Kenneth Mars

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Kenneth Mars (born April 4, 1935 in Chicago , Illinois , † February 12, 2011 in Granada Hills near Los Angeles , California ) was an American actor and voice actor .

Life

Mars holds a degree in Fine Arts ( Fine Arts ) at the Northwestern University . From the beginning of the 1960s Mars was active as an actor. He made his acting debut in front of the camera in 1962 as a publisher in the US sitcom Car 54, please report . This was followed by episode roles in the television series Smoking Colts , Get Smart and the sitcom He and She . Mars also later took on numerous guest roles in US television series, including Magnum (2.3.), Murder is her Hobby , LA Law - star lawyers, tricks, trials , diagnosis: murder , Nash Bridges , Will and Grace and Hannah Montana . In the science fiction television series Deep Space Nine , he was the hologram character of the protector Colyus in the episode Shadowplay in 1994 .

From the late 1960s he was also active in movies . Mars was often set to the “ German ” and continental European type in US comedies . He embodied this type of role in numerous satirical and ironic characters. He was particularly well known for his collaboration with director Mel Brooks . In his comedy Spring for Hitler (1968), he played the crazy screenwriter and old Nazi Franz Liebkind at the side of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder . In his second collaboration with Brooks, he took on the role of police commissioner Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in his 1974 comedy film Frankenstein Junior , with a monocle and a poorly functioning, crunching arm prosthesis.

He had other cinema roles as Marshal in the western comedy Two Bandits (1969), as a lawyer trapped in a loveless marriage Otto Bentwood in the film drama Desperate People (1971) and as Hugh Simon in the film comedy Is' was, Doc? (1972). In it he played the arrogant, intellectual scientific opponent of Ryan O'Neal from Yugoslavia . In later years he worked with Woody Allen and appeared in his films Radio Days (1987) and Shadows and Fog (1991).

In the 1960s, Mars also played theater several times . In 1961 he went on a tour of the USA as Baron Elberfeld in the musical The Sound of Music . On Broadway in 1962 he was seen at the Henry Miller's Theater in the play The Affair . In the 1969/1970 season he played the role of Sir Evelyn Oakleigh in the musical Anything Goes at the Orpheum Theater in New York City . Even in the 1970s he occasionally appeared on stage.

Mars also worked extensively as a voice actor . He voiced several characters in the American cartoon series Uncle Croc's Block . He spoke the King Triton in the cartoon Ariel the Mermaid . He also played the role of grandfather Longneck in the cartoon series In a Land Before Time for many years .

Private

Mars was married to Barbara Newborn (†); from the marriage two daughters were born. Mars died at his Granada Hills home at the age of 75; pancreatic cancer was given as the cause of death .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biographical data from Kenneth Mars in: Contemporary Theater, Film and Television , Volume 28, by Michael J. Tyrkus, Gale, 2000, page 242
  2. ↑ a b c PASSINGS: Kenneth Mars obituary in: Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2011
  3. ↑ a b Kenneth Mars, Young Frankenstein Actor, Dies at 75 Obituary in: Hollywood Reporter, February 14, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Mars, Kenneth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mars, Ken; Mars, Kenny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and voice actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 2011
Place of death Granada Hills , California