The Duffless Foundation is very sad to hear the news that actor, director and game show personality Charles Nelson Reilly has passed away over the holiday weekend at the age of 76 from complications from Pneumonia . Charles will be sorely, sorely missed.
Reilly was an accomplished stage actor...winning a Tony early in his career. He was also on many television series, and was a frequent contributor to many talk shows, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. But who are we kidding, he is best known for his work on the long running game show...Match Game, hosted by Gene Rayburn. Charles was one of many stars who were regulars on the show, but he is often associated with Brett Somers, his neighbor in the top row of stars. Other regulars were Richard Dawson, Fannie Flagg, MacLean Stevenson and Betty White. The Match Game was really a groundbreaking show, with it's risque talk and subject matter.
After the Match Game, and a host of other Game Show appearances, Reilly made many guest appearances on shows such as The Love Boat...The Drew Carey Show, and one of Duffless' favorite xfiles ever. He was nominated for Emmies for both the Drew Carey Show and the Xfiles. He was later nominated for another Tony, this time for direction, and also produced the one man show...The Life of Reilly, in which he came out of the closet for the first time ever.
Charles Nelson Reilly also may be the greatest Halloween Costume I'd ever come up with ...until I pulled off Meatloaf a couple of years ago. I really need to find the pictures of that night.
CNR...you will be missed...and the Duffless Foundation salutes you and your tremendous body of work.
Reilly was an accomplished stage actor...winning a Tony early in his career. He was also on many television series, and was a frequent contributor to many talk shows, including The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. But who are we kidding, he is best known for his work on the long running game show...Match Game, hosted by Gene Rayburn. Charles was one of many stars who were regulars on the show, but he is often associated with Brett Somers, his neighbor in the top row of stars. Other regulars were Richard Dawson, Fannie Flagg, MacLean Stevenson and Betty White. The Match Game was really a groundbreaking show, with it's risque talk and subject matter.
After the Match Game, and a host of other Game Show appearances, Reilly made many guest appearances on shows such as The Love Boat...The Drew Carey Show, and one of Duffless' favorite xfiles ever. He was nominated for Emmies for both the Drew Carey Show and the Xfiles. He was later nominated for another Tony, this time for direction, and also produced the one man show...The Life of Reilly, in which he came out of the closet for the first time ever.
Charles Nelson Reilly also may be the greatest Halloween Costume I'd ever come up with ...until I pulled off Meatloaf a couple of years ago. I really need to find the pictures of that night.
CNR...you will be missed...and the Duffless Foundation salutes you and your tremendous body of work.
2 comments:
Indeed, he was awesome on the X Files.
My first memory of him is from the Match Game, and then from The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. I'm assuming these were all reruns, as I'm old, but Not THAT old. I also recently read how he was from the Bronx (like me) and was in CT (like me), and as a child survived a very tragic fire at the Circus in Hartford. Apparently, this was a national tragedy, and for years he couldn't sit in an audience, and often avoided award shows because of this.
I remember as a child thinking he was Templeton the Rat in Charlotte's Web, but that was Paul Lynde. Who was very CNR like. I think I was too young to differentiate goofy gay men in their 40/50's in the 1970s.
My love of CNR came back in my teen years, when The Dead Milkmen sang of him.
God I love CNR, I can hear his laugh ringing in my head even now.
It is indeed a loss.
If anyone is interested...GSN is doing an all day Charles Nelson Reilly Memorial tomorrow.
I know I may be filling up the ol' dvr.
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