Larry Blyden

Infobox Actor
name = Larry Blyden

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birthname = Ivan Lawrence Blieden
birthdate = June 23, 1925
birthplace = Houston, Texas, USA
deathdate = June 6, 1975
deathplace = Agadir, Morocco
occupation = Actor, director, producer
spouse = Carol Haney (1955-1962)
tonyawards = Best Featured Actor in a Musical
1972 "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"

Larry Blyden (June 23, 1925 - June 6, 1975) was an American Tony Award winning actor and game show host, best known for his appearances on Broadway and as the host of the game show What's My Line?

Biography

Personal life

Born Ivan Lawrence Blieden in Houston, Texas, and died in Morocco in a car accident. He was Jewish. He was married to actress and dancer Carol Haney (1925-1964) from 1955 to 1962. The couple had 2 children, Joshua (b.1957) and Ellen (b.1960).

Career

Blyden's career had three distinct phases. For most of his career, he was known as a good, solid character actor for TV and also as a highly in demand Broadway actor. For television is concerned, he starred in one sitcom, "Harry's Girls", which ran from 1963 to 1964. In this adaptation of the Robert E. Sherwood play "Idiot's Delight", Blyden starred as Harry, who was a vaudeville style performer constantly getting into trouble and falling in love. Blyden also did many guest performances on dramatic anthology series such as "Playhouse 90", "Omnibus", "The Loretta Young Show" and many others along with "The Twilight Zone" and other non-anthology dramatic programs. Although he was generally cast as a nice guy, his two "Twilight Zone" episodes display an impressive range as he takes on two very different jerks: the tough-talking hood who dies and finds the afterlife a little "too" pleasant in the classic episode "A Nice Place to Visit", and the titular vain, cowardly cowboy star in the comedic episode "Showdown with Rance McGrew".

Blyden was an in-demand Broadway and off-Broadway actor. He starred in shows such as "Mister Roberts" (where he played the role later played by Jack Lemmon in the film version), "Harold", "Foxy", "The Apple Tree" and a revival (which he helped produce) of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for the role of Hysterium, a slave. His performance in "Flower Drum Song" as "Sammy Fong" also was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Late in his career, he became a game show presenter and emcee, starting with "Personality" in 1967. He also hosted "You're Putting Me On", "The Movie Game" and finally and most successfully, "What's My Line?". When he died, he was about to host the Mark Goodson-Bill Todman produced show, "Showoffs", which was eventually hosted by Bobby Van.

Blyden also had a brief and rather uneventful film career. He played secondary parts in the films "Kiss Them For Me" (1957), "The Bachelor Party" (1957), and "On A Clear Day You Can See Forever" (1970).

In 1974, Blyden appeared in a play in New Haven, CT with the Yale Repertory Theatre. A musical comedy named The Frogs, by Burt Shevelove, and freely based on a play written by Aristophanes in 405 B.C., the music and lyrics were by Stephen Sondheim. Blyden played Dionysos. One of his fellow castmates was Michael Vale, Xanthias, who would later become Fred the Baker in a long-running series of commercials for Dunkin' Donuts. Notable in the chorus of this production of The Frogs, were a young Meryl Streep and Sigourney Weaver, both students at the Yale School of Drama. Choreographer, and also appearing as a Hand Maiden and the Innkeeper's Wife, was Carmen de Lavallade. [original program from this production by the Yale Repertory Theatre]

References

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External links

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* [http://www.sonybmgmasterworks.com/artists/larryblyden/ Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks]