Rosenberg Suicide Tied to Poor Health

PHILADELPHIA — In a message taped before his suicide, the husband of comedian Joan Rivers said ill health made him feel like a burden to people close to him, police said Sunday.

In one of three recordings made before his death Friday, producer Edgar Rosenberg also cited “possible business problems,” Sgt. Edward Geigert said.

In Los Angeles, Rosenberg was eulogized at a memorial service Sunday as a man who had nurtured the career of his wife and deeply loved his family.

Rivers, her 19-year-old daughter, Melissa, and 300 mourners gathered at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple to pray and listen to remembrances of Rosenberg, who was 62 whe he died.

“Edgar has left us a wonderful legacy--one life and career he nurtured with ardent devotion, another he raised with unbounded love,” actor Roddy McDowall said in a eulogy at the celebrity-filled temple.

Mourners included Milton Berle, Rose Marie, Angie Dickinson, Melissa Gilbert, Howie Mandel, Jon Voight, Bea Arthur, Tony Franciosa, Cher and Nancy Walker.

The tapes, found in Rosenberg’s room at a downtown Philadelphia hotel, were addressed to his wife, his daughter and to Thomas B. Pileggi, his business manager.

An autopsy determined that the producer died of an overdose of sedatives.