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Vale: William Schallert

Prolific character actor, best known as the father on The Patty Duke Show, has died.

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Prolific character US actor William Schallert, best known as the father on The Patty Duke Show, has died, aged 93.

He died at home on Sunday in California, just weeks after the death of screen daughter Patty Duke.

Schallert, who has nearly 400 credits on IMDb, played Martin Lane the warm-hearted father of reckless teenager Patty Lane and the uncle of her twin cousin Cathy on The Patty Duke Show from 1963-66.

On The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Schallert recurred as English teacher Leander Pomfritt.

Other TV credits included Star Trek, Get Smart, Leave It to Beaver, Dream On, The New Gidget, The Wild, Wild West, The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Father Knows Best, The Twilight Zone, Peter Gunn, Perry Mason, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Maude, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, Philip Marlowe, The Waltons, Norman Lear’s The Nancy Walker Show, The Nancy Drew Mysteries, North and South, War and Remembrance, Recount and True Blood.

There were also numerous films including In the Heat of the Night, The Foxes of Harrow, Mighty Joe Young, The Man From Planet X,  Them!, Gog, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Red Badge of Courage, Singin’ in the Rain, The High and the Mighty, Written on the Wind, Gunslinger, Friendly Persuasion, Pillow Talk, Lonely Are the Brave, Speedway, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, The Jerk, Gremlins and Innerspace.

Schallert served as SAG president from 1979-81, and he founded the Committee for Performers With Disabilities.

He once said of The Patty Duke Show, “Patty and I really bonded because I had four sons and she had no father.

“Her father had left the family when she was a little girl. He died while we were shooting the show. She came in one day and said, ‘I heard today that my daddy died,’ but there was no real effect because she hardly knew him.”

Source: Hollywood Reporter

 

4 Responses

  1. Great character actor. In literally everything from great science fiction film The Man From Planet X in 1951 to True Blood just this decade. As noted by others, great as the ancient Admiral in Get Smart (“Down I go”) and a favourite of director Joe Dante as well as others. Had a couple of good roles in Star Trek (30 years apart) and was in the monumental War and Remembrance holding his own against some other greats.

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