Trivia

Was a New York City policeman for 20 years before going into acting.

Served as a navigator in the US Air Force during World War II.

Discovered for films by Mel Brooks, who cast him in The Producers (1967).

Got into the comic angle of show business as a cop while adding jokes to various speeches he made for deputy commissioners.

Once served as a stand-in for the equally hefty Jackie Gleason.

The father of a son and a daughter. His daughter died of cancer in 2002.

He was of Irish descent.

Originated the role of Amos Hart in the 1975 Broadway musical Chicago (2002).

Appeared in many musicals including South Pacific, The Fantasticks, How Now Dow Jones, and his best known part, in Chicago where he introduced the "Mister Cellophane" number. *

Appeared in a 1970's television commercial for Post Raisin Bran.

Was on leave from the NYPD in the fall of 1957 when he appeared as challenger Jack Bothwell #2 on TV's To Tell the Truth (1956). He was also the associate producer of Treasure Hunt (1956), a TV show starring Jan Murray, at this time.

Wrote for the Name That Tune (1953) game show and for The Steve Allen Show (1956) in the 1950s.

Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Actors Branch)

Upon his death, he was cremated by the Nautlius Society and his ashes returned to his family in Studio City, California.

Lived in Rhinebeck, New York.

He was a lifelong liberal Democrat.

Survived by his wife, his son, Donald, two grandsons and two great grand-sons.