Actor and union activist William Schallert dies at 93
Source: NY Daily News
BY MELANIE DOSTIS
Veteran TV actor William Schallert, who memorably played Patty Duke’s father, died over the weekend. He was 93.
The television star, who had numerous supporting roles throughout his career, died Sunday at his home in Pacific Palisades, Calif., his son Edwin confirmed. While not revealing the cause of his death, his son said his father remained alert and was not in pain during his final moments.
Schallert is best known for his years on “The Patty Duke Show” during the ‘60s, in which he also played the uncle to the identical twins played by the show's star, Duke. He reunited with Duke and original cast members in 1999.
His death comes on the heels of Duke’s death. The Oscar winner died on March 29 at the age of 69.
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ABC PHOTO ARCHIVES/ABC VIA GETTY IMAGES
Schallert on "The Partridge Family."
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/actor-union-activist-william-schallert-dies-93-article-1.2630963
Marta and I met him TWICE at Twilight Zone Cons. Wonderful man.
At the 2002 TZCon: http://www.steveandmarta.com/graveyards/tzcon2002.htm
Snip: William Schallert was very funny, and made one of his classic faces for us, which we got on tape. I had a Combat! screenshot for him to sign, and he mentioned that he'd wanted to die in a certain way on that episode, with his eyes open, but that's about all he remembered. Steve told him he'd always loved his role of the Admiral on "Get Smart," and he said that he did, too. He said that he always thought people talked like the Admiral when they got old, and now that he's old he's surprised to find that he doesn't talk like that at all. He sounds just like he did back in the 60's. We also bought a beautiful color shot of him and Kevin McCarthy from the TZ movie.
At the 2004 TZCon: http://www.steveandmarta.com/tzcon2004.htm
Snip: William Schallert was stumped by the first shot we gave him, which was from "The High and the Mighty," and he said "My God, that's Regis Toomey!" in the shot with him. He talked about William Wellman, who directed the film, and Richard Erdman, who was sitting next to Mr. Schallert, told us about his own encounter with Wellman, which broke Wellman's thumb and got Erdman in a lot of trouble. He didn't remember the "Thriller" episode shot I had him sign, with Ed Nelson in the shot, but said it had to be him because it was his lousy posture. I then gave him a shot from the NTZ episode "Shadow Play," and he remembered working on it and that Peter Coyote was the guy in the episode with him. He explained the story to Dick Erdman perfectly. We next handed him a shot from "Peege," which he took a minute but then remembered well. He then went on to explain the entire story to us, about how it was Randall Kleiser's student film, which Schallert did not get paid for initially. The script seduced all the stars who were asked to be in it, and it showed on the Canadian networks, then on NBC several times then no more. He said that they were supposed to get 2% of the producers net, which meant just about nothing; Dick Erdman put his finger to his head, like a gun, and said this is what that meant, and we all laughed. But, since this film became the biggest selling educational film, Schallert eventually got about $30,000 for appearing in it. I told him we had taped it off cable many years ago and had never seen it since. It was filmed around Santa Monica in the outside scenes, which don't look like it at all. We also talked about "Grandpa Doc," the follow-up to "Peege," which he didn't appear in, and about Bruce Davison.
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Ended up on the receiving end of several Shatner barbs.
