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Larry Blyden (June 23, 1925 - June 6, 1975) was an American actor. June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 191 days remaining. ...
1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...
June 6 is the 157th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (158th in leap years), with 208 days remaining. ...
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
He was born as Ivan Lawrence Blieden in Houston, Texas, and died in Morocco a car accident, shortly before his 50th birthday. Nickname: Bayou City Location in the state of Texas Coordinates: Counties Harris County Fort Bend County Montgomery County Mayor Bill White Area - City 1,558 km² (601. ...
Career Blyden's career had 3 distinct phases. For most of his career, he was known as a good, solid character actor for TV and also as a highly in demand Broadway actor. As for as television is concerned, he starred in one sitcom, "Harry's Girls", which ran from 1963 to 1964. In this adaptation of the Robert E. Sherwood play "Idiot's Delight," Blyden starred as Harry, who was a vaudeville style performer constantly getting into trouble and falling in love. Other than his one starring role, Blyden did many, many guest performances on dramatic anthology series such as Playhouse 90, Omnibus, the Loretta Young Show and many, many others along with The Twilight Zone and other non-anthology dramatic programs. Although he was generally cast as a nice guy, his two Twilight Zone episodes display an impressive range as he takes on two very different jerks: the tough-talking hood who dies and finds the afterlife a little too pleasant in the classic episode A Nice Place to Visit, and the titular vain, cowardly cowboy star in the comedic episode Showdown with Rance McGrew. A character actor is an actor who predominantly performs supporting parts, often in similar roles throughout the course of a career. ...
Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ...
Playhouse 90 is the name of a ninety-minute long dramatic television series that ran on CBS from 1956 to 1961. ...
Parisian Omnibus, late Eighteenth / early nineteenth century Omnibus is a Latin word meaning for all (people) and has several meanings in standard English: bus, a vehicle for transporting large numbers of people Omnibus, a law which covers many different subjects, or has had many unrelated additions tacked onto it. ...
The Twilight Zones original opening The Twilight Zone was a television anthology series created (and often written) by its narrator and host Rod Serling. ...
“A Nice Place to Visit†is an episode of the television series The Twilight Zone. ...
Blyden was an in-demand Broadway and off-Broadway actor. He starred in shows such as Mister Roberts (where he played the role later played by Jack Lemmon in the film version), Harold, Foxy, The Apple Tree and A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the role of Hysterium, a slave. His performance in Flower Drum Song as Sammy Fong also was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Mister Roberts is a Tony Award–winning play and a 1955 Academy Award–nominated film, both of which tell the story of a naval junior-grade lieutenant during World War II who stands up for his crew against the petty tyranny of the ships commander. ...
Harold is an Old English name, meaning army leader, same as the title herald. ...
Foxy has these meanings: Nickname for Graeme Fowler, cricketer Foxy (band), a 1970s Latin-funk group Foxy (cartoon character) from Warner Bros. ...
The Apple Tree is a musical with music by Jerry Bock and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick. ...
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. ...
What is popularly called the Tony Award (formally, the Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre) is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theater, including musical theater, primarily honoring productions on Broadway in New York. ...
Flower Drum Song is a Broadway musical with a score by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The book for the musical was written by Hammerstein and Joseph Fields, based on the novel Flower Drum Song by C.Y. Lee. ...
Late in his career, once he had reached the age where actors typically get less work, he became a game show presenter and MC, starting with Personality in 1967. He also hosted You're Putting Me On, The Movie Game and finally and most successfully, What's My Line?. When he died, he was about to host the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman produced show, Showoffs, which was eventually hosted by Bobby Van. The Movie Game or simply called Movie game is a quiz game that is popular for all ages and usually involves more than one person. ...
Whats My Line? was a weekly panel game show originally produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. ...
Showoffs was a Goodson-Todman game show that aired on ABC for six months in 1975 from June 30 - December 26, with Bobby Van as the host and Gene Wood as the announcer. ...
Bobby Van (December 6, 1928–July 31, 1980) was probably best known for his musical and acting career on Broadway in the 1960s and 1970s. ...
Blyden also had a brief and rather uneventful film career. He played secondary parts in the films Kiss Them For Me (1957), The Bachelor Party (also 1957), and On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970).
In all of these endeavors, Larry was warm, friendly and gregarious. Of all of the What's My Line hosts, he was the only one who seemed to completely become involved in the occupations of the contestants. As the Game Shows '75 site notes, Larry brightened things up considerably when he took over as host. His most common expressions were "That's Terrific!" or "I Can Do That!" when presented with a new challenge. According to Gil Fates' book What's My Line from 1978, Larry's house was full of all sorts of nicknacks that he had gotten from the show and elsewhere. In fact, he was so big into collectibles that the producers of the show had to dissuade him from taking home certain large items.
Personal life Larry was married to actress and dancer Carol Haney (1925-64) from 1955 to 1962. The couple had 2 children, Joshua (1957-2000) and Ellen (1960-present). Carol Haney (December 24, 1924 _ May 10, 1964) was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts and opened a dancing school when she was fifteen years old. ...
Larry was also known as a lover of the ladies. His favorite saying, according to Fates' book, was "I'd love to jump her bones!" Given that he wasn't considered a "hunk" in the typical sense, one has the feeling that his personality won a lot of women over.
References - Fates, Gil (1978) "What's My Line". Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-955146-8
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