Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas (born Charles Callias; December 20, 1924 – January 27, 2011) was an American actor and comedian. He was most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin, and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s. He was also known for his role as Malcolm Argos, the restaurant owner and former con man, on the Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner television series Switch (1975–1978). Callas was also known as the voice of Elliott the Dragon in Disney's live-action/animated musical film Pete's Dragon (1977). Life and career Callas was born on December 20, 1924, in Brooklyn, New York, as Charles Callias, the son of a Greek father and German mother. He served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Bernie Cummins, Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich. He dropped a vowel from his legal name, Callias, when he took to the stage. Callas was known for his rubbery face, trademark nervous chattering, and dark comedy. His first television appearance was in 1963 on The Hollywood Palace, and he soon was opening for Frank Sinatra in nightclubs around the country. In 1965 he played Lefty in a gambling parlor/laundry in The Munsters, season 2, episode 16, "Herman Picks a Winner." He made nearly 50 appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. One of his best remembered routines was his account of two men -- "they're both nuts"—duck hunting with a shotgun. Callas repeatedly punctuated the simple conversation with strange, nervous sounds and nonsense syllables; "Fert, fert! WOW! Ga-digga-digga..." As the conversation became more frantic, Callas began flailing his arms, twitching his face, and writhing with extreme anxiety. By the end of the routine, Callas had worked himself into a frenzy. During certain extreme gyrations he would pause and ask the audience, "Did'ja ever see a guy tryin' to make a buck this way?" Callas did the shotgun bit countless times on talk shows. He ran through the act on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show in 1965, and one of the guests, Jerry Lewis, practically fell off his chair in hysterics. Lewis turned to Griffin and said he had to use Callas in his current project. That one appearance on the Griffin show landed Callas a role in the 1967 Lewis film The Big Mouth. Lewis recalled the story on his short-lived 1984 talk show, in which Callas served as his sidekick and performed the shotgun routine.