Overview (4)
| Born | in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died | in Los Angeles, California, USA (after heart surgery) |
| Birth Name | Theodore Crawford Cassidy |
| Height | 6' 9" (2.06 m) |
Mini Bio (2)
Ted Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Philippi, West Virginia. He was a well respected actor who portrayed many different characters during his film and television career. His most notable role was Lurch, the faithful butler on the television series The Addams Family (1964). His most memorable dialogue as Lurch would be, "You rang?", whenever someone summoned him. Due to his large size, (6ft. 9in.) he portrayed larger than life characters. His deep voice, was used for narrations and for dubbing certain character's voices. His acting career spanned three decades. Ted Cassidy died in 1979 from complications following open-heart surgery. His live-in girlfriend had his remains cremated, then buried in the backyard of their Woodland Hills home.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Sujit R. Varma
Theodore Crawford "Ted" Cassidy was born on July 31, 1932 in Pittsburgh, PA, and raised in Philippi, WV. In his youth, Cassidy was academically gifted, beginning high school at an early age, and he was also on the basketball and football teams. Despite this, he was a frequent target of bullying by his much-older classmates, having already reached a height of 6'1". After graduation, Cassidy moved to attend West Virginia Wesleyan College, becoming an member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He later attended Stetson University, where he was active in the student government and played basketball for the Stetson Hatters, averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds in three seasons (1952-55). In 1952, Cassidy became a member of the Ormond Beach, FL Live Saving Corp, and worked as a lifeguard in the Ormond Beach/Daytona Beach area.
After graduating with a degree in speech and drama, he married Margaret Helen in 1956 and they moved to Dallas, TX. His acting career started when he worked as a mid-day disc jockey on WFAA-AM, and also occasionally appeared on WFAA-TV Channel 8, playing Creech, an outer space creature on the "Dialing for Dollars" segments of Ed Hogan's afternoon movies. (Incidentally, he gave an in-studio report from the WFAA radio station on the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and was among the first to interview eyewitnesses W.E. Newman, Jr. and Gayle Newman.)
An accomplished musician, Cassidy moonlighted at Luby's Cafe at the Lochwood shopping center in Dallas, playing the organ to entertain patrons. In 1957, his wife Margaret gave birth to their son, Sean, and, in 1960, their daughter, Cameron, was born.
Cassidy's 6' 9" height gave him an advantage in auditioning for unusual character parts, which led to his most famous role as "Lurch" in The Addams Family (1964) (1965-66). Although the character was originally intended to be mute, Cassidy ad-libbed his signature line, "You rang?" The subtle humor and his deep voice was an immediate hit, and thereafter, it was a recurring phrase that was written into the script. Despite being an accomplished organist, the harpsichord was actually a dead keyboard that Ted pretended to play, and the actual music was dubbed by the show's theme composer, Vic Mizzy. When he wasn't on-screen, Cassidy played "Thing", the disembodied hand who assisted the Addams' household, and a crew member would fill in during Lurch's on-camera scenes. In 1965, Cassidy released a seven-inch vinyl on Capitol Records with two songs; "The Lurch", written by Gary S. Paxton, and "Wesley," written by Cliffie Stone and Scott Turner. He introduced the dance and performed the song "The Lurch" on September 11, 1965 on Shivaree (1965), and again on Halloween of the same year on Shindig! (1964), along with Boris Karloff performing "The Monster Mash".
While filming "The Addams Family", Ted found extensive work with Hanna-Barbera Studios on a recurring basis, providing dozens of cartoon character voices. Cassidy also appeared in a variety of other television shows, including a regular role on NBC's The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1968) as "Injun Joe", the nemesis of Tom Sawyer and Huck. He worked with Gene Roddenberry on the original Star Trek: The Original Series (1966), as the voice of the menacing puppet of "Balok" in "The Corbomite Maneuver", the android "Ruk" in "What Are Little Girls Made of?" and the voice of "The Gorn" in "Arena". He also played "Isiah" in Roddenberry's post-apocalyptic drama pilots, Genesis II (1973) and Planet Earth (1974). Other appearances include The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964), Lost in Space (1965), Daniel Boone (1964) and as "Bigfoot" in The Six Million Dollar Man (1974). He also narrated the opening for the TV series The Incredible Hulk (1977), including selected growls and roars during the first two seasons.
His theatrical work included Mackenna's Gold (1969) and The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) among others, but his most memorable role was as "Harvey Logan" in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) in 1969 ("Rules? In a knife fight?") He also co-wrote the screenplay for 1973's The Harrad Experiment (1973), in which he made a brief appearance.
Ted Cassidy died at the age of 46 on January 16, 1979 following complications from open-heart surgery. Actress Sandra Martinez took care of him during his final years, and his remains were cremated and later buried in the backyard of his Woodland Hills home. The exact location is unknown.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: mgnylander@yahoo.com
Spouse (1)
| Margaret Helen Jesse | (14 June 1956 - 1975) ( divorced) ( 2 children) |
