Born On This Day - The One, The Only Ted Cassidy

While always dedicated vultures of 20th century pop culture, we're stunned that it took over 15 years of blogging to spotlight a titan of both the cartoon voice and character acting worlds: Ted Cassidy (July 31, 1932 - January 16, 1979).

Did not find many interview clips of Mr. Cassidy, an actor, musician and writer, but this one reflects that he was quite an interesting and likable fellow. Unfortunately, he passed before the late-night programs of David Letterman and Conan O' Brien, which very likely would have booked him as a guest, hit the airwaves.



Best known for his wry, deadpan portrayal of Lurch in The Addams Family TV show, he had a brief but very prolific career spanning movies, television, animation and commercials.



In a too-brief career, Ted Cassidy was nothing if not prolific. This even included some memorable TV commercials.



In case one needs to be reminded how Ted Cassidy's acting skills, excellent sense of humor and mastery of movement (as well as stillness) were driving forces behind the success of The Addams Family on TV, watch this. . . Lurch's guest appearance on the biggest TV show of the time, Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward.



Today's post will focus on the many characters Ted Cassidy played in addition to Lurch. His talent for varied voice-overs, reflected in the following demo reel, was impressive.



In television shows and feature films, Ted's acting and voice work enlivened many a science fiction, fantasy and action/adventure scenario. Tough to imagine the 1976 version of THE INCREDIBLE HULK without Cassidy's narration and growling vocals.







Speaking of science-fiction/fantasy, Ted made a vivid impression as Ruk the android in the seventh episode of the first Star Trek TV series, What Little Girls Are Made Of, written by Robert Bloch.



Here he is as the voice of the menacing Balok puppet in the tenth episode of Star Trek, The Corbomite Maneuver.



In Star Trek episode #18, Arena, he was the voice of evil reptilian Commander Gorn.



We remember Ted Cassidy's memorable sequence in the ultimate Paul Newman - Robert Redford vehicle, Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.



That was not Ted Cassidy's only appearance in a western, as he was a guest star in the Decision in Los Robles episode of Bonanza.

Mr. Cassidy was also responsible for lots and lots of cartoon voices, especially for Hanna-Barbera.

The incurable and beyond redemption animation and comics aficionados at this blog find that Hanna-Barbera's animated superhero series, especially The Galaxy Trio, offered a quality of unintentional humor that make them quite entertaining.



The H-B series which featured Ted Cassidy voice work included Moltar and Metallus in the 1966-1968 Space Ghost, Birdman, Fantastic Four, The Impossibles (which appear to owe a debt to Ralph Bakshi's The Mighty Heroes) and Frankenstein Jr.



After all, it would be most disappointing if Frankenstein Jr. had a cracking semi-falsetto voice.



Have a sneaking suspicion that Ted would have had a blast working on the often hilarious show produced almost 30 years later, Space Ghost Coast To Coast.




The Addams Family subsequently found their way into Hanna-Barbera animation in The New Scooby Doo Movies: The Gang Meets The Addams Family. Frankly, it would have been fabulous if The Addams Family killed Shaggy, the extremely annoying character who was even more irritating than Screwy Squirrel (who Tex Avery did away with in the snotty squirrel's last "sad ending, isn't it" silver screen appearance) - or at least substitute voice actor Casey Kasem's radio voice.



Of course, eventually this post would get around to Lurch, one of two parts he played on The Addams Family (the other was the sensitive hands of Thing).



Indeed, Ted Cassidy's musical talents are a key component in his acting. Lurch plays the harpsichord, but the off-screen Ted could rock the Hammond B-3. Too bad the producers of the show did not have Lurch play two keyboards simultaneously a la Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman a couple of years later.



At the peak of his popularity on The Addams Family, Ted Cassidy recorded an AM radio friendly single trumpeting a new dance craze, "Do The Lurch," and performed it on several shows.



The popularity of Lurch proved a mixed blessing, as this meant typecasting and no possibility of branching out into different types of parts.



For the flip side of the "Do The Lurch" 45, here is a FOR RESEARCH ONLY clip from Ted's appearance performing "Wesley" on Hollywood A Go Go (don't know if he made any more records that were not directly related to The Addams Family). Ted doesn't sing, unfortunately, until near the end of the song. While the narration is very good, it is noteworthy that Ted's singing voice was a terrific basso profundo.



Said basso profundo is comparable to the amazing voice of Thurl "Tony the Tiger" Ravenscroft. Wonder if Ted and Thurl ever worked together. Both did more than their share of cereal commercials.





Ted Cassidy did so many voices for animated cartoons and TV commercials, noted in Behind The Voice Actors, it would take an voice acting expert such as Keith Scott to provide a truly comprehensive list of credits.

So today, after wolfing down several bowls of Cocoa Krispies drenched with whole milk, we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog tip our top hat to the great Ted Cassidy.

After that, we'll watch a slew of episodes of The Addams Family, either on DVD or from the playlist on the MGM television YouTube channel.