Sales was known for his slapstick comedy during the 1950's. For 13 years The Soupy Sales Show ran in Detroit, New York and Los Angeles before it had a nationwide run.
During the 1960's Sales became more known as he made the runs of TV games shows.
Sales grew up in Franklinton, North Carolina. He was the son of the only Jewish family in town. Members of the Ku Klux Klan would buy their sheets at the family's dry goods store.
Sales had been ill for the past several years.
MTV reports:
"We have lost a comedy American icon," longtime friend and manager Paul Dver said, according to CNN. "I feel the personal loss, and I also feel the magic that he had around him being gone. That's a much more severe loss than a loss of a friend."
Sales died at the hospice that he was admitted to last week.
He is survived by his wife Trudy Carson Sales, two sons, a brother and his four grandchildren.
