Allan Melvin

Allan John Melvin (February 18, 1923 – January 17, 2008) was an American actor and impressionist, who was cast in hundreds of television episodes from the 1950s to the early 1990s, often appearing in recurring roles on various series. Some of those roles and series include portraying various characters on The Andy Griffith Show, as real estate salesman Pete Dudley in My Favorite Martian, as Corporal Henshaw on The Phil Silvers Show, Sergeant Hacker on Gomer Pyle, USMC, Alice's boyfriend Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, and as Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on both All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place. He has also voiced Tyrone the Bulldog, an arch-villain (with his aliases The Jester, The Puzzler, Poochquin, Sheriff of Sherwood and many others) in the live action/animated series The Secret Lives of Waldo Kitty and was Magilla Gorilla on The Magilla Gorilla Show. Life and career Melvin was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Marie and Richard Melvin but lived part of his childhood in New York City with his paternal grandparents, Helen (née Campbell) and Frank Melvin. Allan attended Columbia University, and after his graduation he served in the United States Navy during World War II. In 1944, he married Amalia Faustina Sestero in New York City. While working at a job in the sound effects department of NBC Radio, he did a nightclub act and appeared and won on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts radio show. While appearing on Broadway in Stalag 17, he got his break into television by getting the role of Corporal Steve Henshaw on the popular The Phil Silvers Show program. "I think the camaraderie of all those guys made it such a pleasant way to work. They were so relaxed." During this period, in addition to his role on The Phil Silvers Show, Melvin was often cast in slightly loud, occasionally abrasive, but generally friendly second banana roles. Melvin was also adept at "tough guy" roles; in an example of his range as an actor, one episode of The Phil Silvers Show featured Melvin doing a recognizable impersonation of Humphrey Bogart.