| Larry Storch | |
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Storch in 2011 at the book launch party for Michael Musto's Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back |
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| Born | Lawrence Samuel Storch January 8, 1923 New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor/Comedian |
| Years active | 1949–present |
| Spouse | Norma Catherine Greve (1961–2003; her death) |
Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch (born January 8, 1923) is an American actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr. Whoopee on Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales, and his live-action role of the bumbling Corporal Randolph Agarn on F Troop.
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Storch was born in New York City, a son of Alfred Storch, a realtor, and his wife Sally (Kupperman) Storch, a telephone operator.[1] He attended DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx with Don Adams, who remained his lifelong friend. Storch served in the U.S. Navy during World War II on the submarine tender USS Proteus, along with future actor Tony Curtis.[2]
Storch was originally a stand-up comic. This led to guest appearances on dozens of television shows, including Get Smart, Sergeant Bilko, Columbo, CHiPs, Fantasy Island, McCloud, Emergency!, The Flying Nun, Alias Smith and Jones, That Girl, I Dream of Jeannie, Gomer Pyle, Gilligan's Island, The Doris Day Show, and All in the Family. His most famous role was the scheming Corporal Agarn on the TV series F-Troop, with Forrest Tucker and Ken Berry. In 1975, Storch co-starred with Bob Burns (who was disguised as a gorilla) and Forrest Tucker on the popular Saturday morning show The Ghost Busters. He also appeared on The Love Boat, was Al Bundy's childhood hero on Married... with Children, and was a semi-regular on Car 54, Where Are You? He co-starred on the short-lived series The Queen and I.
Storch appeared on many variety shows including Sonny and Cher, Laugh-In, Hollywood Squares, Playboy After Dark, The Hollywood Palace, and Toast of the Town, with several appearances on the Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson, and Steve Allen shows. Jackie Gleason personally asked Storch to fill in for the summer while Gleason was on hiatus. This led to his hosting The Larry Storch Show in the early 1950s. He played a recurring role as Charlie, a drunk, on Car 54, Where Are You?.
An impressionist, Storch does hundreds of voices and dialects ranging from Muhammad Ali to Claude Rains. This has proved useful for cartoons. He has voiced characters in numerous TV and film animations including The Batman/Superman Hour, The Pink Panther Show, The Groovy Goolies, The Inspector, The Brady Kids, Cool Cat, Koko the Clown, Treasure Island, Return from Oz, Scooby Doo, Tennessee Tuxedo, and many more. Larry has worked with Mel Blanc and June Foray at Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. He was the first actor to voice Batman's arch enemy, "The Joker", in The Adventures of Batman segments produced by Filmation animation in the late 1960s. Larry continued his association with Filmation as a voiceover actor in other series the company produced including Journey Back to Oz where he voiced Aunt Em's and Uncle Henry's farmhand, Amos.
Cary Grant—who never actually said the line "Judy, Judy, Judy" in any movie or performance—attributed the phrase's origin to a Storch performance in which he impersonated Grant.[3][4]
Storch has appeared in more than 25 Hollywood films, including 40 Pounds of Trouble (1962), Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), Wild and Wonderful (1964), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), and The Great Race (1965), all starring Tony Curtis. He also appeared in S.O.B (1981) directed by Blake Edwards as well as The Great Bank Robbery (1969), Airport 1975 (1974), I Don't Buy Kisses Anymore (1992), and sci-fi cult films The Monitors (1969) and Without Warning (1980). Tony Curtis and Storch reunited for a 2003 run of the musical version of Some Like It Hot. In 2005, he worked with Anthony Michael Hall in Funny Valentine (2005), and appeared in the documentary feature The Aristocrats (2005).
After success in TV and films, Storch returned to NYC to the stage after having first performed on the Broadway stage in the 1950s. [5] He received rave reviews for the off-Broadway production of Breaking Legs. Co-starring Philip Bosco and Vincent Gardenia, the show extended several times before going on the road. Storch appeared in the Broadway productions of Porgy and Bess (which Larry considers his favorite), Arsenic and Old Lace, and Annie Get Your Gun with Reba McEntire. He later toured the country with the show. In 2004 he was in Sly Fox with Richard Dreyfus and his old friend Irwin Corey. Larry, then 81, and "Professor" Corey, then 90, did 8 shows a week. In March 2008, Storch celebrated his 50th anniversary performing on Broadway. His first Broadway appearance had been in 1958 in Who was That Lady I Saw You With, later made into a 1960 film starring Dean Martin and Tony Curtis, with Storch appearing.
He recorded a comedy LP Larry Storch at The Bon Soir released by Jubilee in the 1960s. Other records include Larry Storch Reads Philip Roth's Epstein, Larry Storch Pooped/Eighth Wonder of the World, Larry Storch / I'm Walkin. In less than two years' time Storch appeared on three TV Guide covers, all with various F-Troop co-stars, Storch being the only one featured on all three covers. He also appeared on the cover of TV Guide in 2000.
Storch is now "semi-retired". He likes to play his saxophone in the park and does occasional memorabilia shows to greet his many fans. He signs autographs at film festivals, including Chiller Theater and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. He is currently working on his autobiography.
Storch married actress Norma Catherine Greve on July 10, 1961. They remained married until her death at age 81 on August 28, 2003. Both briefly appeared in the 1972 made for television movie The Woman Hunter. He has three children: a stepson, Lary May; a daughter, Candace Herman, the result of a brief encounter with his future wife, born in 1947 and given to the adoption process (later reunited); and a stepdaughter, June Cross, born in 1954 to Norma and Jimmy Cross ("Stump" of the black song-and-dance team "Stump and Stumpy").[6]
Storch had a younger brother, Jay Storch, who was also a famous actor and voiceover performer under the name Jay Lawrence.[7][8]
In an episode of the TV show Married With Children, Kelly Bundy attends the "Larry Storch School of Acting". Plays by the students are performed in abandoned theatres which the audience sneak into through building cracks and boarded up entryways.
The band Splitsville played tribute to Storch in their song "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Larry Storch, Larry Storch".