Ron Carey, Comic Actor, Dies at 71
wazzzy
Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
Angeles. He was 71.
He died of a stroke at a hospital near his home, a nephew, Michael
Ciccolini, said.
At 5-foot-4 and with traces of an inner-city New Joisey accent, Mr.
Carey played a plainclothes cop constantly seeking a promotion by
currying favor with his superiors.
"Barney Miller," which ran from 1976 to 1982, starred Hal Linden as
the captain of a New York City police precinct whose officers dealt
with the zany characters who came, not always by choice, into the
station house. Mr. Carey, as Officer Levitt, would inject unsolicited
opinions on how to handle whoever was in the holding cell. Besides
playing roles in other less successful sitcoms, Mr. Carey appeared in
15 movies, including "High Anxiety" in 1977 and "History of the
World: Part I" in 1981, both with Mel Brooks.
In "High Anxiety," a parody of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, he
played Brophy, the chauffeur and foil of Dr. Richard Thorndyke, the
incoming administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very,
Very Nervous. Mr. Carey's running gag in that movie was to grab
something heavy and say, "I got it! I got it! I got it!" Then,
unable to lift it, he would squeak, "I ain't got it."
"History of the World" traces mankind's evolution, or lack of it,
from the dawn of time. Mr. Carey played Swiftus, the agent-manager for
Mr. Brooks's character, Comicus, a stand-up philosopher in ancient
Rome.
Ronald Cicenia (Carey was his stage name) was born in Newark on Dec.
11, 1935, a son of John and Fanny Cicenia. Besides his brother James,
of Roseland, N.J., he is survived by his wife of 38 years, the former
Sharon Boyeronus.
Mr. Carey started doing standup comedy in New York. His break came in
1966 when he appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show." He later appeared
on "The Jackie Gleason Show," Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show"
and Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town."
Much of Mr. Carey's comedy reflected his upbringing as the
undersized, quick-witted kid on the block. An Italian Catholic, he
considered the priesthood at one time, his nephew said. That ambition
was realized when he played Father Paglia in "Have Faith," a sitcom
about inner-city priests, which ran for half a season in 1989.
Hyfler/Rosner
"wazzzy" <enter...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1169176698....@a75g2000cwd.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
> Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as
> the
> unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the
> long-running
> television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday
> in Los
> Angeles. He was 71.
Pre-emptive strike. I saw Abe Vigoda on 78th Street two
days ago. He looks fine.
Kathi
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
>Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
>unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
>television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
>Angeles. He was 71.
I always liked him. I wouldn't have thought he was over 70, though!
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R H Draney
>
>Pre-emptive strike. I saw Abe Vigoda on 78th Street two
>days ago. He looks fine.
Fine for Abe Vigoda, or are we talking Kenny Rogers fine here?...r
--
"Keep your eye on the Bishop. I want to know when
he makes his move", said the Inspector, obliquely.
MWB
Barney Miller was great and it aged well.
Mark
MWB
> looks fine.
>
Did you tell him it was just business?
Mark
Jim Beaver
"Kathi" <kath...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:k3g0r2lon7taehu3c...@4ax.com...
>
> I always liked him. I wouldn't have thought he was over 70, though!
>
Another of my colleagues in Yarmy's Army. I didn't know Ron well at all.
He seemed kind of hard to get to know. He did a lot of shtick at Army
meetings that was hysterically funny, usually involving him being presumably
furious about something, some slight. It was always funny, but he pushed it
so hard that I, not knowing him except in recent years, had difficulty
knowing for certain whether it was entirely, partly, or not at all an act.
I know he raged and fumed one night so hard he had us all rolling on the
floor, then stormed out and didn't come back for months. For me, he was
almost a Rat-Pack-era Andy Kaufman.
I'm not surprised he died of a stroke. The last few times I saw him, he
looked like a ripe tomato, totally red and about to burst.
He was an awfully funny guy. RIP.
Jim Beaver
AndrewJ
> was realized when he played Father Paglia in "Have Faith," a sitcom
> about inner-city priests, which ran for half a season in 1989.
In the early-1970s sketch film DYNAMITE CHICKEN, Carey had a cameo as a
priest doing James Brown-like dance moves outside St. Patrick's
Cathedral to a song called "God Loves Rock and Roll."
I always got him confused with Bruno Kirby. Sadly, both have died
within the past year.
-- Andrew
King Daevid MacKenzie
> In the early-1970s sketch film DYNAMITE CHICKEN, Carey had a cameo as a
> priest doing James Brown-like dance moves outside St. Patrick's
> Cathedral to a song called "God Loves Rock and Roll."
...a bit that was revived and expanded upon by Ken Shapiro two years
later in THE GROOVE TUBE (the "Just You, Just Me" dance across lower
Manhattan). Both pictures seem to have patterned themselves after
counterculture periodicals: DYNAMITE CHICKEN reminded me a lot of a
Berkeley Barb-type underground newspaper, while THE GROOVE TUBE seems to
have drawn heavily upon National Lampoon for its inspiration (Chevy
Chase, Norman Rose and Richard Belzer were all "National Lampoon Radio
Hour" alumni)...
--
King Daevid MacKenzie
http://www.myspace.com/kingdaevid
"You can live in your dreams, but only if you are worthy of them."
HARLAN ELLISON
R H Draney
I do hope somebody's checked in on Art Metrano....r
bellytalker
On Jan 18, 10:18 pm, "wazzzy" <enter23...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&o...
bellytalker
On Jan 18, 10:18 pm, "wazzzy" <enter23...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&o...
>
> Mr. Carey started doing standup comedy in New York. His break came in
> 1966 when he appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show." He later appeared
> on "The Jackie Gleason Show," Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show"
> and Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town."
If he appeared on Merv Griffin in 1966, he definitely didn't
appear *later* on Sullivan's "Toast of the Town".
Garrett
"Jim Beaver" <jumb...@prodigy.spam> wrote in message
news:7I_rh.50439$wc5....@newssvr25.news.prodigy.net...
>
> Another of my colleagues in Yarmy's Army. I didn't know Ron well at all.
> He seemed kind of hard to get to know. He did a lot of shtick at Army
> meetings that was hysterically funny, usually involving him being
> presumably furious about something, some slight. It was always funny, but
> he pushed it so hard that I, not knowing him except in recent years, had
> difficulty knowing for certain whether it was entirely, partly, or not at
> all an act. I know he raged and fumed one night so hard he had us all
> rolling on the floor, then stormed out and didn't come back for months.
> For me, he was almost a Rat-Pack-era Andy Kaufman.
>
> I'm not surprised he died of a stroke. The last few times I saw him, he
> looked like a ripe tomato, totally red and about to burst.
>
> He was an awfully funny guy. RIP.
>
> Jim Beaver
I still remember him during an appearance on the Tonight Show in the
60s, being hysterically funny showing why the marriage of Ethel Merman and
Ernest Borgnine only lasted a few days. It involved Merman yelling up the
stairs to Borgnine, and forty years later I can still picture it.
aka Bob
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
>Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
>unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
>television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
>Angeles. He was 71.
Maybe it's the mouth, but he's always reminded me of Buddy Hackett:
http://bojack.org/images/buddy.bmp
--
"It's not that I'm afraid to die. I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
J.D. Baldwin
In the previous article, aka Bob <b...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote:
> >Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
> >unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
> >television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
> >Angeles. He was 71.
>
> Maybe it's the mouth, but he's always reminded me of Buddy Hackett:
>
> http://bojack.org/images/buddy.bmp
Before I learned Carey's name and started recognizing him in other
things (I was never a huge "Barney Miller" viewer), I was always
thinking that it was Buddy Hackett doing that running gag ("I ain't
got it") in "High Anxiety." There is something of a physical
resemblance, and their voices are quite similar, particularly their
"agitated/excited" voices.
--
_+_ From the catapult of |If anyone disagrees with any statement I make, I
_|70|___:)=}- J.D. Baldwin |am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also
\ / bal...@panix.com|to deny under oath that I ever made it. -T. Lehrer
***~~~~-----------------------------------------------------------------------
AndrewJ
On Jan 19, 5:41 am, King Daevid MacKenzie <echoesmas...@charter.net>
wrote:
> AndrewJ sez:
>
> > In the early-1970s sketch film DYNAMITE CHICKEN, Carey had a cameo as a
> > priest doing James Brown-like dance moves outside St. Patrick's
> > Cathedral to a song called "God Loves Rock and Roll."
>...a bit that was revived and expanded upon by Ken Shapiro two years
> later in THE GROOVE TUBE (the "Just You, Just Me" dance across lower
> Manhattan). Both pictures seem to have patterned themselves after
> counterculture periodicals: DYNAMITE CHICKEN reminded me a lot of a
> Berkeley Barb-type underground newspaper, while THE GROOVE TUBE seems to
> have drawn heavily upon National Lampoon for its inspiration (Chevy
> Chase, Norman Rose and Richard Belzer were all "National Lampoon Radio
> Hour" alumni)...
>
DYNAMITE CHICKEN also featured the funny improv comedy group The Ace
Trucking Company with a very young Fred Willard -- they also appeared
the inferior 1977 sketch movie CRACKING UP with The Credibility Gap and
members of The Firesign Theater...
King Daevid MacKenzie
> DYNAMITE CHICKEN also featured the funny improv comedy group The Ace
> Trucking Company with a very young Fred Willard -- they also appeared
> the inferior 1977 sketch movie CRACKING UP with The Credibility Gap and
> members of The Firesign Theater...
...The Ace Trucking Company also popped up in THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT in
1973 (which also brings us around to Bruno Kirby again). Unfortunately,
Patti Deutsch had left the group by the time HARRAD was made...
R H Draney
>
>Before I learned Carey's name and started recognizing him in other
>things (I was never a huge "Barney Miller" viewer), I was always
>thinking that it was Buddy Hackett doing that running gag ("I ain't
>got it") in "High Anxiety." There is something of a physical
>resemblance, and their voices are quite similar, particularly their
>"agitated/excited" voices.
For which reason both reminded me of Lou Costello....r
aka Bob
magnanimously proffered:
>J.D. Baldwin filted:
>>
>>Before I learned Carey's name and started recognizing him in other
>>things (I was never a huge "Barney Miller" viewer), I was always
>>thinking that it was Buddy Hackett doing that running gag ("I ain't
>>got it") in "High Anxiety." There is something of a physical
>>resemblance, and their voices are quite similar, particularly their
>>"agitated/excited" voices.
>
>For which reason both reminded me of Lou Costello....r
Who also reminds me of Buddy Hackett, who was definitely on the short
side. Was Lou also short? I've seen most of the Abbot & Costello films
and also watched their TV show and he looked shorter than Bud Abbot,
but I don't know how tall Abbot was.
William Bojanowski
"Garrett" <sain...@sprintmail.com> wrote:
>
> I still remember him during an appearance on the Tonight Show in the
> 60s, being hysterically funny showing why the marriage of Ethel Merman and
> Ernest Borgnine only lasted a few days. It involved Merman yelling up the
> stairs to Borgnine, and forty years later I can still picture it.
I remember that that joke and it had me laughing pretty well too, but I
don't remember Cary doing it. I'm not sure, but I think it was Pat
Cooper. I could be wrong; how sure are you.
Boj
Garrett
"William Bojanowski" <bojan...@charter.net> wrote in message
news:bojanowskib-9274...@nntp.charter.net...
It was definitely Carey, because it surprised me how intense he got with
it. (I'm never surprised if Pat Cooper gets intense.)
R H Draney
>
>Who also reminds me of Buddy Hackett, who was definitely on the short
>side. Was Lou also short? I've seen most of the Abbot & Costello films
>and also watched their TV show and he looked shorter than Bud Abbot,
>but I don't know how tall Abbot was.
IMDb (that bastion of reliable data) says Lou was five-five and Bud
five-eight....r
tr...@iwvisp.com
wazzzy wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
> Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
> unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
> television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
> Angeles. He was 71.
Sad news. I was just talking about him the other day, relating a bit
he did on Merv Griffin as an Irish Catholic parish priest under
suspicion of embezzlement. He takes the pulpit and in an over-the-top
Irish accent says, "I know there's been a lot of talk about the
church's finances and I'm gonna put a stop to it once and for all. The
parish budget is $100,000.
$50,000 for candles...and $50,000 for matches. And they'll be no more
discussion about it."
Ray Arthur
Ed Varner
aka Bob wrote:
> On 18 Jan 2007 19:18:19 -0800, "wazzzy" <enter...@gmail.com>
> magnanimously proffered:
>
> >http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
> >
> >Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
> >unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
> >television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
> >Angeles. He was 71.
>
> Maybe it's the mouth, but he's always reminded me of Buddy Hackett:
>
I always got Ron Carey confused with Ronnie Schell.
Ed
Laurie Mann
I dunno - Ron Carey had kind of a round face but wasn't particularly
fat.
> I always got Ron Carey confused with Ronnie Schell.
Wow, talk about your blasts from the past!
BTW, to the folks who didn't think Ron Carey could be over 70 - don't
forget that most of us haven't seen him on TV in nearly 30 years, and
he was clearly in his late 30s or early 40s back then. For a lot of
us, he was out-of-sight/out-of-mind for a very long time.
Laurie Mann
Dead People Server
http://www.deadpeople.info
Laurie Mann
tr...@iwvisp.com
Ed Varner wrote:
>
> I always got Ron Carey confused with Ronnie Schell.
>
> Ed
I always gor Ronnie Schell onfused with Ronnie Graham!
Ray Athur
Stacia
>BTW, to the folks who didn't think Ron Carey could be over 70 - don't
>forget that most of us haven't seen him on TV in nearly 30 years, and
>he was clearly in his late 30s or early 40s back then. For a lot of
>us, he was out-of-sight/out-of-mind for a very long time.
I was thinking about that today, too. The last time I saw him was in
"Johnny Dangerously", and possibly some talk shows in the 80s. The
thing is, the movies and shows I did see him in ("History of the World",
"High Anxiety", "Barney Miller") are all from pretty recent viewings.
Plus, he looked to be 39 years old for almost two decades. It's not
surprising that some of us would think he was younger than 71.
Stacia
Kathi
wrote:
When I told the young adults in my house (21 & 18) that an actor had
died - and I knew they wouldn't know the name - the JD reference is
what I used and they instantly knew. The older one popped up with the
HofW co-reference on his own. They've never seen an episode of "Barney
Miller", although I have the theme song on .wav file with that really
cool bass opening.
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R H Draney
>
>Ed Varner wrote:
>>
>> I always got Ron Carey confused with Ronnie Schell.
>
Landsman!...
Here I am watching the DVD box set of "Good Morning World", containing an
interview with Ronnie Schell, and all I can think is: what in blazes ever became
of Joby Baker?...r
sixti...@yahoo.com
wazzzy wrote:
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/arts/television/19carey.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
>
> Ron Carey, the pint-sized, round-faced comic best known as the
> unjustifiably cocky Police Officer Carl Levitt on the long-running
> television situation comedy "Barney Miller," died Tuesday in Los
> Angeles. He was 71.
>
> Ciccolini, said.
>
> At 5-foot-4 and with traces of an inner-city New Joisey accent, Mr.
> Carey played a plainclothes cop constantly seeking a promotion by
> currying favor with his superiors.
>
> "Barney Miller," which ran from 1976 to 1982, starred Hal Linden as
> the captain of a New York City police precinct whose officers dealt
> with the zany characters who came, not always by choice, into the
> station house. Mr. Carey, as Officer Levitt, would inject unsolicited
> opinions on how to handle whoever was in the holding cell. Besides
> playing roles in other less successful sitcoms, Mr. Carey appeared in
> 15 movies, including "High Anxiety" in 1977 and "History of the
> World: Part I" in 1981, both with Mel Brooks.
>
> In "High Anxiety," a parody of Alfred Hitchcock thrillers, he
> played Brophy, the chauffeur and foil of Dr. Richard Thorndyke, the
> incoming administrator of the Psychoneurotic Institute for the Very,
> Very Nervous. Mr. Carey's running gag in that movie was to grab
> something heavy and say, "I got it! I got it! I got it!" Then,
> unable to lift it, he would squeak, "I ain't got it."
>
> "History of the World" traces mankind's evolution, or lack of it,
> from the dawn of time. Mr. Carey played Swiftus, the agent-manager for
> Mr. Brooks's character, Comicus, a stand-up philosopher in ancient
> Rome.
>
> Ronald Cicenia (Carey was his stage name) was born in Newark on Dec.
> 11, 1935, a son of John and Fanny Cicenia. Besides his brother James,
> of Roseland, N.J., he is survived by his wife of 38 years, the former
> Sharon Boyeronus.
>
> Mr. Carey started doing standup comedy in New York. His break came in
> 1966 when he appeared on "The Merv Griffin Show." He later appeared
> on "The Jackie Gleason Show," Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show"
> and Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town."
>
> undersized, quick-witted kid on the block. An Italian Catholic, he
> considered the priesthood at one time, his nephew said. That ambition
> was realized when he played Father Paglia in "Have Faith," a sitcom
> about inner-city priests, which ran for half a season in 1989.
I thought his role as Carl Levitt, the eager to please,
everyone-here-is-an-idiot-except-me, transparently gratuitous cop was
great.
I always remember one line of his on that show. It wasn't that funny,
but showed how the character would do or say anything to suck-up to
Barney Miller in the hopes of a promotion from plainclothes to
detective.
There was a conversation about Miller's daughter between Levitt and
Miller, and Levitt goes on and on about how wonderful she is, referring
to her as " the fruit of your loins" to Barney, and Miller reacts, "OK
Levitt, that's enough".
But correct me if I'm wrong, didn't the Levitt character eventually get
promoted to the detective squad?
w989531
>
>But correct me if I'm wrong, didn't the Levitt character eventually get
>promoted to the detective squad?
On the last episode of Barney Miller, Inspector Luger shows up and
basically tells everyone that they have been promoted...