Jack Kruschen

Jacob "Jack" Kruschen (March 20, 1922 – April 2, 2002) was a Canadian character actor who worked primarily in American film, television and radio. Kruschen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Dr. Dreyfuss in the 1960 comedy-drama The Apartment.

Jack Kruschen
Kruschen in 1976
Born
Jacob Kruschen

(1922-03-20)March 20, 1922
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
DiedApril 2, 2002(2002-04-02) (aged 80)
Chandler, Arizona, U.S.
Years active1949–97
Spouse(s)
Marjorie Ullman
​
(
m. 1947; div. 1961)

Violet Rafaella Mooring
​
(
m. 1962; died 1978)

Mary Pender
​
(
m. 1979)
Children2

Early life

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba as Jacob Kruschen, to Moses (aka Maurice and Morris) Kruschen and Sophie (née Bogushevsky) Kruschen, both of Russian Jewish descent, Jacob and his family migrated to New York City in the early 1920s, and then to California. His sister, Miriam, was born in New York City in 1927.

Career

Radio

Kruschen began his radio career while still in high school, and during the 1940s, he became a staple of West Coast radio drama. He had several roles in programs made especially for the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS) broadcast for the benefit of members on active duty in the military in the 1940s and 1950s. He had regular or recurring roles on Broadway Is My Beat (as Sgt. Muggavan), and Pete Kelly's Blues (as Red, the bass player), as well as frequent episodic roles on anthology series, Westerns and crime dramas.

He was heard on such high-profile series as Escape, Dragnet, Gunsmoke (usually as law-abiding locals), Crime Classics, Frontier Gentleman, Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar, Nightbeat and Suspense.

Films
Front row, from left to right: Jack Kruschen, John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara and Chill Wills in McLintock!

His movie career is highlighted by his performance as neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor).

Other film assignments included George Pal's The War of the Worlds (as Salvatore, one of the first three victims, a role he reprised on the Lux Radio Theater adaptation), in Cecil B. DeMille's final film, The Buccaneer, as astronaut Sam Jacobs in the 1959 cult classic The Angry Red Planet, The Unsinkable Molly Brown (as saloon owner Christmas Morgan), Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Lover Come Back, McLintock! (with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara), Follow That Dream (with Elvis Presley), Cape Fear, starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and Money to Burn with Eve McVeagh.

Stage

Kruschen appeared as Maurice Pulvermacher in the original 1962 Broadway production of I Can Get It for You Wholesale with neophyte singer/actress, 19-year-old Barbra Streisand. In 1969, he co-starred in the London staging of the musical Promises, Promises, reprising his film role in this show based on The Apartment.

Television

Kruschen was performing on television as early as 1939, appearing in dramas on Don Lee's experimental television station in Los Angeles, where he was seen on some two hundred television sets with three-inch screens. Thereafter, Kruschen's television career included guest villain Eivol Ekdol, a villainous magicians' craftsman on Batman (episodes 9 and 10). He was seen in twelve episodes of NBC's Dragnet (portraying a pedophile in one infamous episode) as well as the ABC/Desilu series, Zorro. He had a recurring role across three seasons on Bonanza (Italian grapegrower Giorgio Rossi,) as Tully the bartender in the 1960–1961 ABC series Hong Kong (that launched Aussie actor Rod Taylor into his film career). He played the doctor in two episodes of The Rifleman: "Trail of Hate" (episode 77) and "Baranca" (episode 82). He also played Clyde Bailey in "The Retired Gun" (episode 17) and Sammy in "One Went to Denver" (episode 25).

In 1969, Kruschen co-starred with Stefanie Powers in an unsold ABC sitcom pilot, Holly Golighty, adapted from Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. The husky, mustachioed Kruschen seemed to specialize in playing benevolent ethnic paternal figures and had roles in Columbo (The Most Dangerous Match, 1973), Barney Miller, Odd Couple (TV series), Busting Loose, The Incredible Hulk, and, in later years, Murphy Brown, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

He appeared in the recurring role of "Grandpa Papadopolis" on Webster (1985–87), and in the early 1990s, as another Greek grandfather and as Pam and Jesse's grandfather, Iorgos "Papouli" Katsopolis on Full House, appearing in only two episodes before his character is killed off in the episode, "The Last Dance".

His final on-screen appearance was in the 1997 film 'Til There Was You as "Mr. Katz".

Personal life and death

Kruschen was married to Marjorie Ullman from January 1947 to 1961, and his second marriage was to Violet Rafaella Mooring from 1962 to 1978 (her death). He was married a third time, to Mary Pender from July 23, 1979, until April 2, 2002, when he died in Chandler, Arizona, while vacationing. He had been in ill health for some time. He was 80. Though he died on April 2, his death was not widely reported to the media until late May 2002. He was survived by his children and his third wife.

Complete filmography

Partial television credits
For TV movies, see above.
  • Dragnet - 12 episodes (1951-1959)
  • Terry and the Pirates - episode "Macao Gold" (1952) as Chopstick Joe
  • Craig Kennedy, Criminologist- "The Big Shakedown" (1952) as Jack Brown
  • Treasury Men in Action - "Case of the Swindler's Gold" (1955) as Miguel
  • The Adventures of Jim Bowie - "The Birth of the Blade" (1956) as Louis, and "Jackson's Assassination" (1957) as Frost
  • Gunsmoke - "Spring Term" (1956) as Jed
  • Crusader - "A Deal in Diamonds" (1956) as Leon
  • Adventures of Superman - "Tomb of Zaharan" (1957) as First Airport Robber
  • Zorro - "The Man with the Whip" and "The Cross of the Andes" (1958) as Jose Mordante
  • Trackdown - "The Kid" (1958) as Milo York
  • The Rifleman - "One Went to Denver" (1959) as Sammy, "The Retired Gun" (1959) as Clyde Bailey, "Baranca" (1960) as Doc Burrage, "Trail of Hate" (1960) as Doc Burrage
  • Bat Masterson - "The Inner Circle" (1959) as Patch Finley, "The Desert Ship" (1959) as Ben Tarko
  • Wanted: Dead or Alive - "The Empty Cell" (1959) as Hunt Willis, "Railroaded" (1959) as Sheriff Pig Wells
  • The Rough Riders - "Ransom of Rita Renee" (1959) as Tully
  • The D.A.'s Man - "Guns for Hire" (1959) as Leo Muller
  • Sugarfoot - "The Desperadoes" (1959) as Sam Bolt
  • The Detectives - "Twelve Hours to Live" (1960) as Fred Hambrough, "Secret Assignment" (1961) as Jonesy
  • The Westerner - "Going Home" (1960) as Rigdon
  • Richard Diamond, Private Detective - "The Lovely Fraud" (1960) as Max Schilling
  • Death Valley Days - "Eagle in the Rocks" (1960) as Manuel Garcia
  • Black Saddle - "The Apprentice" (1960) as Ben Winkleman
  • Rawhide - "Canliss" (1964) as Barkeep
  • I Spy - "Lisa" (1966) as Aram Kanjarian
  • The Red Skelton Show - "The Bum Who Came in from the Cold" (1966) as Dr. Shnorba
  • The John Forsythe Show - "Engagement, Italian Style" (1966) as Constantino
  • Batman - "Zelda the Great" (1966) and "A Death Worse Than Fate" (1966) as Eivol Ekdal
  • Bonanza - "Big Shadow on the Land" (1966), "The Deed and the Dilemma" (1967) and "The Sound of Drums" (1968) as Giorgio Rossi
  • I Spy - "The Medarra Block" (1967) as Isaac
  • The Mike Douglas Show (1967) as Himself
  • Ironside - "The Macabre Mr. Micawber (1968) as McKay, "Memory of an Ice Cream Stick" (1968) as Busch
  • Daniel Boone - "Sweet Molly Malone" (1969) as Herman
  • Hawaii Five-O - "For a Million... Why Not?" (1971) as Blumberg
  • The Magician - "Ovation for Murder" (1973) as Albie Allikolos
  • Columbo - "The Most Dangerous Match (1973)" as Tomlin Dudek
  • Assignment: Vienna - "So Long, Charlie" (1973) as Orloff
  • McCloud - "Shivaree on Delancy Street" (1974) as Selditz
  • The Rockford Files - "Gearjammers, Part 2" (1975) as John Koenig
  • Movin' On - "Living It Up!" (1976) as Mr. Nash
  • Ellery Queen - "The Adventure of the Judas Tree" (1976) as Gunther Starr
  • Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color - "The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper: Parts 1 & 2" (1976) as Abner Debney
  • The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams - Home of the Hawk (1977) as Metcalf, "Once Upon a Starry Night" (1978) as Frost-bite Foley
  • Busting Loose - 12 episodes (1977) as Sam Markowitz
  • Barney Miller - "Burial" (1977) as Julius Wittenour
  • The Incredible Hulk - "Terror in Times Square" (1978) as Norman Abrams
  • Trapper John, M.D. - "Deadly Exposure" (1979) as Nicholas Bulgari
  • Alice - "Mel, the Magi" (1979) as Santa Claus
  • Barney Miller - "The DNA Story" (1979) as Rudolph Kamen
  • Vega$ - "Vendetta" (1980) as Carlo
  • Little House on the Prairie - "Gambini the Great" (1981) as Rudolpho 'The Great' Gambini
  • Trapper John, M.D. - "Cooperative Care" (1981) as Marvin Krakowsky
  • CHiPs - "Home Fires Burning" (1981) as Frank Higgins
  • Alice - "Carrie Chickens Out" (1981) as Benny Conway
  • The Devlin Connection - "Brian and Nick" (1982) as Max Salkall
  • No Soap, Radio - 5 episodes (1982) as Skit Performer
  • Hart to Hart - "Hart and Sole" (1982) as Harry Fulterman
  • Barney Miller - "Examination Day" (1982) as Benjamin Diamond
  • Matt Houston - "The Crying Clown" (1983) as Jonas Van Poolen, "Company Secrets" (1985) as Reels
  • Zorro and Son - "Zorro and Son" (1983) as Commandante La Brea
  • The A-Team - "The Out-of-Towners" (1983) as Bernie Shatzman
  • Hill Street Blues - "Fuched Again" (1984) as Isadore Fagenbaum
  • Webster - 18 episodes (1984-1989) as 'Papa' Papadapolis
  • Too Close for Comfort - "Reconcilable Differences" (1985) as Dr. Axel Schreiber
  • Remington Steele - "Springtime for Steele" (1985) as Buddy Brokaw
  • Magnum, P.I. - "Laura" (1987) as Doheny's partner and speaker at the retirement
  • Full House - "Greek Week" (1990) and "The Last Dance" (1994) as Iorgos 'Papouli' Katsopolis
  • Material World - 8 episodes (1990-1991) as Fred Avery
  • Matlock - "The Nightmare" (1991) as Judge Ogilvie/Bus Repairman
  • Murder, She Wrote - "Tainted Lady" (1991) as Dr. John Logan
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - "Home Is Where the Heart Attack Is" (1993) as Mr. Melville
  • Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman - "Madame Ex" (1994) as Captain Keene
  • Empty Nest - "What's a Mother to Do?" (1994) as Heshy
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gollark: Energy trips per time.
gollark: ++choose ++choose ?choose
gollark: ↓ LyricLy implementing Macrom
gollark: Use vimcubed.
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