soup ’n’ Burger, at 739 Broadway. Volare co-owner Sal Alaburic said Colmes loved his Italian restaurant’s steaks, especially, and that he was kind and generous, both as a customer and a person.
“We loved him for what he was,” Alaburic said. “He was one of the most generous persons I ever met. He had the kindest and gentlest heart. We loved him as a person and we loved him as customer.”
Colmes was raised Jewish, the son of Ukrainian immigrants, but married Crowley at an interfaith ceremony at Saint Joseph’s Church, on Sixth Ave. in the Village, where he regularly attended Mass with her.
Colmes suffered an extremely aggressive form of lymphoma, which he was diagnosed with only in September. Colmes had asked that, if people wished, to donate to the Dr. Horwitz Research Fund at Sloan Kettering. Donations can be made to: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center: Dr. Horwitz Research Fund. Mail to: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, c/o Dr. Steven Horwitz, 1275 York Ave., New York, NY 10065.
