Hans Conried
Conried inThe Tony Randall Show (1977)
Born	Hans Georg Conried Jr. (1917-04-15)April 15, 1917 Baltimore,Maryland, U.S.
Died	January 5, 1982(1982-01-05) (aged 64) Burbank,California, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	1937–1981
Spouse	Margaret Grant ​ (m. 1942)​
Children	4

Hans Georg Conried Jr. (April 15, 1917 – January 5, 1982) was an American actor and comedian. He was known for providing the voices ofGeorge Darling andCaptain Hook inWalt Disney'sPeter Pan (1953),Snidely Whiplash inJay Ward'sDudley Do-Right cartoons, Professor Waldo P. Wigglesworth in Ward'sHoppity Hooper cartoons, was host of Ward's live-action "Fractured Flickers" show and Professor Kropotkin on the radio and film versions ofMy Friend Irma. He also appeared as Uncle Tonoose onDanny Thomas' sitcomMake Room for Daddy, twice onI Love Lucy, and as the Mad Hatter along withDaws Butler, Dolores Starr,Stanley Adams,Francis Condie Baxter and Cheryl Callaway inThe Alphabet Conspiracy (1959).

Conried was born on April 15, 1917, inBaltimore,Maryland, to parents Edith Beryl (née Gildersleeve) and Hans Georg Conried. His Connecticut-born mother was a descendant ofPilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna, Austria.^[1] He was raised in Baltimore and in New York City.^{[citation needed]}

Conried studied acting atColumbia University and went on to play major classical roles onstage. This led him into radio in 1937, when he appeared in a supporting role in a broadcast ofThe Taming of the Shrew onKECA in Los Angeles, California.^[2] Four years later, a newspaper reported about his role onHedda Hopper's Hollywood: "But at the mike, he's equally convincing as old men, drunks, dialeticians, or Shakesperean tragedians.Miss Hopper favors him for her dramatizations when the script will allow him, as she puts it, 'to have his head.'"^[3] Impressed with Conried's versatility, a scout forMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him as a character player in 1938.^{[citation needed]} He was in eight radio performances ofCavalcade of America.^[4]

Conried's early screen roles were incidental bits, usually comic but sometimes shady or cowardly, depending on the context. He stayed with MGM until 1941, then began freelancing. His first major featured role was atColumbia Pictures as a worldly, architectural visionary who disrupted the household inBlondie's Blessed Event (1942). That established him as a comic figure in feature films. His Germanic surname got him cast as enemy agents in many wartime films, and he became a dialect specialist.^{[citation needed]}

DuringWorld War II, Conried enlisted in theU.S. Army in September 1944.^[5] He trained atFort Knox as a tank crewman until the army decided he was too tall. He became aheavy mortar crewman then was sent to the Philippines as an engineer laborer until fellow actorJack Kruschen obtained his release for service with theArmed Forces Radio Network.^[6]

Conried remained active in radio during the 1940s and 1950s. He was in the regular cast ofOrson Welles'Ceiling Unlimited, for which he wrote the December 14, 1942, episode, "War Workers".^[7] OnThe George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, he played a psychiatrist whom George regularly consults for help in dealing with the ditzy Gracie. Conried also provided various characters onThe Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, including portraying one ofPhil Harris' writers.

Conried was also a regular on theCBS Radio programLife with Luigi, portraying Schultz, a German classmate. He also played occasional dialect roles on CBS's detective seriesYours Truly, Johnny Dollar.

Even as a younger man, Conried appeared much older than his actual age and he was frequently cast as middle-aged or even elderly pompous, scholarly types. His impeccable diction and inimitable growl were well suited to the roles he played, whether portraying the dim Professor Kropotkin on the radio showMy Friend Irma or as comic villains and mock-sinister or cranky types. In 1949, while filming the movie version ofMy Friend Irma, character actorFelix Bressart, cast as Professor Kropotkin, died suddenly during production. Conried, who played Kropotkin on radio, stepped in to finish the picture. Most of the finished film features Bressart with Conried's voice overdubbed; Conried appears in a few scenes in identical costume and makeup, with his voice used throughout.^{[citation needed]}

Hans Conried's first leading film role was the independent science fiction comedyThe Twonky in 1953.^[8] Two years later, Conried appeared as a riverboat gambler inDavy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier.^[9]

Theodor Geisel, better known as children's authorDr. Seuss, was preparing a documentary feature largely made up of captured Japanese newsreel footage,Design for Death (1948). Geisel hired actorKent Smith as the "American" narrator, and Hans Conried as the "Japanese" narrator. The film won anAcademy Award.^{[citation needed]}

Geisel remembered Conried when he was preparing an expensiveTechnicolor fantasy,The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (1953), which included the dominant role of a demanding, dictatorial piano teacher. Conried was cast as the foreboding "Dr. Terwilliker" and turned in a bravura performance that might have changed his career. Unfortunately, the film was a costly failure. In 1970, Conried reflected on the film's poor box-office take in an interview withLeonard Maltin: "The picture never made its print money back. It was comparable only toWilson as one of the great money-losers of all time; it would stop conversation for some years at any Hollywood social gathering."^[10]

The film's financial failure didn't affect Conried's working relationship with Geisel, who went on to cast him in three Dr. Seuss television specials, including the 1977Halloween TV specialHalloween is Grinch Night, produced byDePatie-Freleng Enterprises. Conried voiced both the Narrator and theGrinch, a role originated in 1966 byBoris Karloff inHow the Grinch Stole Christmas. In 1981, Conried was set to reprise his role as the Grinch forThe Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat, but he was in poor health and died early in 1982. Voice actorBob Holt took over the role.

Conried's colorful voice gained him much work in animated cartoons, such asDisney andJay Ward. His prominent work for Disney was inWalt Disney'sPeter Pan as bothCaptain Hook and Mr. Darling (following the tradition of having both characters portrayed by the same actor). He then went on to pose live-action reference and audition forAurora's father,King Stefan, in another Disney animated film,Sleeping Beauty, but the voice role of Stefan was officially taken byTaylor Holmes for the film's final cut. Nevertheless, Conried hosted several episodes ofWalt Disney's Wonderful World of Color as theMagic Mirror fromSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

He supplied the storybook narration forMGM'sJohann Mouse, the 1952Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons, the seventh and last Oscar given to aTom and Jerry short.

Conried also became a charter member of theJay Ward-Bill Scott stock company. He voiced the character ofSnidely Whiplash in theDudley Do-Right segments ofThe Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and Professor Waldo P. Wigglesworth onHoppity Hooper.

Ward and Scott also cast him as the live-action host ofFractured Flickers, a wildly satirical, tongue-in-cheek redub of silent movies. During that show he had a tightly scripted segment where he absurdly interviewed guest stars and celebrities, while usually mistaking their identities, misunderstanding answers, taking umbrage or getting into mock disagreements.

He also voicedWally Walrus onThe Woody Woodpecker Show and Dr. Dred onDrak Pack. According to the DVD commentary ofFuturama, he was the inspiration for the voice created for Robot Devil.

From 1955 to 1964, Conried made 19 guest appearances as "Uncle Tonoose" inMake Room for Daddy on ABC and then CBS, and four appearances as other characters.

He was featured in the 1958 episode, "What Makes Opera Grand?", on the anthology seriesOmnibus. The episode, an analysis byLeonard Bernstein, showing the powerful effect of music in opera, featured Conried as Marcello in a spoken dramatization of Act III of Puccini'sLa Bohème. The program demonstrated the effect of the music inLa Bohème by having actors speak portions of the libretto in English, followed by opera singers singing the same lines in the original Italian.^[11]

Conried was a regular guest onJack Paar'sTonight Show from 1959 to 1962. He was a regular panelist on the pantomime programStump the Stars and a semi-regular guest on theErnie Kovacs-hosted game showTake a Good Look.

In 1977, Conried joined the cast for the second and final season ofThe Tony Randall Show in the recurring role of Judge Franklin's irascible father, Wyatt.

His many guest appearances includedI Love Lucy,Davy Crockett,The Californians,Hey, Jeannie!,The Ray Milland Show,The DuPont Show with June Allyson,The Real McCoys,Mister Ed,The Islanders,Ben Casey,Dr. Kildare,Lost in Space,Daniel Boone,The Beverly Hillbillies,The Lucy Show,The Monkees,Have Gun – Will Travel,Love, American Style,Here's Lucy,Kolchak,Alice,Laverne & Shirley,The Love Boat,Hogan's Heroes,Match Game,Maverick,The Donna Reed Show,Fantasy Island andQuark. OnGilligan's Island, he appeared in two episodes as the confused pilot Wrong Way Feldman, one of the show's few recurring characters.

Conried made his Broadway debut in the Cole Porter musicalCan-Can,^[12] where he played a struggling artist and sang two musical numbers.^[13] In 1971, he appeared in70, Girls, 70 and two years later was a replacement performer in the revival ofIrene starringDebbie Reynolds.^[14]

Conried married Margaret Grant on January 29, 1942; they had four children.^[15]

Conried had a long history of heart problems and had a stroke in 1974 and a mild heart attack in 1979.^[16] He remained active until his death on January 5, 1982, one day after suffering a major heart attack.^[15] His body was donated to medical science.^[17]

• Barefoot in the Park (1982) as Victor Velasco (TV stage production with Richard Thomas, Bess Armstrong, Barbara Barrie, and James Cromwell)

• Gargiulo, Suzanne (2002).Hans Conried: A Biography; With a Filmography and a Listing of Radio, Television, Stage and Voice Work(Paperback).Jefferson, North Carolina:McFarland & Company. pp. 185–186.ISBN 978-0786413386.

• Maltin, Leonard (2015) [1973]. "Chapter: Hans Conried".The Real Stars : Profiles and Interviews of Hollywood's Unsung Featured Players(Paperback) (Sixth ed.).Philadelphia:Curtis Books. pp. 57–80.ISBN 978-1-5116-4485-3.

• Hans Conried atIMDb 
• Hans Conried at theTCM Movie Database
• Hans Conried at theInternet Broadway Database
• Hans Conried discography atDiscogs
• Hans Conried radiography at Radio Gold Index

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