Larry Storch

Larry Storch, the actor who starred in F Troop as Corporal Randolph Agarn, died in his sleep on July 8. He was 99. The comedian was also known for voiceover ...

“He loved being Agarn.” “He embraced it,” Beckoff said. “We are shocked and at a loss for words at the moment.

We're playing taps for Larry Storch, the beloved comic actor best known for his two seasons on the endlessly rerun 1966-67 sitcom F Troop.

After F Troop, he continued work as vocal talent for animated movies and TV series such as Journey Back to Oz and The Pink Panther Show. But, like other actors who enjoyed TV stardom in the 1960s, he did not collect residuals as his signature series was rerun. Agarn was not the sharpest knife in the drawer — he often responded to O’Rourke’s latest get-rich-quick scheme with “That makes sense... “F Troop allowed me to get my foot in any door,” Storch said in 2010. not to me, but it makes sense!” — and Storch played the character so amusingly that he earned a 1967 Emmy Award nomination. Melody Patterson co-starred as Wrangler Jane, a straight-shooting spitfire who was mighty sweet on Parmenter.

In a long, versatile career, he was an impressionist, comedian and character actor with a memorable role in a 1960s sitcom.

In the early 1950s, Mr. Storch replaced Jackie Gleason as host of the variety show “Cavalcade of Stars” and briefly hosted his own TV show in 1953. He was never embarrassed about the slapstick TV comedy that made him famous. All three sets of grandparents — Norma Storch’s, Jimmy Cross’s and Mr. Storch’s — refused to have anything to do with their granddaughter or her mother. “But I advised him to get out of the business, because I knew firsthand how hard it was to make a living in show business. “My mother ran a rooming house on West 77th Street in the 1920s,” Mr. Storch told the Wall Street Journal in 2012. Norma Storch died in 2003. Agarn frequently mentioned his hometown of Passaic, N.J., and in one episode, both candidates for mayor converge on Fort Courage to seek the corporal’s absentee vote to break an electoral tie. You take a right at the rock that looks like a bear, then a left at the bear that looks like a rock.” It’s a good thing he didn’t listen to me.” After “F Troop,” Mr. Storch had a recurring part in “The Doris Day Show,” acted in the 1975 airline disaster film “Airport 1975” and was reunited with Tucker for the short-lived TV show “The Ghost Busters” (1975), which had no connection to the 1984 blockbuster film “Ghostbusters.” Mr. Storch attended DeWitt Clinton High in the Bronx, where one of his classmates was the comic actor Don Adams. He began to perform as a teenage impressionist and dropped out of school to pursue a career in show business. Larry Storch, a comic actor best known for his role as a bumbling corporal in the 1960s sitcom “F Troop,” set at the fictional Fort Courage in the Old West, died July 8 at his home in Manhattan. He was 99.

Larry Storch, the rubber-faced comic whose long career in theater, movies and television was capped by his "F Troop" role as zany Cpl. Agarn in the 1960s ...

During the war, he had met a radio operator in the Marshall Islands named Bernie Schwartz who had told him, "I'm going to be a movie star." They met again after the war, and Schwartz, who by now had changed his name to Tony Curtis, remembered the funny guy from the islands. While "F Troop" brought him lasting fame, Storch appeared in scores of films and TV shows both before and after the show. Although "F Troop" lasted only two seasons on ABC, from 1965 to 1967, it became a cult favorite in reruns. "He embraced it. Storch was 99.

His well-honed comic timing, and the mimicry skills he had developed in nightclubs, served him well on one of the sillier sitcoms of the 1960s.

He first came to the attention of television audiences in 1951 as a guest host of “Cavalcade of Stars,” and in 1953 CBS picked him to host the summer replacement show that filled Jackie Gleason’s Saturday night slot. Mr. Storch could sometimes be seen playing the saxophone, a lifelong hobby, in Central Park. Another signature activity, even late in life, was standing on his head. In 2016 he was honored by Passaic, N.J., the city the fictitious Corporal Agarn called home. Mr. Storch left high school during the Depression when he found that he could make a few dollars doing impressions in the city’s clubs and acting as M.C. for vaudeville shows. I’m going to need a corporal around here, and I think he and I would have good chemistry.’” The “he” was Mr. Storch. In June 2014 he served as mayor for a day of Fort Lee., N.J., a town where he had once performed. Then came “F Troop,” which brought Mr. Storch an Emmy nomination in 1967. His mother, Sally (Kupperman) Storch, was a telephone operator who later had a jewelry store and ran a rooming house. But his other work was dwarfed by the impression he made during the two-season run of “F Troop” on ABC, from 1965 to 1967. The personal story of Mr. Storch and his wife has another wrinkle as well. When not clowning around on the stage or screen, Mr. Storch was party to an unusual secret at home. “I had cousins who came from Moscow, Mexico, Montreal,” Mr. Storch recalled in a 2009 interview.

Famed comedy actor Larry Storch, best known for F Troop, has died, aged 99. His family released a statement, saying, “It is with the heaviest of hearts that ...

He left high school to work as a stand up comedian, then served in the U.S. Navy where he was shipmates with Tony Curtis. He is reunited with his wife Norma and his beloved F Troop cast and so many friends and family.” Famed comedy actor Larry Storch, best known for F Troop, has died.