Charles Nelson Reilly died yesterday of complications due to pneumonia at the age of 76. I was sad to read this today, as Charles Nelson Reilly was a part of my childhood. When I was younger, I was addicted to game shows. Well, nothing has really changed much, I still love games shows, but back in the 70s, many of them seemed so adult and edgy. One of my favorites, of course, was “Match Game.” Gene Rayburn was the host and there were several celebrity panelists that regularly appeared on the show. Charles Nelson Reilly always held court along with fellow regular Brett Somers. They bantered back and forth with their sexual innuendos and double entendres. Even though I was barely a teen, I loved it.
But, while my memory of Charles Nelson Reilly is pretty much limited to game shows, he was a very talented actor. He studied acting in New York, in the same classes with acting wannabes Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page, and Hal Holbrook. He won a Tony Award in 1962 for his role as Bud Frump in Broadway’s How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He would be nominated two more times for Tony Awards: as an actor for Hello Dolly and as a director for The Gin Game. He met future costar Gene Rayburn when he appeared as his understudy in Bye-Bye Birdie on Broadway. His last work was a autobiographical one man show titled Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly.
He kept appearing on Broadway even while starting up his television career. He regularly appeared on “The Steve Lawrence Show,” played Claymore Gregg on “The Ghost and Mrs. Muir,” the children’s show “Uncle Croc’s Block,” and was a featured guest on “The Dean Martin Show.” He appeared on the “Tonight Show” over 95 times. He would eventually be nominated for three Emmy awards.
But, it was game shows that brought Charles to the attention of the masses. In addition to “Match Game,” he also appeared on “Hollywood Squares. He even once said, “When I die, it’s going to read, “Game Show Fixture Passes Away”. Nothing about the theater, or Tony Awards, or Emmys. But it doesn’t bother me.”