And The Name Is Still Charles Nelson Reilly!

He went from being a major Broadway musical character actor to television's "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (this being one of the shows that rode on the coattails of the success of "Bewitched" and "My Favorite Martian")...
...and from there to being the quintessential seventies game show celebrity and talk show guest...
... to becoming an in-demand theatre and television director, acting teacher and guest star of one of my favorite episodes of both "The X-Files" and "Millennium".

I cannot say enough great things about this actor. A great comedy technician and show biz personality, he left the world wa-a-a-a-y too soon (just as the filmed version of his stage show is being released to rave reviews). Here's what the truthful users-unfriendlytm Wikipedia says about his life and career...

Biography

Reilly was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of Charles Joseph Reilly, an Irish Catholic commercial artist, and Signe Elvera Nelson, a Swedish Lutheran.[1][2] When young he would often make his own puppet theater to amuse himself. His mother, foreshadowing his future as an entertainer, often would tell him to "save it for the stage". At age 13, he escaped the Hartford Circus Fire[3] where over a hundred people died, and as a result he never sat in an audience again through the remainder of his life.[4]

Career

Reilly made his first movie appearance in 1957, playing an uncredited role in the Elia Kazan film A Face in the Crowd. However, most of his work during this period was on the stage, as he appeared in many off-Broadway shows. His big Broadway break came in 1960 with a minor part in the hit Bye Bye Birdie. Reilly would go on to win a Tony Award for his performance in 1962's How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,[5] and he was nominated for another Tony two years later, for his work as Cornelius Hackl in the Broadway production of Hello, Dolly![6] Reilly appeared regularly on television in the 1960s. For example, he did stints both as one of the What's My Line? Mystery Guests and as a panelist on the popular Sunday Night CBS-TV program.

While he kept active in Broadway shows, Reilly would soon become better known for his TV work. In 1965, he made regular appearances on The Steve Lawrence Show, which aired for a single season. From 1968 to 1970, he appeared as uptight "Claymore Gregg" on the television series The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, which also starred Hope Lange and Edward Mulhare, in which he was reunited with Hello, Dolly! Broadway co-star Eileen Brennan on one episode.

In 1971, he appeared as the evil magician "Hoodoo" in Lidsville, a psychedelically flavored live-action children's program produced by Sid and Marty Krofft that aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. The show was about a boy who falls into a magician's hat and enters a magical world of hat-humans. It is through these roles, as well as his playing the titular role in Uncle Croc's Block, that Reilly's voice and mannerisms were embedded in a generation of young fanatics.

During the 1970s, Reilly also appeared as a regular on The Dean Martin Show, and had multiple guest appearances on television series including McMillan and Wife; Here's Lucy; Laugh In; The Love Boat; and Love, American Style. He was also a frequent guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, appearing over 100 times, as he lived within blocks of the studio and would fill in for other guests who were unable to make it to the studio in time.

During this time, Reilly was perhaps best known as a fixture of game shows, primarily due to his appearances as a regular panelist on the television game show Match Game. Reilly was the longest-running guest, and often engaged in petty, hilarious arguments with fellow regular Brett Somers. Reilly typically offered sardonic commentary and peppered his answers with homosexually themed double entendres that pushed the boundaries of 1970s television standards.

From 1975 to 1976, Reilly starred in another live-action children's program called Uncle Croc's Block with Jonathan Harris. Reilly was often a guest celebrity in the 1984 game show Body Language, including one week with Lucille Ball and another week with Audrey Landers.

From 1980, Reilly was primarily active teaching acting and directing for television and theater. He directed episodes of Evening Shade in 1990 and earned a 1997 Tony Award nomination as Best Director of a Play for working with longtime pal Julie Harris, opposite whom he had acted in Skyscraper, and whom he had directed in The Belle of Amherst and a revival of The Gin Game.

Reilly was a longtime teacher of acting at HB Studio, the acting studio made by Herbert Berghof and his wife, Uta Hagen. His acting students included Lily Tomlin and Bette Midler.

In the 1990s, Reilly made guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show, The Larry Sanders
Show, Family Matters, Second Noah, and as eccentric writer Jose Chung in the television series The X-Files ("Jose Chung's From Outer Space") and Millennium ("Jose Chung's Doomsday Defense"). Reilly was nominated for Emmy Awards in 1998 and 1999 for his performances in The Drew Carey Show and Millennium, respectively. From the late 1990s,
Reilly directed theater and opera, touring the country performing a critically acclaimed one-man stage show chronicling his life called Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly and occasionally performing as the voice of "The Dirty Bubble" on the animated series SpongeBob SquarePants. In 2006, his stage show was made into a feature film called The Life of Reilly.[7]

Personal life
Reilly did not publicly proclaim his homosexuality until his one man show Save It for the Stage. However, much like fellow game-show regular Paul Lynde, Reilly played up a campy on-screen persona. In many episodes of Match Game, he would lampoon himself by briefly affecting a deep voice and self-consciously describing how "butch" he was. He mentioned in a 2002 interview with Entertainment Tonight that he felt no need to note this and that he never purposefully hid his homosexuality from anyone.

Patrick Hughes III, a set decorator and dresser, was Reilly's partner; the two met backstage while Reilly was appearing on the game show Battlestars. They lived in Beverly Hills.[8]

On May 25, 2007, Reilly died at his home from complications from pneumonia after a year-long illness.[9]



When I was growing up in the seventies in a little town in Mississippi, the only ideas I had about show business came from game shows and afternoon talk shows like "Dinah" or "The Mike Douglas Show". Sad, possibly. Pathetic, sure. Tragic? Well, let's not get too drama-ytm.

The truth is people like Reilly made Hollywood, performing and being a celebrity seem like the best fun you could have. Living there quickly made me realize otherwise, but I think my love of the great faces and voices of character actors came from my love of game show and talk show celebrities. And no, I'm not going to use irony quotations around celebrities.

For the pure entertainment they give when they appear on TV or in the movies, I celebrate them every time I see them. No irony there.