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The Benny Hill Show

1969

The Benny Hill Show is a British comedy television show that starred Benny Hill and aired in various incarnations between 15 January 1955 and 30 May 1991 in over 140 countries. The show focused on sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody, and double-entendre. Thames Television cancelled production of the show in 1989 due to declining ratings and large production costs at £450,000 per show.

Benny Hill

Creator · Known for The Benny Hill Show

Alfred Hawthorne "Benny" Hill (21 January 1924 – 20 April 1992) was an English comedian, actor and scriptwriter. He's best remembered for his TV program, The Benny Hill Show, a comedy-variety show whose amalgam of slapstick, burlesque, double entendre and innuendo in a format that included both live and filmed segments, featured Hill himself at the focus of almost every segment.

Nola Haynes

Cast · Known for The Benny Hill Show

Nola Haynes is an Actress and Dancer known for The Benny Hill Show (1969), Benny Hill: The Hill's Angels Years (2006) and American Playhouse (1980).

Bella Emberg

Bella Emberg (born Sybil Dyke 16 September 1937 in Brighton, Sussex, England, UK) is a British actress who appeared on The Benny Hill Show and The Russ Abbot Show, where she played Blunderwoman. She has also featured in Softly, Softly and Z Cars, as well as having small roles in Grange Hill as a cleaner. Her professional debut was in weekly repertory in Ryde, Isle of Wight — the summer season 1962. She made a guest appearance in The Basil Brush Show, and also featured in Doctor Who, a total of three times. In the 1970s, she had uncredited roles in the Third Doctor serials Doctor Who and the Silurians and The Time Warrior. In 2006, she was seen in the Tenth Doctor episode "Love & Monsters", where she played Mrs Croot. A second appearance as Mrs Croot was recorded for "The Runaway Bride" but cut before transmission. She played the part of Aunt Barbara in the Second series of the CBBC programme "Bear Behaving Badly" in 2008, the third series in 2009, and the fourth in 2010.

Suzy Mandel

Suzy Mandel is a former actress and model best known for her roles in 1970s British sex comedies like Confessions of a Driving Instructor (1976) and Come Play with Me (1977), as well as her appearances on The Benny Hill Show (1969). Born Jacqueline Ann Elaine Jefcoate on March 6, 1953, in London, England, she grew up on the Isle of Sheppey and later in Epping, Essex, and then Woodford, Essex and Buckhurst Hill, Essex. A 1968 graduate of The London Modelling Academy, she began her career as a coat model then worked in modeling lingerie, winning such prestigious awards as Miss Benson and Hedges, Miss Teenage London and Miss TV Times (the latter broadcast on UK television in 1974). Her modeling career also included appearances as a Page 3 girl in "The Sun" as well as one of the earliest "Mirror Girls" in the "Daily Mirror".

Jane Leeves

Cast · Known for Frasier, Hot in Cleveland, The Resident

Jane Elizabeth Leeves (born 18 April 1961) is an English actress, comedian, and dancer. She is best known for her role as Daphne Moon on NBC's sitcom Frasier (1993–2004), for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award. She's also known for her roles as Dr. Kitt Voss on The Resident and Joy Scroggs on TV Land's sitcom Hot in Cleveland. She made her screen debut with a small role in the 1983 popular British comedy television show Benny Hill Show, Leeves moved to the United States, where she performed in small roles until she secured a recurring part in the television sitcom Murphy Brown. In 1986-1988, she garnered her first leading role in the short-living sitcom Throb. In 1993, she achieved wider fame as Daphne Moon on the television sitcom Frasier for the entire run of the series, from 1993 until 2004, for which she was nominated for Emmy Awards and Golden Globe Awards during the show's run. She received further recognition for her performances in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Music of the Heart (1999) and The Event (2003). She worked in television production for some time, but beginning in June 2010, she returned to acting, as Joy on TV Land’s sitcom Hot in Cleveland.

Ernest Truex

The ultimate milquetoast and ineffectual boss in comedy outings, meek character actor Ernest Truex was a small (5'3"), adenoidal, very well-dressed fellow, a popular avuncular type in later years who enjoyed a seven-decade-long career. He was born September 19, 1889, in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of a physician. Raised in Rich Hill, Missouri, he was actually trained in acting by one of his father's actor/patients (in exchange for mounting medical bills). An acting prodigy, Truex performed Shakespeare as a small child and was at one time dubbed "The Youngest Hamlet" by promoters (the five-year-old actually played the "ghost" of Hamlet). Upon his parents' separation when Ernest was nine, he and his mother toured the West in a show billed as "The Child Entertainers," in which the young talent recited everything from "Othello" to "Romeo and Juliet." Making appearances in stock and vaudeville, he took his first Broadway bow as a teenager with "Wildfire" starring Lillian Russell in 1908, and continued in the same vein with "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1910) and "Very Good Eddie" (1915), which also featured his first wife, actress Julia Mills. In 1913, he appeared on Broadway with Mary Pickford in the popular play "A Good Little Devil." That same year Truex made his film debut with Pickford in Caprice (1913), then appeared with her in the film version of A Good Little Devil (1914). With his film career now off and running, he found a fairly comfortable niche for himself as mild-mannered, mischievous heroes in comedy capers. He played the title role in Artie, the Millionaire Kid (1916), as well as the protagonist in Come on In (1918) and Good-Bye, Bill (1918), not to mention a number of humorous shorts. His last silent film, Six Cylinder Love (1923) as Gilbert Sterling, came from an earlier Broadway success. Truex continued to rack up a strong body of stage work in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His first wife had died around this time and he married stage actress Mary Jane Barrett, appearing with her in New York in such plays as "The Third Little Show" (1931), "The Hook-Up (1935), and "Fredericka" (1937). In 1934 Truex directed, co-produced, and starred in the play "Sing and Whistle" which co-starred Sylvia Field. She would later become his third wife upon his divorce from Ms. Barrett, and came into her own in later years as the kindly Mrs. Wilson on the Dennis the Menace (1959) sitcom. With his first wife Julia Mills he had two children, Philip and James. With his second wife Mary Jane Barrett he had one child, Barry Truex. All three of his sons went into acting for the first decade of their adult lives. Philip and James Truex were mainly theatre actors but Barry Truex also had substantial roles in movies. Barry Truex's best known role was as the young Benny Goodman in The Benny Goodman Story (1956)

John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies (born Paddington, London; 9 March 1939 — 22 August 2011) was a British television director, producer and former child actor. Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies. His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) and a few episodes of the television series William Tell (1958). After school at Haileybury, further education at Grenoble and National Service in the Royal Navy, he started working in the City in a finance company. After that, he trained as a carpet salesman but quit after six months to travel the world. Ending up in Australia he returned to acting and met his wife Leonie when they both appeared in The Sound of Music. Back in Britain, he tried selling oil to industry in Wembley and then became a production assistant in the BBC at the end of 1968. Davies is best known for his adult career as director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms, including All Gas and Gaiters, Fawlty Towers (series 1), The Goodies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Good Life, No Job for a Lady and Mr. Bean. Davies was also the producer and director of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber and the earliest episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also directed several episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. He became the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1977-1982, then head of Light Entertainment and finally Controller Managing Director of EMI Television Productions and the Head of Light Entertainment at ITV broadcaster Thames Television. During the last role, he was cited by the popular press as the man who 'sacked' comedian Benny Hill when the station decided not to renew his contract after 20 years' service. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Howard Davies, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Henry McGee

Henry McGee was a British actor, best known as a comic foil for the likes of Benny Hill and Charlie Drake

Pamela Cundell

Pamela Cundell was a renowned comic character actor perhaps best remembered for playing Mrs Fox in Dad's Army. Her career stretched as far back as 1948 when she appeared in Brighton Rock as a Pierrot artiste. Other film credits included Half a Sixpence, the big screen spin offs of popular 70s sitcoms On the Buses and Love Thy Neighbour, Memoirs of a Survivor, and A Fantastic Fear of Everything. On TV she appeared alongside comics such as Benny Hill and Barry Humphries, and in dramas such as The XYY Man, Minder, Big Deal, The Borrowers, and Doctors. She was married to actor Bill Fraser from 1981 to his death in 1987.

Joe Grifasi

Cast · Known for Bull

Joseph G. "Joe" Grifasi (born June 14, 1944) is an American character actor of film, stage and television. Born in Buffalo, New York, Grifasi joined the U.S. Army prior to studying acting. He has appeared in more than 50 feature films including Presumed Innocent, The Deer Hunter, Big Business, Beaches, Auto Focus, Matewan, Naked Gun, Dark Matter, Natural Born Killers, Chances Are, Changing Lanes, One Fine Day, F/X, Benny & Joon, The Pope of Greenwich Village, Brewster’s Millions, Batman Forever, The Flamingo Kid, Ironweed, and Splash. His television credits include The Bronx is Burning (as Yogi Berra), 61* (as Phil Rizzuto), Law & Order, ER, LA Law, Chicago Hope, Hill Street Blues, SCTV, Roseanne, and The Practice. Grifasi’s Broadway credits include Dinner at Eight, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, A Memory of Two Mondays, Boy Meets Girl, The Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The 1940’s Radio Hour and Happy End. His off-Broadway credits include Conversations in Tusculum, The Boys Next Door (Drama Desk Nomination), Once Around the City, Golden Boy, Filumena and Says I, Says He. He has been married to jazz soprano saxophonist and composer Jane Ira Bloom, whom he met while studying at the Yale School of Drama, since 1974.

Barbara Bosson

Cast · Known for Hill Street Blues

Barbara Bosson, who earned an Emmy Award nomination for her performance on Murder One (1995), was raised in Belle Vernon, Pennsylvania, a small coal-mining town about 30 miles south of Pittsburgh. When she was a teenager, she and her family moved to Florida, where she attended Boca Ciega High School in Gulfport. After graduation, she was accepted into the Drama Department of Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh (now Carnegie Mellon). When Bosson learned the tuition would be too great a burden on her parents, she instead moved to New York. She supported herself in a variety of jobs -- secretary, television production assistant, Playboy Bunny, etc. -- while studying acting with Milton Katselas and Herbert Berghof, and musical comedy with Word Baker. Six years later, Bosson reevaluated her prospects while working as a secretary for ACT (the American Conservatory Theater). She spoke frequently with various drama department heads, including Earl Gister, head of Carnegie Tech's Drama Department. Deciding it wasn't too late to pursue her dream, she asked Gister for an audition. He agreed. Bosson can't remember her audition, but it convinced Gister to place her in the school and to assist her in finding scholarship money. So, at 26, she became Carnegie Tech's oldest freshman. While attending Carnegie Tech, Bosson met her future husband, Steven Bochco (whom she would not marry until years later), and fellow Hill Street Blues (1981) stars Bruce Weitz and Charles Haid. On a summer break from Carnegie Tech, she landed a job in San Francisco with the improvisational group, "The Committee". With Gister's blessing, she stayed with the group and performed with them for three years. Bosson is a five-time Emmy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actress in a Dramatic Series for her portrayal of "Fay Furillo" in the Emmy Award-winning series, Hill Street Blues (1981). An innovative cook, Bosson raised her own herbs and vegetables. She enjoyed skiing, doing crossword puzzles and dancing. Bosson also hated dieting, which she had done unsuccessfully for 25 years. Bosson had two children with Bochco and resided in Los Angeles.

Dick Haymes

Arguably one of the best singers of the twentieth century, Dick Haymes was born in Argentina to a Scots/Irish father and Irish mother, but brought to the U.S. as an infant. Dick inherited his vocal gift from his mother who made ends meet during the Depression as a singer and voice teacher. A music gig in 1931 caught the eye of a local band leader and soon Dick was moving up, but it was slow-going. In 1939, while Dick was trying to pitch his songwriting talents to band leader Harry James, he ended up his featured vocalist, instead. During the war years Dick hooked up with the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey orchestras before deciding to go solo. Nabbing his own radio program in addition to a Decca recording contract, Twentieth Century Fox soon expressed interest in his musical talents. Among his many film leads were State Fair (1945) opposite Jeanne Crain and Vivian Blaine, Diamond Horseshoe (1945) and The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) both paired with Betty Grable, One Touch of Venus (1948) with Ava Gardner, and All Ashore (1953), a second string version of On the Town (1949), with Mickey Rooney and Ray McDonald as his shore-leave buddies. For such a pleasant and unassuming man, Dick's personal life certainly was a shambles aggravated by alcoholism and financial debt. Five marriages came and went (including actresses Joanne Dru, Nora Eddington, Rita Hayworth, and Fran Jeffries) before his sixth one finally stuck. By the 1960s, his life was all but ruined. He managed to travel to Europe and picked up the remnants of his career. His reputation had not tarnished there, and he enjoyed some renewed popularity; he never regained, however, the foothold in the business that he once had. Dick died of lung cancer in 1980. Though not as well remembered as other crooners of his time (Frank Sinatra, Tony Martin, Vic Damone), and not a particularly charismatic performer on film, this rich baritone's legacy IS his music. Some of Dick's more popular recordings include "The More I See You," "How Blue the Night," "For You, For Me, Forever More," "Speak Low," and "Another Night Like This."

Herbert Anderson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Herbert Anderson (March 30, 1917 – June 11, 1994) was an American character actor probably best remembered for his role as Henry Mitchell, the father in the CBS television sitcom Dennis the Menace. After a few minor roles in films for Warner Bros., Anderson got his big break in the 1941 picture Navy Blues, followed by The Body Disappears and The Male Animal. His other films include the 1949 World War II film Battleground, Give My Regards to Broadway, Excuse My Dust, Island in the Sky, The Benny Goodman Story, Kelly and Me, Joe Butterfly, My Man Godfrey (1957), I Bury the Living, Sunrise at Campobello, Hold On!, and Rascal. Anderson also acted extensively in Broadway shows, including the role of Dr. Bird in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He was also in the film version of The Caine Mutiny; he was the only actor to appear in both the Broadway play and film. In addition to his role in Dennis the Menace, Anderson is also known for many lead and guest-starring roles on television. Anderson retired from acting in 1982. He died of complications from a stroke in 1994.

Hal K. Dawson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hal K. Dawson (October 17, 1896 – February 17, 1987) was an American actor. The films he performed in include: Dr. Socrates, My American Wife, Libeled Lady, Wells Fargo,, Broadway Melody of 1940, Star Dust, The Doctor Takes a Wife, Washington Melodrama, Week-End in Havana,, Guest Wife, Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, Chicken Every Sunday, Bonzo Goes to College and The Benny Goodman Story. He died on February 17, 1987, in Loma Linda, California aged 90.

Paul Alter

Director · Known for Sale of the Century

On March 11, 1922 in Chicago was born Paul Alter, an American TV personality and director of several award-winning TV series. Alter is a graduated from New York University and the Yale School of Drama. Back in the early years while he was living in Chicago, Alter was studding piano with Teddy Wilson, from the Benny Goodman Quartet. The time spent with this talented musician helped him learn a lot about the music, and in the later years be his guide when composing film music. In 1969 Alter put his music talent to use for the first time and composed the music theme for “To Tell the Truth”. In 1950 he started working in television, and served as a key figure at Mark Goodson Productions. His first job as a game show director was with “Beat the Clock”. From there he went on to work on some 60 game shows and other productions. He is best known as the original director of Family Feud from the show's origin in the mid-1970s until the early 1990s. For his contribution to this show Paul Alter was awarded with a Daytime Emmy in 1982. His second Daytime Emmy was for “The Price Is Right” in 1996. Over the course of his career that spanned five decades, Alter had a total of 14 Emmy nominations. This television veteran helped create over 60 games shows and directed almost all of the pilots for the company’s shows, even if another director went on to lead the series. Outside the TV game show arena, Paul Alter gained attention with his lawsuit against the Walt Disney Co. over similarities between a story outline he wrote and the film "Honey, I Blew Up the Kid". Alter sued Disney claiming several similarities between that movie and his treatment, and when his case went to trial in 1993 the jury ruled in his favor, awarding him $300,000. He directed the original version of Family Feud which ran on ABC from 1976 to 1985, and when the show was revived he continued to direct until he finally left the show and went on to direct “To Tell the Truth”. Paul Alter also directed both versions for the hit show “The Price Is Right”, one of the longest-running network series in the television history of the United States. He died from natural causes at 89, on June 11, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

Pierre Watkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Pierre Frank Watkin (December 29, 1889 – February 3, 1960) was an American character actor in many films, serials, and television series from the 1930s through the 1950s, especially westerns. He is perhaps best remembered for being the father of Eleanor Twitchell, the lady who captures Lou Gehrig's heart in Pride of the Yankees (1942) Watkin was born in Sioux City, Iowa. In the 1920s, he had his own theatrical troupe, the Pierre Watkin Players. In 1927, the group moved its headquarters from Sioux Falls to Lincoln, Nebraska. Watkin portrayed Perry White in both of the Superman serials of the late 1940s, which starred Kirk Alyn as the title character and Noel Neill as Lois Lane. Watkin played a few different characters in the television series Adventures of Superman, in which John Hamilton played Perry White. He was set to reprise his role as the editor of The Daily Planet in a revival of the series in 1959, as Hamilton had died in the interim since the cancellation of the original series. However, series star George Reeves also died in the summer of 1959, and those plans ended. Watkin himself died six months later. He also cast in 1955 in the episode "Joey and the Gypsies" of the NBC children's western series Fury. Watkin guest starred in the CBS western series Brave Eagle. He was cast twice each on the ABC/Warner Brothers series, Cheyenne (as Harvey Sinclair in "The Law Man") and Annie Oakley (as the Reverend Mills in the 1956 episode "The Reckless Press"). In 1958, Watkin portrayed Dr. Breen of Samaritan Hospital in the episode "San Francisco Story" of Rex Allen's syndicated western series, Frontier Doctor. During the first season of CBS's Perry Mason from 1957 to 1958, Watkin appeared in three episodes as Judge Keetley. He was also cast during the 1950s on The Range Rider, Tales of the Texas Rangers, in three episodes of the western aviation adventure series Sky King, and five times on The Jack Benny Program. Watkin played the part of Colonel Duncan in the 1958 episode "Decoy" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series Colt .45.

Barbara Pepper

Cast · Known for I Love Lucy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Barbara Pepper (born Marion B. Pepper; May 31, 1915 – July 18, 1969) was an American stage, television, radio, and film actress. She is best known as the first "Doris Ziffel" on the sitcom Green Acres. Pepper was born in New York City, the daughter of actor David Mitchell "Dave" Pepper, and his wife, Harrietta S. Pepper. At age 16 she started life in show business with Goldwyn Girls, a musical stock company where she met lifelong friend Lucille Ball. Pepper began making movies. Among her later film parts were small roles in My Fair Lady and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. She also performed radio parts. In 1943, she married actor Craig Reynolds (né Harold Hugh Enfield), and the couple later had two sons. After Reynolds died in 1949 in a California motorcycle accident, Pepper was left to raise their children alone. She never remarried. After gaining weight, her roles were mostly confined to small character parts on television, including several appearances on I Love Lucy, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Petticoat Junction, and The Jack Benny Program. She made four appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Martha Dale, mother of the title character, in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Vagabond Vixen". A long-time friend of Lucille Ball, Barbara was considered for the role of Ethel Mertz on "I Love Lucy," but was passed over due to the fact that she was reportedly a drinker. William Frawley ("Fred Mertz") was, likewise, reportedly, a drinker and was already cast. It was felt that having two drinkers in the cast might eventually cause difficulties so they auditioned and found Vivian Vance to play Ethel instead. She may be best remembered as the first Doris Ziffel on Petticoat Junction in 1964, although her character's name on the "Genghis Keane" episode of Petticoat Junction was Ruth Ziffel. Her role as Doris Ziffel continued on Green Acres from 1965 to 1968, until heart ailments finally forced her to leave that weekly series. Veteran actress Fran Ryan replaced her on Green Acres, which would continue to run for another three years. Her final performance was in the 1969 film Hook, Line & Sinker, in which she played Jerry Lewis's secretary.

Sheldon Leonard

Executive Producer · Director · Known for The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sheldon Leonard Bershad (February 22, 1907 – January 11, 1997) was an American film and television actor, producer, director, and writer. Sheldon Leonard Bershad was born in Manhattan, New York City, the son of middle class Jewish parents Anna Levit and Frank Bershad. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1929. As an actor, Leonard specialized in playing supporting characters, especially gangsters or "heavies", in films such as It's a Wonderful Life (1946; as bartender Nick), To Have and Have Not (1944), Guys and Dolls (1955), and Open Secret (1948). His trademark was his especially thick New York accent, usually delivered from the side of his mouth. In Decoy (1946), Leonard uses his "heavy" persona to create the hard-boiled police detective Joe Portugal. On radio from 1945 to 1955, Leonard played an eccentric racetrack tout on The Jack Benny Program and later in the TV series of the same name. His role was to salute Benny out of the blue in railroad stations, on street corners, or in department stores ("Hey Bud. C'mere a minute."), ask Benny what he was about to do, and then proceed to try to argue him out of his course of action by resorting to inane and irrelevant racing logic. As "The Tout," he never gave out information on horse racing, unless Jack demanded it. One excuse the tout gave was, "Who knows about horses?" Leonard was part of the cast of voice actors on the Damon Runyon Theatre radio show (1948-1949). He was part of the ensemble cast of the Martin and Lewis radio show. He also appeared frequently on The Adventures of the Saint, often playing gangsters and heavies, but also sometimes in more positive roles. Leonard was also a regular on the radio comedy series The Adventures of Maisie in the 1940s. During the 1950s, Leonard provided the voice of lazy fat cat Dodsworth in two Warner Bros. Merrie Melodies cartoons directed by Robert McKimson. In the adventure movie The Iroquois Trail (1950), Leonard played against type in the significant role of Chief Ogane, a Native American warrior, who pursues and fights the frontiersman Nat "Hawkeye" Cutler (George Montgomery) in a climactic duel to the death with knives. Later in the 1950s and 1960s, he established a reputation as a producer of successful television series, including The Danny Thomas Show (aka Make Room For Daddy) (1953–64), The Andy Griffith Show (1960–68), Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. (1964–69), The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961–66), and I Spy (1965–68). He also directed several TV series episodes, including four of the first eight episodes of the TV series Lassie (Season 1, 1954). Leonard also provided the voice of Linus the Lionhearted in a series of Post Crispy Critters cereal TV commercials in 1963-64, which led to a Linus cartoon series that aired on Saturday (and later, Sunday) mornings on CBS (1964–66) and ABC (1967–69). He also was briefly the star of his own television show Big Eddie (1975), where he played the owner of a large sports arena. The show lasted for only ten episodes.

Norris Goff

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Norris Goff (May 30, 1906 – June 7, 1978) was an American comedian in radio and film best known for his portrayal of Abner Peabody on the rural comedy Lum and Abner. Nicknamed "Tuffy," Goff was born in Cove, Arkansas, but soon moved to Mena, Arkansas where he met his longtime friend and partner Chester Lauck (Lum) and graduating from Mena High School in 1924. Despite their fame as backwoodsmen, both actors graduated from the University of Arkansas, where Goff became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity. Goff and his partner had experience as blackface entertainers, but had also worked up a hillbilly skit based on their own life experiences and friends. Performing on local radio, they soon landed their own network series in 1931. In addition to playing the role of the likable but naive, checker-playing Abner (who worked with Lum at the "Jot 'Em down Store" in fictitious Pine Ridge), Goff co-wrote the earliest episodes with Lauck, and played many of the other recurring characters, including postmaster Dick Huddleston (named after a real life friend in Mena), con-man Squire Skimp, Mousy Gray, and in the sentimental annual Christmas show, Doc Miller. Goff and Lauck also guest starred as Lum and Abner on radio series such as Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall; Goff also made a handful of solo appearances, notably guesting as the father of Andy Devine in an episode of The Jack Benny Program. Goff reprised his role as Abner for seven films between 1940 and 1956. Unlike Lauck, who virtually retired outside of playing Lum, Goff continued to make occasional guest appearances on television in the 1960s. Goff appeared in one episode apiece of two situation comedies with rural themes: Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. (as Gomer's grandfather) and The Andy Griffith Show (playing a local storekeeper). Upon retirement he lived in Palm Springs, California. He died of a stroke at the age of 72 in Palm Desert, California.

Rolfe Sedan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rolfe Sedan (January 20, 1896 – September 15, 1982) was an American character actor, best known for appearing in bit parts, often uncredited, usually portraying clerks, train conductors, postmen, cooks, waiters etc. He began his career in show business as a nightclub and vaudeville performer and began acting in East Coast theatre. Sedan debuted on Broadway in 1916 and appeared in his first motion picture for Metro Pictures Corporation in 1921. He became a prolific character actor and is probably best remembered by movie buffs as the hotel manager in Ninotchka (1939) starring Greta Garbo. Around the same time, he appeared in an uncredited role as the Emerald City's Balloon Ascensionist in The Wizard of Oz (1939). He returned to Broadway, performing in several different shows during the first half of the 1940s and in the 1950s began a sequence of guest roles in television series such as The Jack Benny Show. His most frequent TV work came from recurring roles as put-upon mail carriers (25 episodes as Mr. Beasley on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show; 4 episodes as Mr. Briggs on The Addams Family). He was also seen as the train conductor in the film Young Frankenstein (1974). Rolfe Sedan remained active throughout a career that spanned more than six decades.

Stephen Wootton

Stephen Wootton was a film and television actor. In the early days he was known as "Stevie Wootton", a cute, freckle-faced child actor seen on various television series (including the Jack Benny Show, This is Alice, Superman, and I Love Lucy) and many motion pictures until his early teens.

Ray Buktenica

Ray Buktenica /bʌkˈtɛniːˈkɑː/ (born August 6, 1943) is an American film and television character actor. He has played numerous roles, primarily on television since 1972. He is best known for playing the character Benny Goodwin, the boyfriend and later fiancé of Brenda Morgenstern on the 1970s sitcom Rhoda, Dr. Solomon on House Calls and Jerry Berkson, Libby's boss on Life Goes On. He provided the voice of Hugo Strange in the character's sole appearance on Batman: The Animated Series. In 1996, he guest-starred on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman as Leo Nunk, a newspaper reporter. In 1997, he guest-starred on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, in the episode "By Inferno's Light", as Deyos, the Vorta in command of the Dominion's Internment Camp 371.

Mike Vitar

Michael Anthony Vitar (born December 21, 1978) is an American former actor who appeared as Benjamin Franklin "Benny the Jet" Rodriguez in The Sandlot. He started acting at the age of 12 when a casting manager spotted him in line for a ride at a school carnival. He retired from acting after 1997.