The "Dirty Bubble" has finally burst.
Posted on 05/27/2007 7:49:33 PM PDT by lunarbicep
Charles Nelson Reilly, who acted and directed on Broadway but came to be best known for his campy television appearances on talk shows and “Match Game,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 76 and lived in Beverly Hills, Calif.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, said his partner, Patrick Hughes, who is his only immediate survivor. Mr. Reilly had been ill for more than a year, he said.
Long before moving west to become what he somewhat ruefully described as a “game show fixture,” Mr. Reilly was an actor and an acting teacher in New York City. In 1962, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Bud Frump in the original Broadway production of “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.”
But he was proudest of “The Belle of Amherst,” a one-woman play starring Julie Harris based on the life of Emily Dickinson, which he directed on Broadway at the Longacre Theater in 1976, said Timothy Helgeson, who collaborated with him on the show. Two decades later, Mr. Reilly directed Ms. Harris and Charles Durning in a revival of “The Gin Game” at the Lyceum Theater. He was nominated for a Tony for best director in 1997, and Ms. Harris was nominated for best actress.
His final work was an autobiographical one-man show, “Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly,” in which he recounted his difficult childhood. Born in the Bronx, the only child of a Swedish mother and an Irish father, Mr. Reilly told of the pain of being considered the oddest member of a decidedly odd family.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The flame goes out.
The old loafers will be a little lighter tonight.
Well, at least he can be reunited with Paul Lynde...
He was in an episode of X Files = "Jose Chungs 'From Outer Space'"
RIP. I enjoyed his antics.
I enjoyed his feuds with Brett. I still watch them.
I haven’t been this upset since Gene Rayburn died.
Sorry to here he died.
Grew up watching him on Match Game.
Thought he was funny.
Aw shucks. I remeber him best as Claymore Gregg from the tv show The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
A funny guy, comfortable playing a funny character. May he rest in peace.
“Uncle Croc’s Block”
http://www.geocities.com/sshumsuper7fan78/JimsUncleCroc.htm
Once again we lose a true entertainer, someone who had to work for his stardom. There are fewer and fewer every day.
Rest in peace, Mr. Reilly.
I enjoyed seeing him on the game shows and on Johnny Carson. He was a very funny man.
The "Dirty Bubble" has finally burst.
-PJ
LOL you beat me to it!! LOL
Craftsman comic - of the old school.
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