Ted Cassidy

Ted Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor. Noted for his tall stature at 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m), and his deep bass voice, he tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction series such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie and is best known for the role of "Lurch" on The Addams Family in the mid-1960s. He is also known for voicing The Hulk.

Early life and education

Ted Cassidy was born as Theodore Crawford Cassidy on July 31, 1932, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He was raised in Philippi, West Virginia. 

In his youth, Cassidy was an academically gifted individual and attended third grade at age six. During his freshman year of high school, at age 11, Cassidy was on the football and basketball teams. Despite this, he was a frequent target of bullying by his much older peers, having already reached a height of 6 ft. 1 in (1.85 m) by then.

After graduating from high school, Cassidy attended West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, West Virginia, where he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He transferred to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he played college basketball for the Hatters and was active in the student government.

Career

Radio

After graduating with a degree in speech and drama, he married Margaret Helen in 1956, and they moved to Dallas, Texas. His acting career took off when he worked as a mid-day disc jockey on WFAA in Dallas. He also occasionally appeared on WFAA-TV Channel 8, playing Creech, an outer space creature on the "Dialing for Dollars" segments on Ed Hogan's afternoon movies. He gave an in-studio report from WFAA radio station on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and was among the first to interview eyewitnesses W. E. Newman, Jr. and Gayle Newman.

Television

Cassidy's unusual height gave him an advantage in auditioning for unusual character roles, such as "Lurch" on The Addams Family (in which, despite being an accomplished organist, he feigned playing the harpsichord). He also played the character named "Thing" (associate producer Jack Voglin would take over the "Thing" role in scenes with both characters). Though the character was intended to be mute, Cassidy ad-libbed his signature line, "You rang?". The subtle humor and the deepness of his voice was immediately a hit. Thereafter, it was a recurring phrase written into the script.

Cassidy would reprise the role of "Lurch" in later appearances. In the Batman episode "The Penguin's Nest" (1966), he appears during Batman and Robin's familiar climb scene up the side of a building, as a tenant who is playing the harpsichord prior to sticking his head out of the window and speaking to Batman and Robin. He also voiced this character in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), which featured the family, as well as in the 1973 animated series adaptation of The Addams Family.

In addition to The Addams Family, Cassidy found steady work in a variety of other television shows. He had a regular role on NBC's The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as "Injun Joe," the blood-foe of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huck." In the 1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode, "The Napoleon's Tomb Affair", Cassidy played a henchman, "Edgar," who kidnaps, tortures, and repeatedly tries to kill "Napoleon" and "Illya." Also, he had a brief role as a threatening goon in the first The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode titled "The Vulcan Affair".

Cassidy also provided the voice of the more aggressive version of "Balok" in the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver", the role of the android "Ruk" in the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", and he voiced the "Gorn" in the episode "Arena". Cassidy did more work with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the early 1970s, playing "Isiah" in the post-apocalyptic drama pilots Genesis II and Planet Earth. In the Lost in Space episode, "The Thief from Outer Space", he played the "Slave" to the alien "Thief" (Malachi Throne) who threatens the Robinsons.

Cassidy appeared on Mannix in "To Kill a Writer", the 1968 Season 1 Episode 23, as "Felipe Montoya." Cassidy appeared on Daniel Boone in the 1968 episode "The Scrimshaw Ivory Chart" as a pirate named "Gentle Sam." He also appeared in several episodes of I Dream of Jeannie in 1968. He appeared as the master of Jeannie's devious sister in the episode "Genie, Genie, Who's Got the Genie?", and Jeannie's cousin in the episode "Please Don't Feed the Astronauts". In The Beverly Hillbillies episode "The Dahlia Feud" from 1967, he played "Mr. Ted," a large, muscular gardener who was planting dahlias for Mrs. Drysdale.

In the two-part The Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Return of Bigfoot" (1976), Cassidy appeared as "Bigfoot" (the role was originally played by professional wrestler André the Giant in a previous two-parter). He even provided the vocal effects for Bigfoot. Cassidy reprised the role in the 1977 episode "Bigfoot V."

Voice acting and film work

Concurrent with his appearances on The Addams Family, Cassidy began doing character voices on a recurring basis for the Hanna-Barbera Studios, culminating in the role of "Frankenstein, Jr." in Frankenstein, Jr. and The Impossibles series. He was the voice of "Meteor Man" in Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, as well as the hero in the Chuck Menville pixillated short film Blaze Glory, in which his already-deep voice was enhanced with reverb echo to give the character an exaggerated super-hero sound. Cassidy also voiced Ben Grimm (a.k.a. "The Thing") in Stan Lee's The New Fantastic Four. Cassidy went on to perform the roars and growls for "Godzilla" in Dick Robbins and Duane Poole's 1979 cartoon series Godzilla that Hanna-Barbera Productions co-produced with Toho Company and was also the voice of "Montaro" in the Jana of the Jungle segments that accompanied Godzilla during its first network run. His was the basis for the sinister voice of "Black Manta," as well as "Brainiac" and several others on Super Friends. Cassidy was the original voice of "Moltar" and "Metallus" on Space Ghost from 1966 to 1968.

After The Addams Family, Cassidy began to add more voice work to his résumé; in that acting field, most notably, he narrated the opening of Kenneth Johnson TV series The Incredible Hulk. Cassidy also provided the Hulk's growls and roars during the show's first two seasons.

In deleted scenes from the original Battlestar Galactica TV pilot movie, "Saga of a Star World" (on the DVD collection Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Epic Series [1978]), Cassidy can be heard providing temporary voice tracks of the Cylon Imperious Leader, before actor Patrick Macnee was contracted to voice the character.

Other film work included his appearances in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid(1969), Mackenna's Gold (1969), The Limit (1972), Charcoal Black (1972), The Slams (1973), Thunder County (1974), Poor Pretty Eddie (1975), Harry and Walter Go to New York (1976), The Last Remake of Beau Geste (1977) and Goin' Coconuts(1978). He also co-wrote the screenplay of 1973's The Harrad Experiment, in which he made a brief appearance.

Cassidy's last voice work was for the "Thun" character in the TV movie Flash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982.)

In 1965, he released a seven-inch vinyl record on Capitol Records with two songs on it: "The Lurch", written by Gary S. Paxton, and "Wesley", written by Cliffie Stone and Scott Turner. He introduced the dance and performed the song "The Lurch" on September 11, 1965, on Shivaree! and performed it again on Halloween of the same year on Shindig!, along with Boris Karloff performing "Monster Mash".

Personal life

Cassidy was married to Margaret Helen Jesse (sister of actor Dan Jesse) from June 14, 1956, until the divorce in 1975. They had two children.

Death

Cassidy underwent surgery at St. Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles to have a non-malignant tumor removed from his heart. While recovering at home, complications arose several days later and he was readmitted. On January 16, 1979, Cassidy died at age 46 at St. Vincent Medical Center.

Actress Sandra Martinez took care of him during his final years. Cassidy was cremated and his remains were subsequently buried in the backyard of his Woodland Hills home in Los Angeles. The exact location of his remains is unknown.

His off-screen narration for The Incredible Hulk remained in the entire television series after his death.

Filmography