Actors campaign for Lenny Bruce pardon

What would Lenny Bruce, the legendary 1960s comic, say if he were still alive? It would certainly involve at least one pithy profanity with just four letters. He would grin and so would all those who still love him, 37 years after his death from a drugs overdose.

This could happen. A campaign, led by lawyers and artists, has been launched to persuade George Pataki, the Governor of New York state, to overturn Bruce's criminal conviction.

In 1964 the state prosecuted Bruce for obscenity, after police visited the café in New York's Greenwich Village where he performed, and recorded every profanity he uttered."A pardon now is too late to save Lenny Bruce," said a letter to Mr Pataki from the group of lawyers and artists, who include the actor Robin Williams. "But a posthumous pardon would set the record straight and thereby demonstrate New York's commitment to freedom."

Bruce was still awaiting a ruling on his appeal when he died in 1966.