Larry Storch, the rubber-faced comic whose lengthy job in theater, videos and television was capped by his “F Troop” function as zany Cpl. Agarn in the 1960s spoof of Western frontier Tv set displays, has died. Storch was 99.
Storch died of organic causes early Friday in his New York City apartment, in accordance to his manager, Matt Beckoff.
AP Photograph/David F. Smith, File
Despite the fact that “F Troop” lasted only two seasons on ABC, from 1965 to 1967, it grew to become a cult beloved in reruns. Its devoted fans could recite virtually all of the adventures of the amazingly incompetent soldiers of Fort Bravery and the customers of the nearby Indigenous American tribe who only pretended to be at war with them.
As Agarn, Storch was the wild-eyed lover and protege of Forrest Tucker’s wily Sgt. O’Rourke, who typically schemed with Frank DeKova’s Chief Wild Eagle to fleece unsuspecting readers. Ken Berry’s Capt. Parmenter was Fort Courage’s clueless commander.
Although “F Troop” introduced him lasting fame, Storch appeared in scores of movies and Television shows both equally right before and soon after the demonstrate. He also relished a very long career in theater and as a comedian at resorts in New York State’s Catskill Mountains region.
He never regretted staying finest recognised for the collection, his supervisor mentioned.
“He embraced it. He beloved getting Agarn” and relished performing with his co-stars, stated Beckoff. Storch was the “kindest, sweetest individual,” who usually had time for autograph-seekers and was generous to persons in need, he stated.
Storch’s credits included “Funny Valentine,” “Sweet 16,” “Sex and the One Woman,” “S.O.B.,” “Airport,” “Treasure Island” and “Oliver Twist.” On Television set, he visitor-starred on these kinds of reveals as “Married… With Small children,” “Archie Bunker’s Position,” “Trapper John, M.D.,” “Fantasy Island,” CHiPS,” “The Enjoy Boat,” “Get Smart,” “Like American Type,” “Gilligan’s Island” and “Auto 54 Where by Are You?”
His several theater appearances ranged from a brutal detective in a 1983 Broadway revival of “Porgy and Bess” to Chief Sitting down Bull in the 2000 revival of “Annie Get Your Gun” with Reba McEntire.
Storch said in a 1998 interview that he was astonished to be regarded for an Army comedy such as “F Troop,” with it getting well known that he served in the Navy for the duration of Earth War II. “All I understood about horses was that they give milk and can bite from both of those finishes,” he quipped.
Indeed, it was his Navy company that had drastically boosted his vocation. For the duration of the war, he had met a radio operator in the Marshall Islands named Bernie Schwartz who experienced told him, “I am likely to be a film star.” Storch, presently a seasoned comedian on the resort circuit, had tried using to chat him out of it, warning him that the business enterprise could be difficult.
They met yet again just after the war, and Schwartz, who by now had changed his name to Tony Curtis, remembered the amusing person from the islands. Storch went on to look in 8 of Curtis’ videos, which includes “Captain Newman,” “Who Was That Lady?” and “The Great Race.”
Laurence Samuel Storch was born in New York Town where by, he recalled proudly, he went on to grow to be course clown at DeWitt Clinton Superior Faculty and “was invited not to occur again.”
He practiced his comedy in Harlem theaters for $2 a night ahead of graduating to the famed schooling ground for comedians of his period, the Catskills.
His to start with significant split arrived on Television in the early 1950s with “The Cavalcade of Stars,” with Jackie Gleason. That led to “The Larry Storch Clearly show,” a 1953 summer sequence. Regular movie and Tv set do the job adopted.
Storch was married to Norma Greve from 1961 until eventually her death in 2003.
