Ronnie Schell, the stand-up comedian who starred as the wisecracking Duke Slater, the best friend of Jim Nabors‘ character, on the 1960s CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: USMC, died on Friday. He was 94.
Schell died of natural causes at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
Schell also was a prolific voice actor who worked on many cartoons, and one of his more noteworthy gigs was as the animated Peter Puck, who explained the rules of hockey to viewers of NHL games on NBC in the 1970s.
A popular opening act in clubs — he toured with the folk/pop group The Kingston Trio for more than two years — the self-deprecating Schell billed himself as “America’s Slowest Rising Young Comedian.”
And he played Ann Marie’s (Marlo Thomas) agent on two first-season 1966 episodes of ABC’s That Girl.
