Wally Cox

Wally Cox

Cox in 1962
Born Wallace Maynard Cox
December 6, 1924
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Died February 15, 1973(1973-02-15) (aged 48)
Hollywood, California, U.S.
Cause of death heart attack
Years active 1948–1973
Spouse(s) Marilyn Gennaro (1954 – ?; divorced)
Milagros Tirado
(1963 –1966; divorced; two children)
Patricia Tiernan (1969 –1973; his death)

Wallace Maynard "Wally" Cox (December 6, 1924 – February 15, 1973) was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. television series Mister Peepers from 1952 to 1955, plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films.[1] Cox was the voice of the popular animated canine superhero Underdog. Although often cast as a meek milquetoast, he was actually quite athletic, as well as a military veteran. He married three times.

Early life and education

Cox was born on December 6, 1924, in Detroit, Michigan.[1] When he was 10, he moved with his divorced mother, mystery author Eleanor Blake, and a younger sister to Evanston, Illinois, where he became close friends with a neighborhood child, Marlon Brando.[2] His family moved frequently, eventually to Chicago, then New York City, then back to Detroit, where he graduated from Denby High School.

During World War II, Cox and his family returned to New York City, where he attended City College of New York.[1] He next spent four months in the United States Army, and on his discharge attended New York University. He supported his invalid mother and sister by making and selling jewelry in a small shop and at parties, where he started doing comedy monologues. These would lead to regular performances at nightclubs, such as the Village Vanguard, beginning in December 1948. He became the roommate of Marlon Brando, who encouraged him to study acting with Stella Adler. Cox and Brando remained close friends for the rest of Cox's life, and Brando appeared unannounced at Cox's wake. Brando is also reported to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom and conversed with them nightly.[2]

Career

In 1949, Cox appeared on the CBS network-radio show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, to the great amusement of host Godfrey. The first half of his act was a monologue in a slangy, almost-mumbled punk-kid characterization, telling listeners about his friend Dufo: "What a crazy guy." The gullible oaf Dufo would take any dares and fall for his gang's pranks time after time, and Cox would recount the awful consequences: "Sixteen stitches. What a crazy guy." Cox's decidedly different standup routine was infectious in its ridiculousness, and just as the studio audience had reached a peak of laughter, Cox suddenly switched gears, changed characters, and sang a high-pitched version of "The Drunkard Song" ("There Is a Tavern in the Town") punctuated by eccentric yodels. "Wallace Cox" earned a big hand that night, but lost by a narrow margin to The Chordettes, but he made enough of a hit to record his radio routine for an RCA Victor single. The "Dufo" routine ("What a Crazy Guy") was paired with "Tavern in the Town."[3] He appeared in Broadway musical reviews, night clubs, and early television comedy-variety programs between 1949 and 1951, including the short-lived (January–April 1949) DuMont series The School House and CBS Television's Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town starring Faye Emerson. Cox had a huge impact in 1951 with a starring role as a well-meaning but ineffective policeman on Philco Television Playhouse. Producer Fred Coe approached Cox about a starring role in a proposed live television sitcom, Mister Peepers, which he accepted. The show ran on NBC Television for three years. During this time, he guest-starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show. In 1959, Cox was featured in the guest-starring title role in "The Vincent Eaglewood Story" on NBC's Western series, Wagon Train, with Read Morgan. In 1963, Cox played a prominent supporting role as Preacher Goodman in the Earl Hamner novel brought to the screen, Spencer's Mountain. Cox played the role of a Navy sonar man in the The Bedford Incident in 1964. In 1965, he played the role of a drug-addicted doctor opposite Brando in the World War II suspense film, Morituri.

Other roles were as the hero of The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, based on a series of short stories by Paul Gallico and co-starring with Ainslie Pryor, as a regular occupant of the upper left square on the television game show Hollywood Squares, and as the voice of the animated cartoon character Underdog.[4][5] He also was a guest on the game show What's My Line? and on the pilot episodes of Mission: Impossible and It Takes a Thief. Cox made several appearances on Here's Lucy, as well as The Beverly Hillbillies, Lost in Space, I Spy, and evening talk shows. He also appeared on The Twilight Zone, season five, episode number 140, titled "From Agnes—With Love".

He played character roles in more than 20 motion pictures and worked frequently in guest-star roles in television drama, comedy, and variety series in the 1960s and early 1970s. Among these were a supporting role in the 20th Century Fox´s unfinished film Something's Got to Give (1962), the last of Marilyn Monroe, a role as a down-on-his-luck prospector seeking a better life for his family in an episode of Alias Smith and Jones, a Western comedy, and Up Your Teddy Bear, or Mother (1970) in which he starred with Julie Newmar. His television and screen persona was that of a shy, timid, but kind man who wore thick eyeglasses and spoke in a pedantic, high-pitched voice.

Cox published a number of books, including Mister Peepers, a novel created by adapting several scripts from the television series; My Life as a Small Boy, an idealized depiction of his childhood; a parody and update of Horatio Alger in Ralph Makes Good, which was probably originally a screen treatment for an unmade film intended to star Cox; and a children's book, The Tenth Life of Osiris Oakes.

Personal life

In a 1950s article on Cox's Mister Peepers TV show, Popular Science reported that Cox kept a small workshop in his dressing room. (Cox's Hollywood Squares colleague, former Hollywood Squares "square-master" Peter Marshall, recalled in his memoir, Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square, that Cox installed and maintained all the wiring in his own home.) Such misperceptions no doubt contributed to the sarcastic and peevish personality that Cox displayed as a comedian; they might also have helped inspire the character of Underdog, whose "Shoe-Shine Boy" persona, in the animated cartoons, reflected the kinds of roles Cox was often given.

TV viewers did, however, get to see a glimpse of Cox's physicality on an episode of I've Got a Secret transmitted on May 11, 1960, in which host Garry Moore and he ran around on stage assembling furniture while the panel was blindfolded. A rare glimpse of Cox's athletic build can be seen in the Mission: Impossible pilot, when he works as a safecracker in a tight, sleeveless T-shirt. On the May 15, 1974, installment of The Tonight Show, actor Robert Blake spoke of how much he missed his good friend Cox, who was described as being adventuresome and athletic. Cox married three times, to Marilyn Gennaro, Milagros Tirado, and Patricia Tiernan, and was survived by his third wife and his two children.[2]

His close friendship with Marlon Brando was the subject of rumors. Brando told a journalist: "If Wally had been a woman, I would have married him and we would have lived happily ever after",[6] and writer/editor Beauregard Houston-Montgomery has stated that in while high on marijuana Brando confessed to him that Cox had been the love of his life.[7] However, two of Cox's wives dismissed the suggestion that the love was more than platonic.[2]

Death

On February 15, 1973, Cox died of a heart attack in his Hollywood, California, home.[1][8]

According to an autopsy, Cox died of a coronary occlusion.[8] Initial reports indicated that he wished to have no funeral and that his ashes would be scattered at sea.[8] A later report indicated his ashes were put in with those of Brando and another close friend Sam Gilman and scattered in Death Valley and Tahiti.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Wally Cox, TV Mr. Peepers, Dies at 48. Diminutive and Diffident". New York Times. February 16, 1973. Archived from the original on June 11, 2015. Retrieved August 19, 2016. Wally Cox, the bespectacled low-key comic known to television viewers as the meek Mr. Peepers since 1953, was found dead this morning in the bedroom of his home in this Los Angeles suburb. He was 48 years old.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Robert W. Welkos (October 17, 2004). "When the wild one met the mild one". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  3. ↑ MAD even animated the Dufo routine for its December 1957 issue; it is missing from the CD and DVD collections, but can be found at http://www.madcoversite.com/missing_dufo.html.
  4. ↑ "Whatever Happened to Total TeleVision productions?," Hogan's Alley #15, 2013
  5. ↑ King, Susan (June 21, 1992). "The 'Dog Days Return". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  6. ↑ Sellers, Robert Hollywood Hellraisers: The Wild Lives and Fast Times of Marlon Brando, Herman Graff Skyhorse Publishing 2010, p109
  7. ↑ Saban, Stephen (February 2, 2006). "Brando Sucks". World Of Wonder. Retrieved August 19, 2016.
  8. 1 2 3 "Heart Attack Caused Death Of Wally Cox". The Modesto Bee. Modesto, California. AP. February 16, 1973. p. A15. Retrieved July 19, 2010 – via news.google.com.

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