Comedian and actor Charlie Callas died 27 January 2011. Born Charles Callias in Brooklyn, New York, on 20 December 1927, he was known for his rubbery features, incredibly voiced sound effects, and zany comic antics.
He started playing drums as a teenager and, after serving in the Army in World War II, performed around the country with major bands, including Tommy Dorsey’s and Claude Thornhill’s. According to The New York Times, “while performing he would engage in madcap antics, cracking up audiences and musicians alike, inspiring him to turn to comedy in 1962. A year later he made his first network television appearance on The Hollywood Palace. Soon he was opening for Frank Sinatra in nightclubs around the country.” He became a staple on “every television variety and talk show in the days of Ed Sullivan, Jackie Gleason, Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson. He was a regular on The Andy Williams Show and The ABC Comedy Hour, a semiregular on The Flip Wilson Show and a co-host of The Joey Bishop Show.”
Tony Belmont, executive director of the National Comedy Hall of Fame, is quoted in the Times: “There were two things he could do that made his career: He could think very fast on his feet, and he had an unbelievable number of sounds that he made with his voice.” For example, “he would tell a joke about two guys hunting. If you or I told it, the joke wasn’t so funny. But Charlie made it hysterical by sticking in these sounds; so you would hear the gun cocking, the duck flying overhead, the explosion of the shotgun and then the duck falling and screaming all the way to the ground.”
Callas starred as the voice of Eliot, the dragon, in Pete’s Dragon (1977), and has a role in the forthcoming Horrorween. His other genre roles include: Vampire Vixens from Venus (1995), The Ren and Stimpy Show (1993), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Gallavants (1984), Hysterical (1983), History of the World, Part 1 (1981), Legends of the Superheroes (1979), and The Munsters (1966).
He is survived by two sons, Mark and Larry. His wife, Evelyn, died in July.