“Honeymooners” actor passes away at 91

Veteran actor Frank Marth died on Sunday, January 12, 2014 of congestive heart failure and Alzheimer’s Disease in Rancho Mirage, California.  He was 91 years old.

Marth’s career spanned for 50 years, often playing authority figures in various TV shows and films.  He played a detective opposite Lana Turner in the 1966 movie Madame X, a police lieutenant in Madigan(1968), and an Air Force man in Marooned (1969).

But it was his assortment of background roles in the Jackie Gleason sitcom, the Honeymooners, together with George O. Petrie that shot him to fame.  He was Harvey Wholsetter who hires Alice Kramden (Audrey Meadows) to babysit for his son, Harvey Junior, one of the hoodlums who hold the Kramdens and Norton hostage, and the off-screen narrator of Norton’s favourite TV show, Captain Video.

Marth also worked with Gleason in the comedian’s variety shows Cavalcade of the stars and the American Scene Magazine before and after The Honeymooners.

Born and raised in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighbourhood, his career started on stage.  In 1949, he made his first TV appearance in the TV series Mama.  Later on, he appeared in shows like The Fugitive, Dirty Dozen:  The Series, M.A.S.H., Airwolf, and Hogan’s Heroes as a German officer.

In total, he has appeared in 150 television and films since his first TV appearance, with the 1994 movie, “Loving Deadly” as his last screen credit.

Frank Marth was survived by his wife of 45 years, actress Hope Holiday of the “Irma La Douce” and “The Apartment” fame.  Friends in and outside of Hollywood has dedicated funeral poems, songs and quotes to the veteran actor through various social networking sites.

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