Marvin Kaplan, the comic actor best known for his voiceover work in "Top Cat" but also appeared in feature films (most notably as Irwin the gas station owner alongside the voice of Top Cat himself Arnold Stang, in "It's A Mad Mad, Mad Mad World") has died. Remembrances?
Kaplan had an opportunity at a television series role, when Dean Jones took his third shot at series television in 1971 with The Chicago Teddy Bears. This sitcom was set at Linc & Latzi’s speakeasy in Chicago during the 1920s. Jones played “Linc McCray,” and John Banner (“Hogan’s Heroes”) was his partner “Uncle Latzi.” There were other good character actors in the cast: Art Metrano, Huntz Hall (from “The Bowery Boys”), Mike Mazurki, Jamie Farr, and Marvin Kaplan as "Marvin". But "The Chicago Teddy Bears" lasted only thirteen weeks (Kaplan was in only four of the episodes). In the photo below, he is seated at the far left, next to Jamie Farr.
In 1974, Kaplan made a special guest appearance as "Brother Joy" in the horror film SNAKES. Director Arthur A. Names was previously an assistant director to Ted V. Mikels among others, and acted as sound mixer on many Hollywood films throughout the 1970s and 80s. After the success of JAWS the next year, World Wide Films re-released SNAKES, retitling it FANGS, and used an ad campaign referencing JAWS.
Kaplan had a small role as a carpet cleaner in the original Disney version of FREAKY FRIDAY. Gary Nelson directed the 1976 film, which has an unreleased score by Johnny Mandel.
In David Lynch's 1990 romantic thriller WILD AT HEART, Kaplan had a small role as "Uncle Pooch," the business partner of "Lulu's" (Laura Dern's) father. Four tracks from Angelo Badalementi's score (11 minutes) appeared on the Polydor soundtrack CD. This is from an interview with Kaplan (see post below):
Kliph Nesteroff: Last thing I wanted to ask you about, Marvin. Years later - after all these great sixties comedy parts and so on... you ended up working with filmmaker David Lynch.
Marvin Kaplan: I love David Lynch. I never worked with Orson Welles, but for me David Lynch is the Orson Welles of this era. He's a genius and a wonderful, sweet man. I did a movie with him called Wild at Heart. I did it with Laura Dern and I knew her mother Diane Ladd. We improvised our scene. Before a take David would tell you the kind of music he wanted, the lighting he wanted... he would give you forty-five different details before he said, "Roll 'em."
I have never worked with any other director who had that sort of complete knowledge of what he wanted and what he was doing. He always hired the same people. He hired the same composer all the time. We did a television show called "On the Air" together. The problem with David is he loses interest for a project, sometimes, in the middle of it - and he assigns it to other people that aren't as talented. So we rarely got the input from David that we needed on "On the Air." ABC was angry with David about something. I don't know what. And they double crossed him. His show "Twin Peaks" was a big hit, but they gave us one of the worst time slots you can imagine. We went off the air after six episodes, but it was a good show.
And just think when Stang and Kaplan wrapped up Winters in that tape, he gave them a lecture in potty training and said to them, "You're mine, Marvin...You're mine Arnold".
Here are Kaplan's recollections of IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD:
Kliph Nesteroff: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World is one of your most famous roles...
Marvin Kaplan: It was great. I replaced Jackie Mason. Jackie was supposed to do my part. He had a lot of nightclub engagements and he told Mr. Kramer about the nightclub engagements and Kramer thanked him very much and fired him. They needed a replacement. I was up for another part in the movie. I was up for the part that Doodles Weaver did in the picture as the assistant to Edward Everett Horton. Now there was a vacancy. My agent recommended me for the part. Anne Kramer did all the casting on that picture. Stanley Kramer's wife. She had pictures of everyone and she looked at who looked good with one another.
They had Arnold Stang and Jonathan Winters and I guess my picture looked good matched with theirs. My agent sent me the script and I called him back. I said, "You know, I almost got killed reading the script. It's very dangerous! I'm being thrown through a glass wall? I have to throw machinery at people?" He said, "Your deal for stunts is that you'll only do the same stunts that your partner will do in the picture." I said, "Who's my partner?" He said, "Arnold Stang." Well, I knew Arnold was the biggest coward in the American theater! So I said, "Whatever Arnold consents to do, I'll do." I knew he would do nothing.
Then we worked with a man named Jonathan Winters and he was an ex-marine. He felt all the actors should do their own stunts. Arnold and I are sitting on the sideline watching Johnny do a scene... hoping he'll get hurt! Not seriously hurt, just a little bit. Sure enough, he strains his back. Arnold and I looked at each other and we knew we wouldn't have to do our own stunts after that. And we didn't. My stunt guy was named Bill Maxwell. He was a very handsome kid - who was thin. They kept putting padding in him to make him look fat like me. I kept taking the padding out because I wanted to look thin.
Arnold's stuntman was a man named Janos Prohaska. He did all the chimps in movies. The problem was Arnold had no shoulders to speak of and this guy had tremendous shoulders. So they had to give Arnold shoulders so that he would look as good as his stuntman (laughs). But they did most of the work, thank God, because I would have got killed making that picture. The ones who did get hurt were Phil Silvers and Ethel Merman.
The scene where she hides the keys... she was running around these rocks and her ankle hit one of the rocks and started to swell. They had to pick her up by her feet. She really got hurt and was in pain. During the shoot [Merman's character] kept hitting Milton Berle with her pocketbook on the head. He kept complaining, "What have you got in the pocketbook!?" She said, "Nothing." They opened her pocketbook and it was full of all this heavy, iron jewelry! She kept hitting him in the head and in his stomach. Wherever she could! But it was great. Terry-Thomas was a delight.
He didn't understand Americans at all. He said, "By now we [in Britain] would have done ten films." The only make-up he got was on his knees because he wore shorts. He didn't get any make-up on his face, as I remember, only on his knee caps. He was hilarious. He and Ethel Merman had a contest. He did a lot of musicals in England. So he would sing something like Tip Toe through the Tulips and she would do something like I Got Rhythm (laughs). It was great company. Buddy Hackett. Mickey Rooney.
Kliph Nesteroff: Buddy Hackett was known for being difficult.
Marvin Kaplan: I didn't like Buddy. I didn't like him. I was standing up and leaning on a couch and he threw a knife at me. Threw a knife at me! There was a knife between my fingers. Yeah. I didn't like Buddy... but he was funny. Very funny. I loved Paul Ford, who I worked with later on. And Sterling Holloway, who I worked with later on. Carl Reiner. Eddie Ryder. Jesse White. They were all wonderful. Terrific. Merman was something else. Sid Caesar couldn't have been nicer. Ben Blue. Dorothy Provine. Gale Gordon. Great people.
Kaplan got his best television gig when he joined the cast of the hit CBS sitcom "Alice" in its third season (1978-79). He played one of the customers in Mel's Diner--"Henry Beesmyer," a telephone lineman. As a semi-regular, Kaplan appeared in 82 episodes during the show's last seven seasons.
From what I read among the various tributes, Adam's Rib was his film debut. As I recall without finding the article, Katherine Hepburn saw him in a play, recommended him to George Cukor, and Marvin found a note backstage on the bulletin board the next day asking him to call MGM. The rest is sweet, sweet history.
