Ronny Graham, the actor-writer-comedian who wrote for the Broadway revue New Faces of 1952 and may be best known as a collaborator with Mel Brooks, died July 4 in Los Angeles, the New York Times reported.

Mr. Graham was 79. The cause of death was liver disease.

With Brooks, Mr. Graham wrote sketches for New Faces, and the pair went on to write comic films together, with Brooks either directing or starring: "Spaceballs, To Be or Not to Be, History of the World Part I."

As a lyricist, Mr. Graham earned a 1962 Tony Award nomination for the musical comedy, Bravo, Giovanni.

Mr. Graham was born Ronald Montcrief Stringer in Philadelphia and got a taste for theatre as a child, when he traveled with his vaudeville performer parents, Florence Sweeney and Thomas Stringer ("Steve and Flo" was their act), according to the Times. He became a comedian, a jazz musician and an actor. He appeared in The Tender Trap on Broadway, in Brooks' films, and performed in regional theatre as late as 1995, when he was a part of Yale Repertory Theatre's staging of Tony Kushner's Slavs!. He also directed the 1969 Broadway comedy, Grin and Bare It, about a nudist family.

He wrote episodes of TV's "M*A*S*H" and was often a guest on "The Tonight Show."

Survivors include his wife, Pamela Gill, three sons, two daughters and two sisters.