Charlie Callas

The American actor and comedian Charlie Callas was born in Brooklyn on December 20, 1927, and died in 2011. He started out as a drummer, performing with groups that included Buddy Rich, Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Bernie Cummins, before turning to comedy. His television debut came in 1963 on The Hollywood Palace, and he became known for his facial expressions, nervous chattering, and dark comedy. He did stand-up on talk shows, appeared nearly 50 times on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and opened for Frank Sinatra in nightclubs. After Jerry Lewis saw him on The Merv Griffin Show, Lewis cast him in The Big Mouth (1967). On the television series Switch, which aired from 1975 to 1978, he played Malcolm Argos, a man who owned a restaurant and had once been a con artist. He also voiced Elliott the Dragon in Pete's Dragon (1977).