Keith Wootton was a man of rules that were short and sweet and reflective of his Western Pennsylvania worldview.
No talking during the Steelers game. And, in an admonition when his two daughters began dating: “Don’t bring no jagoffs home.”
“He was really militant on that one,” said his son, actor Curt Wootton, who based his blue collar and bitingly sarcastic everyman “Pittsburgh Dad” heavily on the mannerisms and decidedly Pittsburgh personality and patois of his father.
Keith Wootton died suddenly Monday in Alabama, where he was living in retirement. He was 66.
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Bloomfield and Forest Hills, he was a graduate of the former Churchill High School and Seton Hill College. He spent a career in building supply sales, but the best sale he made was while he worked at Hanover’s Shoes in the Monroeville Mall in 1971.
A young woman named Renee Deschamps walked by the store and Mr. Wootton chatted her up. They’d marry two years later and start the family that would make him an actual Pittsburgh dad.
“You could tell when my father was in the room,” Curt Wootton said. “He was a straight shooter, but also a very warm and welcoming guy. He had a great sense of humor.”
That much was evident in the barely fictional version of Keith Wootton his son plays in the popular “Pittsburgh Dad” web series.
Curt Wootton created the character along with his collaborator, filmmaker Chris Preksta. Their first “Pittsburgh Dad” video dropped in October 2011 and was an immediate viral sensation. He said that in the early episodes, he essentially channeled his father.
“Some of the first ones were almost verbatim from things he said that I experienced growing up,” he said.
In the years since, it’s become a bona fide internet institution with more than 300 episode that have accrued tens of millions of views and over 168,000 subscribers on a dedicated YouTube channel.
“I’ve never been a big numbers guy, but he was,” Curt Wootton said. “It brought him joy knowing that he was making that many people laugh. He took great pride in knowing that. He was the show’s biggest fan. He loved talking about it and it was badge of honor for him,” that he was the basis for the character.
In addition to his son, Mr. Wootton is survived by his wife, Renee, of Meridianville, Ala.;, a brother, Dale, of White Oak; daughters Nicole Wootton of Chicago and Robin Harkcom of Greensburg; and four grandchildren.
Visitation is from 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Clement L. Pantalone Funeral Home, 409 W. Pittsburgh St. in Greensburg. The funeral Mass begins at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Bruno Church, 1715 Poplar St. in South Greensburg, with interment to follow in Westmoreland County Memorial Park in Greensburg.
Dan Gigler: dgigler@post-gazette.com
First Published: February 16, 2019, 5:27 a.m.