Ned Glass

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Ned Glass

Glass in Charade
Born (1906-04-01)April 1, 1906
Poland
Died June 15, 1984(1984-06-15) (aged 78)
Encino, California, United States
Occupation Actor
Years active 1931–1982
Spouse(s) Kitty McHugh (1935-1954; her death)
Jean (or Jhean) Burton (1965-1975; divorced)

Ned Glass (April 1, 1906 – June 15, 1984) was an American character actor who appeared in more than eighty films and on television more than one hundred times, frequently playing nervous, cowardly, or deceitful characters. Short and bald, with a slight hunch to his shoulders, he was immediately recognizable by his distinct appearance, his nasal voice, and his pronounced New York City accent.


Early life

Born in Poland, to a Jewish family, Glass immigrated to the United States at an early age and grew up in New York City.[1] He attended college at City College.[2]

Career

Glass worked in vaudeville,[1] and appeared on Broadway in 1931 in the Elmer Rice play Counsellor-at-Law.[3] He continued to act and direct on Broadway until 1936,[4] when he was signed as a MGM contract player.[5] He made his first film appearance in 1937, with an uncredited role in True Confession,[6] and his first credited film appearance came in two episodes of the serial Dick Tracy Returns (1938).[7]

Beginning in 1937, Glass worked regularly in films, helped by friends like producer John Houseman and Glass's next door neighbor, Moe Howard of The Three Stooges, who got him a part in the Stooges' film Nutty But Nice.[1] He also appeared in From Nurse to Worse, Three Little Sew and Sews and You Nazty Spy!. Glass did not appear in any films released between 1942 and 1947, possibly because of military service, but he generally worked in a handful of films almost every year thereafter, playing small roles and bit parts, including additional Three Stooges films Uncivil War Birds, Hokus Pokus and Three Hams on Rye. He was reportedly briefly blacklisted, during which time he found work as a carpenter.[8]

Glass began showing up on television in 1952, when he was cast on an episode of The Red Skelton Show.[9] He later was frequently seen on CBS in Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners sketches.[1] He was in an early episode (2.28) of Gunsmoke, "The Photographer", as a scruffy little prospector who's brutally murdered and scalped to obtain a cheaply thrilling photograph of Western violence. From 1955 to 1958, Glass played "Sgt. Andy Pendleton" on You'll Never Get Rich (better remembered as The Phil Silvers Show). In 1957, he appeared as "Jackson", an arms dealer to Indians, in an episode of the syndicated western series, Boots and Saddles,[10] as well as a railroad ticket agent in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest. He appeared in the syndicated crime drama, Sheriff of Cochise, starring John Bromfield and in the ABC western series, The Rebel, starring Nick Adams. He appeared too in David Janssen's crime drama, Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

Glass guest starred in three sitcoms in the early years of television, NBC's The People's Choice, starring Jackie Cooper, CBS's Angel, with Annie Fargé, and ABC's Guestward, Ho!, starring Joanne Dru. He portrayed Doc, the drugstore owner, in the Hollywood version of West Side Story. In the fall of 1963, Glass guest starred in an episode of the 13-week CBS combination sitcom/drama, Glynis, starring British actress Glynis Johns as a mystery writer, with Keith Andes as her attorney-husband.

Glass popped up in the 1967 Monkees episode "Monkees in the Ring" as fight promoter Joey Sholto, and as convicted forger "Freddie the Forger" in a fifth season episode of NBC's Get Smart entitled "Do I Hear a Vaults?" (1970).[11] He played "Sol Cooper" on the Diahann Carroll vehicle Julia from 1968 to 1971, and was nominated in 1969 for an Emmy Award for his performance in the "A Little Chicken Soup Never Hurt Anybody" episode[12][13] Glass also played "Uncle Moe Plotnick" on the short-lived series Bridget Loves Bernie (1972–73)

Highlights of Glass's film career include playing "Doc" in West Side Story, "Popcorn" in Blake Edwards's thriller Experiment in Terror, and bad guy "Leopold W. Gideon" in Stanley Donen's Charade. He was notable in Kid Galahad with Elvis Presley, Disney's The Love Bug, Billy Wilder's The Fortune Cookie and Save the Tiger starring Jack Lemmon. His final film appearance was in the low-budget comedy Street Music, and his final TV appearance was as a pickpocket on Cagney & Lacey in 1982.

Personal life

Glass was married to actress Kitty McHugh, and was brother-in-law to character actor Frank McHugh,[14] and bit player Matt McHugh.[15] Kitty McHugh committed suicide on 3 September 1954, and Glass later married actress Jean (also known as Jhean) Burton. That marriage ended in divorce.[5]

Death

Glass died in Encino Hospital in Encino, California, on 15 June 1984 at the age of 78, after a long illness.[16]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ned Glass at Allmovie
  2. ↑ Ned Glass at TCM Movie Database
  3. ↑ Counsellor-at-Law at the Internet Broadway Database
  4. ↑ Ned Glass at the Internet Broadway Database
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ned Glass at Great Character Actors
  6. ↑ True Confession at the Internet Movie Database
  7. ↑ Dick Tracy Returns at the Internet Movie Database
  8. ↑ Ned Glass at Find a Grave
  9. ↑ Ned Glass at the Internet Movie Database
  10. ↑ "Boots and Saddles". Classic TV Archives. Retrieved September 12, 2009. 
  11. ↑ sinatraguide.com/Monkees
  12. ↑ "A Little Chicken Soup Never Hurt Anybody" (Julia) at the Internet Movie Database
  13. ↑ IMDB Awards & Nominations
  14. ↑ Frank McHugh at the Internet Movie Database
  15. ↑ Matt McHugh at the Internet Movie Database
  16. ↑ UPI "Ned Glass, an Actor, Dies" New York Times (25 June 1984)

External links


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