Gordon Jump

Gordon Jump was an American actor who began his acting career at 32, after he was noticed in a production at the Glendale Centre Theatre and offered an agent. He grew up in Centerville, a suburb of Dayton, Ohio, and started out at WIBW-TV in Topeka, where he wrote, produced and directed. His first break was a guest role on Daniel Boone, followed in the 1960s by small parts on Get Smart, Lancer, Here Come the Brides and Green Acres. He took his first recurring role in 1977 as Chief Tinkler on Soap, then became best known as Arthur Carlson, the bumbling radio station manager on WKRP in Cincinnati (1978 to 1982), a part he reprised in The New WKRP in Cincinnati (1991 to 1993). Later came appearances on Growing Pains and Seinfeld, and from 1989 he played the Maytag repairman in commercials until he retired in 2003.