Fred Gwynne was an enormously talented character actor most famous for starring in the television situation comedies "Car 54, Where Are You?" (1961)" as officer Francis Muldoon and "Munsters, The" (1964)" as the Frankenstein clone Herman Munster. He was very tall and had a resonant, baritone voice that he put to good use in Broadway musicals.
Born Frederick Hubbard Gwynne in New York City on July 10, 1926 to a wealthy stockbroker father, he attended the exclusive prep school Groton, where he first appeared on stage in a student production of Shakespeare's "Henry V." After serving in the U.S. Navy as a radioman during World War II, he went on to Harvard, where he majored in English and was on the staff of the `Harvard Crimson' student newspaper. At Harvard, he studied drawing with artist R.S. Merryman and was active in dramatics. A member of the Hasty Pudding Club, he performed in the dining club's theatricals, appearing in the drag revues of 1949 and '50. After graduating from Harvard with the class of `51, Gwynne acted in Shakespeare with a Cambridge, Massachusetts repertory company before heading to New York City, where he supported himself as a musician and copywriter. His principal source of income for many years came from his work as a book illustrator and as a commercial artist. His first book, "The Best in Show," was published in 1958.
On February 20, 1952, he made his Broadway debut as the character Stinker in support of Helen Hayes in the comic fantasy "Mrs. McThing." The play, written by "Harvey" author Mary Chase, had a cast featuring Ernest Borgnine, the future "Professor" Irwin Corey, and Brandon De Wilde, the young son of the play's stage manager, Frederick de Wilde. The play ran for 320 performances and closed on January 10, 1953. He next appeared on Broadway in Burgess Meredith's staging of Nathaniel Benchley's comedy "The Frogs of Spring, which opened at the Broadhurst Theatre on October 21, 1953. The play flopped, closing on Halloween Day after but 15 performances. He did not appear on Broadway again for almost seven years.
Gwynne made his movie debut, unbilled, as one of Johnny Friendly's gang of thugs who menace Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's classic "On the Waterfront (1954)". From 1956 to 1963, he appeared on the TV dramatic showcases "Studio One" (1948)", "Kaiser Aluminum Hour, The" (1956)", "Kraft Television Theatre" (1947)", "DuPont Show of the Month, The" (1957)", "DuPont Show of the Week, The" (1961)", and "United States Steel Hour, The" (1953)". But it was in situation comedies that he made his name and his fame.
In 1955, he made a memorable guest appearance as Private Honigan on "Phil Silvers Show, The" (1955)". He played a soldier with an enormous appetite that Silvers' Sgt. Bilko entered into a pie-eating contest, only to discover he could only eat like a trencherman when he was depressed. The spot lead to him coming back as a guest in more episodes. While appearing on Broadway as the pimp Polyte-Le-Mou in the Peter Brook -directed hit "Irma La Douce" (winner of the 1961 Tony Award for Best Musical), "Bilko" producer-writer Nat Hiken cast him in one of the lead roles in the sit-com "Car 54, Where Are You?" The show, in which he revealed his wonderful flair for comedy, had Gwynne appearing as New York City police officer Francis Muldoon, who served in a patrol car in the Bronx with the dim-witted Officer Gunther Toody, played by co-star Joe E. ("Oooh! Oooh!") Ross. "Car 54" lasted only two seasons, but it was so fondly remembered by Baby Boomers, it inspired a feature film version in 1994. He also served as Lamb Chop's doctor on another Baby Boom classic, "Shari Lewis Show, The" (1960)".
Another one of his "Car 54" co-stars, Al Lewis , not only would become a life-long friend, he would appear as Gwynne's father-in-law in his next sit-com. Gwynne was cast as the Frankenstein's monster-like paterfamilias in "The Munsters," which also lasted two seasons. In addition to wearing heavy boots with four-inch lifts on them, Gwynne had to wear between 40 and 50 lbs of padding and makeup for the role, and he reportedly lost ten pounds in one day of filming under the hot lights. He made guest appearances as Herman Munster, most notably on "Red Skelton Show, The" (1951)", appearing on April 27, 1965 along with Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, a pop band from The Beatles' native Liverpool. Gwynne appeared in character as Herman Munster in a 'Freddie the Freeloader' comedy sketch.
When "The Munsters" was canceled after the 1965-66 season, Gwynne returned to the theater to escape television typecasting, although he did return for a featured appearance in the televised version of "Arsenic and Old Lace (1969) (TV)", playing the psychotic Jonathan Brewster in an all-star cast including with his "Mrs. McThing" co-star Helen Hayes, Lillian Gish, Bob Crane, Sue Lyon, Jack Gilford and David Wayne .
He appeared twice on television in Mary Chase's "Harvey," the first time in 1958 on the "Dupont Show of the Month" version broadcast by CBS, in which he appeared in support of Art Carney as Elwood P. Dodd. Others in the cast included Elizabeth Montgomery , Jack Weston, and Larry Blyden. He appeared as the cab driver in the 1972 version in which James Stewart reprised his role as Dodd, in which he was reunited with his Broadway co-star Helen Hayes.
In 1968, he made a TV series pilot for Screen Gems, "Guess What I Did Today?" co-starring Bridget Hanley, who later played Candy Pruit on "Here Come the Brides" (1968)". The pilot, which was made for NBC, was not picked up by the network. Gwynne had trouble making producers forget his Herman Munster character, and he started refusing to have anything to do with or even to speak of the show. One of the few visual productions to utilize his beautiful singing voice was "Littlest Angel, The (1969) (TV)", a musical produced as part of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" (1951)".
His movie and TV appearances were sporadic throughout the 1970s as he worked on and off-Broadway. He had used his singing voice again to great effect in Meredith Wilson's musical "Here's Love," which opened at the Shubert Theatre on October 20, 1963 and played for 334 performances, closing on July 25, 1964. Exactly nine years from the "Here's Love" opening, he appeared at the Plymouth as Abraham Lincoln in the Broadway play "The Lincoln Mask," a flop that lasted but one week of eight performances.
His most distinguished performance on Broadway, and the favorite of all his theatrical roles, was as Big Daddy in the 1974 Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Though not as cutting as Burl Ives had been in the original production, his Big Daddy was lyrical and powerful, so much so that he overpowered Keir Dullea in the role of Brick. Elizabeth Ashley , however, won a Tony Award for playing Maggie the Cat in the production, which gave Williams his first big success in a decade, albeit in a revival.
Gwynne also was memorable as the elderly Klansman in the first two parts of "The Texas Trilogy" in 1977 season. His last appearance on Broadway was in Anthony Shaffer's "Whodunnit," which opened at the Biltmore Theatre on December 30, 1983 and closed May 15, 1983 after 157 total performances. Before saying goodbye to the Broadway stage in a hit, he had appeared on the Great White Way in two flops in 1978: "Angel," the musical version of Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward, Angel," which lasted but five performances, and the Australian professional football club drama "Players," which lasted 23 performances. For the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, he had appeared in Off-Broadway in "More Than You Deserve" in the 1973-74 season, and in "Grand Magic" during the 1978-79 season, for which he won an Obie Award. On the radio, Gwynne appeared in 79 episodes of "The CBS Radio Mystery Theater" between 1975 and 1982.
With time, his characterization of Herman Munster began to fade, and he began establishing himself as a film character actor of note in the 1980s with well-reviewed appearances in "The Cotton Club (1984)", "Ironweed (1987)", Disorganized Crime (1989)_ (qv), and "Pet Sematary (1989)". In the latter film, his character Jud Crandall was based on author Stephen King , who himself is quite tall. Gwynne also made a memorable turn as the judge who battles with the eponymous "My Cousin Vinny (1992)", his last film. Critic and cinema historian Mick LaSalle cited Gwynne's performance as Judge Chamberlain Haller in his August 2003 article `Role call of overlooked performances is long,' writing "Half of what made Joe Pesci funny in this comedy was the stream of reactions of Gwynne, as the Southern judge, a great Dane to Pesci's yapping terrier."
Gwynne sang professionally, painted and sculpted, and wrote and illustrated children's books, including "The King Who Rained" (1970), "A Chocolate Moose for Dinner" (1976), "A Little Pigeon Toad" (1988), and "Pondlarker." (1990). He wrote 10 books in all, and "King," "Chocolate Moose," and "Pigeon Toad," which all were published by the prestigious house Simon & Schuster, are still in print.
In the first part of his professional life, Gwynne lived a quiet life in suburban Bedford, New York, and avoided the Hollywood and Broadway social scenes. He married his first wife Foxy in 1952; they had five children and divorced in 1980. He and his second wife Deb, whom he married in 1981, lived in a renovated farmhouse in rural Taneytown, Maryland. His neighbors described him as a good friend and neighbor who kept his personal and professional lives separate.
Fred Gwynne died on July 2, 1993 in Taneytown, Maryland, after a battle with cancer of the pancreas. He was just eight days shy of turning 67 years old. He is sorely missed by we Baby Boomers who grew up delighted by his Officer Francis Muldoon and Herman Munster, and were gratified by his late-career renaissance on film.
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