william schallert

RIP William Schallert, the most excellent character actor with just a few comic book related roles under his belt (Retired Man in the ill-fated DC Comedy Special Legends of the Superheroes, the voice of Appa Ali Apsa of the Guardians in Green Lantern: First Flight, Mr. Andrew’s in the 60′s version of Life With Archie, plus a small roles on Lois & Clark: The New Superman Adventures and the TV version of Milt Caniff’s Steve Canyon), but numerous memorable sci-fi and horror roles in films like The Man From Planet X, Them!, Gog, The Monolith Monsters and The Incredible Shrinking Man, as well as more modern classics like Joe Dante’s Gremlins, Innerspace and Matinee, and countless episodes of TV shows like Star Trek, the Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  Though best known for his genre work, and for his role as the dad on the Patty Duke show in the 1960′s, Schallert had scores of other significant film and TV roles under his belt, appearing in such classics as Singin’ in the Rain, Written on the WInd, In The Heat of The Night, The Jerk, Pillow Talk and Charley Varick.  He was an institution as a character actor, a familiar face whose name you couldn’t always place, but the sight of whom in a movie meant it had at least one good thing going for it.  He will be missed.