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Allan Melvin dead at 84

B

bpatrick

Don't know if this is on any other board but
Allan Melvin, the tall, blond-haired, deep-voiced
character actor who played Cpl. Henshaw on
"The Phil Silvers Show," Sgt. Hacker on "Gomer
Pyle, USMC," Sam the butcher on "The Brady Bunch,"
and Archie Bunker's pal Barney Hefner on both "All
In The Family" and "Archie Bunker's Place," has died
of cancer at age 84.

In addition, Melvin did cartoon voices (I especially
remember Punkin Puss) and appeared frequently
as either good guy or bad guy on "The Andy Griffith
Show" (I especially remember the one where he played
the grocer's assistant whom Barney ticketed for littering,
and then threatened to beat up Barney if he caught him
out of uniform).

Another great character actor passes on.
 
Regarding his voice work, don't forget his most famous character: Magilla Gorilla.

Always liked him and his performances. One of those many character actors of my youth that turned up on so many different shows. Guys like him never got the big bucks, never got their name in lights, never won any awards -- but they never lacked for work. In those days, being a good character actor was one of the steadiest gigs in TV.
 
How could I have forgotten Magilla Gorilla?
You're right; it's his most famous character.

I've always heard that directors prefer to
work with character actors over stars;
character actors, as a rule, tend to treat
their jobs as jobs. They come to work
prepared, usually (anyway) don't have
tantrums when things don't go right, and
take direction without complaining. I won't
generalize and say that's true in every case,
but Al Melvin must have been a true pro to
get as much work as he did. And he made
a nice living at it; he lived in the Brentwood
section of Los Angeles.

My condolences to the Melvin family.
 
I checked out Allan Melvin's credits on the imdb - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0578510/

He did much more cartoon voice work that I realized. Since playing Barney Hefner on All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place, he stuck almost entirely to cartoon voice work. I have a fond place in my heart for voice-actors because my father was an animator, and always came home with great stories of watching the recording sessions and then going out to lunch with the voice-actors - people like Daws Butler, Paul Frees, and William Conrad. I don't think he ever worked with Melvin, or he would have mentioned it - we were both Sgt Bilko fans.

Melvin was an adept character actor, very good at comedy, as well as menacing dramatic villain roles. Character actors like Allan may not get much fame, but if they work steadily as he did, they can have very rich creative lives, and make a LOT of money - not compared to big stars, but certainly compared to most people.

RIP Allan.
 
He was in millions of things! He is one of those "that guy" actors!!! (I did not know about his cartoon work, thanks for that information). In fact I just told my wife and she said "who?", I explained who he was and her comment was...
"Oh, that guy" (really).

Thanks for many years of laughs Allan.

Stuart
 
Mark Evanier has some nice words and background on Allan Melvin on his blog:

http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_01_19.html#014671

It starts: "Some of the obits for Allan Melvin, who died last Thursday of cancer, are missing the whole point of Allan Melvin. They say that Sam, the butcher from The Brady Bunch, has died and then mention all the other stuff in a kind of 'Oh, and he was also in these other things' manner. The point of Allan Melvin is not that he was on The Brady Bunch. It was that he was in everything."
 
What most folks don't realize is that while The Brady Bunch taped over 100 episodes during their five-year run, Allan only appeared in about seven or eight of them at most. It seems like it should be a lot more than that. However, I'm sure that Sam the butcher got mentioned in a handful more episodes that he did not appear in.
 
firepoint525 said:
What most folks don't realize is that while The Brady Bunch taped over 100 episodes during their five-year run, Allan only appeared in about seven or eight of them at most. It seems like it should be a lot more than that. However, I'm sure that Sam the butcher got mentioned in a handful more episodes that he did not appear in.
Click to expand...

True, he was only a minor recurring character, but he won the hearts of BB fans. Alice was a very beloved character (don't we all wish we had a housekeeper like Alice around when we were growing up?), and fans liked the notion of her seeing a boyfriend and having a romantic life. :)
 
My personal favorite was his role as Sgt. Charlie Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC.
The running Spy vs. Spy competition that he had going with Sgt. Carter
(with Gomer always caught in the middle) was too much! That episode where
Carter sells his car to Pyle because it is getting poor mileage...and Hacker
starts putting gas in the tank each night, until Carter notices and buys it back,
and then Hacker siphons the gas out every night...great stuff! :D
 
FreddyE1977 said:
My personal favorite was his role as Sgt. Charlie Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC.
Click to expand...

Wonder why Hacker was only a Staff Sgt. and Carter was a Gunny?

Maybe running the mess hall was considered a bit lower in the camp's
pecking order than turning hayseeds like Gomer into Marines.
 
I always enjoyed Allan Melvin. He was great in everything that he did from Sam on The Brady Bunch, Sgt. Hacker on Gomer Pyle and Barney Hefner on All In The Family and Archie Bunker's Place.

I especially remember his guest starring roles on The Andy Griffith Show especially the episode where he and another guy were running a vegetable and fruit stand on the side of the road and they start heckling Barney for being a buffoon and not being tough on them in getting them for breaking the law for selling on the side of the road.

The classic episode that I best remember him for (although it was a minor role and he didn't have many speaking lines) is the episode where Barney buys the car from the old lady and he comes along and picks her up on the corner and tells him that she sold the car to the biggest sucker in the world.
 
Braves2005 said:
I always enjoyed Allan Melvin. He was great in everything that he did from Sam on The Brady Bunch, Sgt. Hacker on Gomer Pyle and Barney Hefner on All In The Family and Archie Bunker's Place.

I especially remember his guest starring roles on The Andy Griffith Show especially the episode where he and another guy were running a vegetable and fruit stand on the side of the road and they start heckling Barney for being a buffoon and not being tough on them in getting them for breaking the law for selling on the side of the road.

The classic episode that I best remember him for (although it was a minor role and he didn't have many speaking lines) is the episode where Barney buys the car from the old lady and he comes along and picks her up on the corner and tells him that she sold the car to the biggest sucker in the world.
Click to expand...
After reading this, I must ask, what character did he play on Andy Griffith? He was Sgt. Hacker on Gomer Pyle, and I knew that Pyle was a spinoff of Griffith, so was he a "civilian" Hacker on Griffith? Because of the Pyle/Griffith connection, I had to ask that question.

And I knew he played an early character on "All in the Family" before he was cast as Bunker's buddy Barney on that show, and later on "Archie Bunker's Place."
 
"After reading this, I must ask, what character did he play on Andy Griffith?"

I don't think he played the same character twice - just guest starred as different characters. It's pretty typical for TV shows (then and now) to end up with a number of guest stars that come back in different roles. For example, I just saw an Law & Order from about 8 years ago with Annie Parisse guest starring as a hooker. She later played ADA Connie Rubirosa for two seasons on L & O (the one after Elisabeth Rohm).
 
Allan played the following guest roles on The Andy Griffith Show:

The hotel detective that Barney accidentally thinks is a robber when Andy and Barney go to the city to attend a police meeting.

The prisoner who escaped from Barney and Gomer after he escapes from the Mayberry Jail and goes out into the woods.

The son of the little old lady who Barney bought the car from.

The grocery stocker who Barney gives a ticket to because he was sweeping the litter into the street and if Barney went without a uniform that he would get him for it.

The guy along with another guy who ran the vegetable and fruit stand along the side of the road and Barney gets taunted by the both of them because Barney was bumbling.
 
Braves2005 said:
Allan played the following guest roles on The Andy Griffith Show...
Click to expand...

And at least one more: the recruiting sergeant in the episode where
Ernest T. tried to join the U.S. Army and made a mess of things at
the induction center.

Also in this episode (as the Army doctor) was Paul Smith, who,
since we're doing the "Ange" connection, played a USAF captain
in the TV series version of No Time For Sergeants, which in its
movie version starred Andy Griffin, er, Griffith. ;D
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
Braves2005 said:
Allan played the following guest roles on The Andy Griffith Show...
Click to expand...

And at least one more: the recruiting sergeant in the episode where
Ernest T. tried to join the U.S. Army and made a mess of things at
the induction center.
Click to expand...

Another character he played in later years was Millie's ex-boyfriend who threatened to beat up Howard Sprague.

TV Land has been playing several of the different Andy Griffith Show episodes with Allan Melvin that were listed above this week. Was anything similar done with All in the Family or The Brady Bunch? In any case it's more of a tribute than the 30 second ad they're running for Suzanne Pleshette. :-\
 
Braves2005 said:
Allan played the following guest roles on The Andy Griffith Show:

The hotel detective that Barney accidentally thinks is a robber when Andy and Barney go to the city to attend a police meeting.

The prisoner who escaped from Barney and Gomer after he escapes from the Mayberry Jail and goes out into the woods.

The son of the little old lady who Barney bought the car from.

The grocery stocker who Barney gives a ticket to because he was sweeping the litter into the street and if Barney went without a uniform that he would get him for it.

The guy along with another guy who ran the vegetable and fruit stand along the side of the road and Barney gets taunted by the both of them because Barney was bumbling.
Click to expand...

oldiesfan6479 said:
And at least one more: the recruiting sergeant in the episode where
Ernest T. tried to join the U.S. Army and made a mess of things at
the induction center.
Click to expand...

anotherguy said:
Another character he played in later years was Millie's ex-boyfriend who threatened to beat up Howard Sprague.
Click to expand...

Gee, and I thought "Barney Miller" was the champ when it came to character actors turning up as 6 or 7 different people over the course of the series... ;D
 
oldiesfan6479 said:
FreddyE1977 said:
My personal favorite was his role as Sgt. Charlie Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC.
Click to expand...

Wonder why Hacker was only a Staff Sgt. and Carter was a Gunny?

Maybe running the mess hall was considered a bit lower in the camp's
pecking order than turning hayseeds like Gomer into Marines.
Click to expand...

As much as I have always enjoyed Gomer Pyle, USMC, it had the sad negative side effect
on me that I was probably about 9 or 10 before I realized that the US Marines did things other
than rake gravel and enter singing contests. I learned better. Semper Fi!
 
Gee, and I thought "Barney Miller" was the champ when it came to character actors turning up as 6 or 7 different people over the course of the series... ;D
[/quote]
Actually "The Champ" is probably MASH, especially when it came to the Korean players. You had about 3 people who wore about a dozen differrent character hats each.
 
I'd bet $100 right now that one of those "3 Korean players" on MASH was James Hong, who has played every kind of Asian or Asian American in practially every TV show and movie ever made. And that's not much of an exageration. Talk about making a successful career out of character acting.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0393222/
 
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