Biography

Character actor and comedian Charlie Sanford Brill was born in Brooklyn, New York. His older brother was the piano prodigy and nightclub entertainer Marty Brill. Charlie made his screen debut in 1958. He met his future wife, the actress Mitzi McCall, the following year at a Paramount comedy workshop. They married in 1960. Together, they went touring the U.S. in a comic act. On television, they had a regular segment as a feuding couple on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) and appeared as celebrity contestants on the game show Tattletales (1974). In addition to many TV guest spots and voice-over work in animation (including several Hanna-Barbera productions), Charlie also enjoyed a lengthy stint as Captain Harry Lipschitz in the CBS crime drama Silk Stalkings (1991), his wife Frannie being played by his real life spouse. However, Charlie will most likely be best remembered for playing the devious Arne Darvin (he got the audition for the part courtesy of Leonard Nimoy), a Klingon saboteur masquerading as a human in the classic Star Trek (1966) episode The Trouble with Tribbles. He reprised the Darvin character three decades later for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) homage episode Trials and Tribble-ations.

Happily retired since 2015, he declared in a recent interview "I smoke cigars, I drink coffee and I hang out with a bunch of guys who drink coffee and smoke cigars."
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis

Had the unique opportunity to reprise the role of "Arne Darvin" on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) for a role that he had created 27 years earlier.

Godfather of Melissa Gilbert

Along with Mitzi McCall had the dubious distinction of being the comedy act to directly follow The Beatles' first live performance on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka Toast of the Town). The TV spot did little to help their careers - it was probably the most anti-climactic moment in television history.

Brill met his wife, actress Mitzi McCall, when they both appeared at the Jerry Lewis Comedy Workshop at Paramount Studios in 1959. The couple have one daughter, Jennifer Brill.

Advice to the aspiring actor: "There are two reasons I went into acting. Love of the craft and per diem."