Author Topic: Charles Nelson Reilly, Tony Award-Winning Broadway Actor and Comic, Dies at 76  (Read 2676 times)

Offline dot-matrix

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Charles Nelson Reilly, Tony Award-Winning Broadway Actor and Comic, Dies at 76 
 
 

05-28-2007 2:50 AM


LOS ANGELES (Associated Press) --  Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the "Tonight Show" and various game shows, has died. He was 76.

Reilly died Friday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.

Reilly began his career in New York City, taking acting classes at a studio with Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page and Hal Holbrook. In 1962, he appeared on Broadway as Bud Frump in the original Broadway production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." The role won Reilly a Tony Award.

He was nominated for a Tony again for playing Cornelius in "Hello, Dolly!" In 1997 he received another nomination for directing Julie Harris and Charles Durning in a revival of "The Gin Game."

After moving to Hollywood in 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" and as a featured guest on "The Dean Martin Show."

He gained fame by becoming what he described as a "game show fixture" in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like "Match Game" and "Hollywood Squares," often wearing giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots.

His larger-than-life persona and affinity for double-entendres also landed him on the "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson more than 95 times.

Reilly ruefully admitted his wild game show appearances adversely affected his acting career. "You can't do anything else once you do game shows," he told The Advocate, the national gay magazine, in 2001. "You have no career."

His final work was an autobiographical one-man show, "Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly," about his family life growing up in the Bronx. The title grew out of the fact that when he would act out as a child, his mother would often admonish him to "save it for the stage."

The stage show was made into the 2006 feature film called "The Life of Reilly."

Reilly's openly gay television persona was ahead of its time, and sometimes stood in his way. He recalled a network executive telling him "they don't let queers on television."

Hughes, his only immediate survivor, said Reilly had been ill for more than a year.

No memorial plans had been announced.




Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved




Good night Charles, Thanks for the memories, the laughter and the smiles.  Your were a TV staple and an icon of my youth.  Always there with your quick wit and a snappy comeback.  Resquiat In Pace
Life is not a dress rehearsal

Offline Toast

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......

Born in the Bronx, the only child of a Swedish mother and an Irish father, Mr. Reilly told of the pain of being considered the oddest member of a decidedly odd family.

.....

He recalled being dismissed early in his career by a network executive, who told him that “they don’t let queers on television.”  Paul Linke, who directed the one-man show [“Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly,”], said Mr. Reilly later had the last laugh when he would page through TV Guide and count how many times he was on the air that week.


NY Times Obit



Online southendmd

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I highly recommend "Life of Reilly", the film version of his one-man show (which apparently changed nightly depending on his whim). 

There was much depth to this man.  Far beyond the very gay TV persona, which I remember very fondly from my childhood. 


Offline Ellemeno

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I loved him as a kid, even though I knew that I only understood part of most of his jokes.