Dig A Hole: Arnold Stang
December 22nd, 2009 by Scott Marks
Arnold Stang, beloved character actor, cartoon voice virtuoso and Hollywood’s foremost nerd has died of pneumonia in Newton, Massachusetts. There is some dispute over his age. According to Wikipedia, “Stang was born in New York City in 1918, but often claimed Chelsea, Massachusetts as his birthplace and 1925 as his birth date.” If we go by Wikipedia, Stang was 91 when he passed on December 20.
I knew the voice long before the face and his name was one of the first belonging to an actor that I committed to memory. Between Herman the Mouse, Top Cat, “Alakazam the Great,” Popeye’s pal Shorty, the Chunky candy bar commercials (”Chunky! What a chunk o’ chocolate!”) and his star turn as Rumpelstiltskin in “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm,” Stang was as much an adolescent cultural touchstone as Groucho, Mel Blanc, Jerry Lewis, Soupy Sales and Larry Fine.
Stang’s trademark character was a nerd on steroids, a pipsqueak who used his little man’s complex to enact a bully’s revenge against the universe. Even his name was unpleasant to the ear. Isn’t a “Stang” the sound a fork prong makes when you pluck it?
At the age of 9 he landed a role on radio’s “Horn and Hardart’s Children’s Hour” which led to another kid’s show ”Let’s Pretend.” Stang lent his Brooklynese twang to Hoiman’ the Mouse in Famous Studios’ “Herman and Katnip” series, and in 1961 he voiced Hanna-Barbera’s “Top Cat.” Don’t let the kid stuff fool you. Even in cartoons, Stang played a smart-alecky conniver; a nasally pest that wanted nothing more than to be a mosquito when he grew up. Beneath the ten pound spectacles, nine inch nose and foot-long chipmunk teeth beat the heart of a conniving little weasel.
After all the emasculation, no wonder Arnold Stang was so angry.
His big break on radio came opposite the beloved, chain-smoking curmudgeon and future “I’ve Got a Secret” panelist Henry Morgan. Stang became a regular member of Morgan’s stock company playing a dorky teenager named Gerard, on “Henry Morgan’s Great Talent Hunt” (1951).
Stang’s mere presence on stage or screen invariably drew an immediate reaction from the audience. (Generally side-splitting laughter.) He soon found a snug spot in radio’s upper echelon. He worked opposite the best: Jack Benny, Gertrude Berg, Eddie Cantor, Fanny Brice, Fred Allen and Milton Berle. Berle remembered and secured Stang a piece of immortality in the annals of television’s Golden Age. Stang became a regular on Milton Berle’s “Texaco Star Theater” where his job was to berate and deflate Uncle Miltie’s gianormous ego.
His first role on the big screen was an uncredited bit in the Alexander Hall version of “My Sister Eileen” (1942). Then in 1943, as it must to all men, Hope came to Arnold Stang. Honestly, “They Got Me Covered,” co-starring Otto Preminger as Nazi rat Otto Fauscheim, is one of Bob’s better non-Tashlin outings. Stang plays the uncredited “Drugstore Boy.”
His voice could sustain many a 30 minute televised cartoon, but when it came to appearing on-screen a little Arnold Stang went a long way. Stang worked best in small doses: bring him on, wow the audience, do a bit of business and get off. The major exception to this rule is “The Man With the Golden Arm” (1955). Otto Preminger awarded Stang with the part of Sparrow, heroin addict Frankie Machine’s answer to Jiminy Cricket. It’s easily the juiciest, most dramatic role of his career. (Otto later blessed him with a small part in “Skidoo!”)
Arnold Stang & Frank Sinatra in Otto Preminger’s “The Man With the Golden Arm.”
After “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” (he has more screen time than most of the big names) Stang found work almost exclusively on the small screen.
Stang performed in the 1969 Broadway revival of “The Front Page” starring Bert Convy (!) and Robert Ryan. He could also be heard throughout the 80s as an ad pitchman for Honey Nut Cheerios (he was the bee) and Vick’s Cough Syrup.
His last two big screen appearances were as Mr. Cohen, elderly patient in “Ghost Dad” (1990) and as a photographer in “Dennis the Menace.”
Arnold Stang is survived by JoAnne Stang, his wife of 60 years, and son David and daughter Deborah.
The internet(s) can be a very dangerous place, kids, as evidenced by this biography of Arnold Stang on PakMahfil.com. If you can translate the opening sentence I’ll treat you to a steak as thick as your arm next time you’re in San Diego.
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3 Responses to “Dig A Hole: Arnold Stang”
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Well done, Scott. He definitely carved out a niche and a body of work we can all look back upon with affection.
The mortician preparing Stang for the coffin will be start by yelling “MAKEUP!” and swat the corpse with a giant powderpuff.
Career lowlight for Stang: appearing next to another Arnold in “Hercules In New York” (1970). Try sitting through that movie from beginning to end!
And that PakMahfil.com quote is priceless! Nice to see they’re giving recovering addicts a chance at bio writing!
You were not the only one to mention “Hercules.” Never saw it and it flew past my radar when I preparing this.
I think PakMahfil is Lieutonian for Phil Myaz.