 Durante retired from performing in 1972 after he became wheelchair-bound following a stroke.He died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California on January 29, 1980, 12 days before he would have turned 87.He received Catholic funeral rites four days later, with fellow entertainers including Desi Arnaz, Ernest Borgnine, Marty Allen, and Jack Carter in attendance, and was interred at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.