Lenny Bruce, who died on 3 August, 1966, at the age of 40, can be regarded as one of the most important comedians in history.

In a career that revolved around breaking taboos surrounding topics such as politics, religion, racism, sex and drugs, Mr Bruce’s brand of brutal honesty and an unflinching vocabulary led to notoriety across the world.

He spent much of his life fighting the establishment and defending his freedom of speech.

Offending and inspiring in equal measure, he set a standard for subsequent generations of performers - be it musicians, actors or comedians - to follow.

Leonard Alfred Schneider was born on 13 October, 1925, in Mineola, Long Island, New York. At the age of five his parents divorced, leading to an unstable childhood in which he lived with a number of relatives.

He joined the U.S. Navy in 1942 at the age of 17, and saw service in the Second World War in Europe. He left the military in 1946 and changed his surname to Bruce a year later.

After performing in the ‘Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show’ in 1948, Mr Bruce began touring, working at numerous comedy clubs across America over the next few years, refining his routines.

By the 1950s he had begun writing screenplays, one of which, Dance Hall Racket (1953), featured himself, his wife, Honey Harlow, and mother, Sally Marr. He also released four albums, the basis of which were rants revolving around his favourite themes; jazz, moral philosophy, politics, patriotism, religion, law, race, abortion, drugs, the Ku Klux Klan, Jews, and the Roman Catholic Church.

Mr Bruce soon became a household name, making appearances on the nationally-televised Steve Allen Show from 1959. His fame was soon overshadowed by his arrest for possession of drugs in Philadelphia in 1961. He was arrested again just weeks later for obscenity at the Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.

A number of American cities banned him from performing, while he was also forbidden from visiting Australia in 1962 and England a year later. Unable to make money, it was suggested by Playboy owner, Hugh Hefner, that he write a book. How to Talk Dirty and Influence People was published in Playboy over the next two years.

By now a target of the Manhattan district attorney, who was working closely with the Archbishop of New York, Mr Bruce appeared twice at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village in 1964. On both occasions he was arrested at the end of his act for using various obscenities.

Lengthy legal battles followed, resulting in him filing for bankruptcy and being sentenced to four months in prison in 1964, although he did not serve time as he launched an appeal but died before a decision was made.

By 1965 Mr Bruce was blacklisted by nearly every nightclub in the United States, as owners’ feared prosecution for obscenity. His use of drugs also seriously affected his health.

His last performance was on June 26, 1966, at the Filmore Auditorium in San Francisco.

Mr Bruce was found dead in the bathroom of his Hollywood Hills home two months later. A post mortem gave his cause of death as an accidental morphine overdose. He was survived by his wife, Honey, and daughter, Kitty.