Allan Melvin was one of those actors who's face you knew or were familiar with (at least for anyone born before 1980) but would probably produce no name for you. He was in many a television program from the 1960s onward.I remember him from my favourite television program of all time, All in the Family, as Archie's next door neighbour and occasional friend, Barney Hefner:
ARCHIE BUNKER (off-screen): Hey, Hefner... your dog doo-dooed on my lawn again.
Melvin was in a memorable episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show, playing an old army buddy of Rob Petrie's but who was now suspected of being a diamond thief.
And of course he was known as Sam, the love interest of the Brady's housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis), in the awful series The Brady Bunch (1969 - 1974).
I remember him in an episode of Lost in Space, titled "West of Mars". (Just how do I know the episode name? No, I did not have to look on the Internet Movie Database.) Melvin was in another installment of this crappola show, but I cannot remember the title.
This busy actor also did a lot of voice work for various animated programs, including The Flintstones.
The fact is, Melvin was everywhere on television: Even as a child I seemed to know his name. Something, some show, must have linked his face and name for me.
On camera, Allan Melvin was one of those actors that had what you would call a "great face". Full of character.
Actor Allan Melvin died of cancer on Thursday, January 17th, 2008.
1 comment:
Oh... my.... god.... this is too freaky. I was just thinking about this guy last week. I didn't know his name of course, my mind was referring to him as "that guy on the Brady Bunch".
I think he was also in a Glad TV commercial with one of the two guys that ask Woody Allen for an autograph in the beginning of "Annie Hall"
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