LOS ANGELES -- Noble 'Kid' Chissell, a boxer and actor who appeared on many of Bob Hope's television specials and wanted to be mayor of the nation's second largest city, has died.
Chissell's longtime friend Melinda Matthews told the Los Angeles Times that the former Navy middleweight champion died Sunday in an area rest home at the age of 82.
He had never recovered from injuries suffered a year ago in an accident, she said.
Born Noble LaPorte Chisman in Indianapolis, he changed his name to 'Kid Chissell' while fighting out of Marriott's Gym in Cleveland, where Bob Hope, then an aspiring boxer using the ring name Packy East, had trained.
After joining the Navy, Chissell won the 1932 fleet middleweight championship. Earlier Chissell had exhibited fancy footwork outside the ring, earning the crown of 1928 World Marathon Dance Champion.
Chissell later came to Hollywood and worked with and for Hope in films and television. Hope said 'he was a very likable and nice guy' who approached Hope one day to reminisce about their boxing days in Cleveland.
Chissell appeared on 20 of Hope's TV specials and was seen regularly on such TV series as 'Life of Riley,' 'Dragnet,' 'Playhouse 90,' and 'People's Court.'
The character actor also portrayed tough cops, gangsters and free-spirited roustabouts in such films as 'Abe Lincoln in Illinois' and 'Guys and Dolls.'
Besides boxing and acting, Chissel worked as a correctional officer and unsuccessfully campaigned for mayor of Los Angeles in 1953, and for the State Assembly in 1962.
He is survived by two sisters. Services are scheduled for today at Forest Lawn's Little Church of the Flowers in Glendale.
