Remembering WWII Vet Larry Storch, Useless at Age 99

Larry Storch served within the U.S. Navy throughout World Battle II on the submarine tender USS Proteus. True reality: Storch served alongside future Hollywood main man Tony Curtis on the Proteus.

Storch died on July 8, 2022, on the actual age of 99 1/2. The actor would’ve turned 100 on Jan. 8, 2023.

Storch by no means graduated from DeWitt Clinton Excessive College within the Bronx, so he isn’t a type of WWII vets who studied performing on the GI Invoice after the battle. He labored as a standup comedian earlier than breaking in as a visitor on varied tv reveals within the Fifties.

In case you grew up within the ’50s, ’60s or ’70s, you already know him from at the very least considered one of your favourite reveals. Storch has 249 performing credit on IMDb and appeared on such reveals as “The Phil Silvers Present,” “Automobile 54, The place Are You?,” “The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Gilligan’s Island,” “I Dream of Jeannie,” “That Woman,” “Gomer Pyle: USMC,” “All within the Household,” “Emergency!,” “Love American Type,” “Mannix,” “Kolchak: The Evening Stalker,” “Columbo,” “Police Story,” “McCloud,” “CPO Sharkey,” “The Love Boat,” “CHiPs,” “Fantasy Island,” “The Fall Man” and “Knight Rider.”

Storch did not do many films, however he had memorable turns in “Airport 1975,” “Intercourse and the Single Woman” (supporting his Navy buddy, Tony Curtis), “The Nice Race” (Curtis was a superb buddy to have) and a memorable flip as a hard-of-hearing buyer in “File Metropolis,” a 1977 knockoff of “Automobile Wash” set in a report retailer.

Towering above all these credit are two iconic roles that made him a Hollywood legend:

Cpl. Randolph Agarn – “F Troop” (1965-1967)

Storch starred alongside fellow WWII vet Forrest Tucker as Sgt. Morgan O’Rourke and Army vet Ken Berry as Capt. Wilton Parmenter on this outrageous comedy sequence a few distant U.S. Army outpost within the Outdated West close to the tip of the Civil Battle.

O’Rourke and Agarn are concerned in an infinite sequence of scams in league with the chief of the native (fictional) Hekawi tribe. Parmenter is a clueless commanding officer who by no means fairly understands the chaos occurring round him.

“F Troop” is stuffed with cliched and no-longer-acceptable portrayals of Native American characters who’re normally performed by white actors, so it isn’t more likely to be streaming anyplace anytime quickly, however the humor within the sequence did not elevate any eyebrows when it was aired again within the ’60s. You’ll be able to watch Storch’s present by way of DVD or purchase it by way of iTunes.

Phineas J. Whoopee – “Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales” (1963-1965)

For “Tennessee Tuxedo,” Storch reunited along with his highschool buddy, Don Adams, who served within the Marines throughout WWII and fought on the Battle of Guadalcanal. The stakes had been a lot decrease for this cartoon sequence, the place Adams voiced Tennessee Tuxedo, a wisecracking penguin who lives on the Megapolis Zoo and has ongoing feuds with the impatient zookeeper, Stanley Livingston, and the desert rodent, Jerboa Bounce.

Storch’s character, Phineas J. Whoopee, was created as a direct response to well-known 1961 feedback by FCC commissioner and WWII Army veteran Newton Minow that tv was nothing greater than a “huge wasteland.” At any time when Tennessee and his walrus sidekick, Chumley, wanted some assist with their schemes, they visited Prof. Whoopee who gave them an “instructional” speech. Storch’s supply was much more memorable than any details he might have tried to impart to the zoo animals.

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