Actor Kenneth Mars, 75, played Nazi in "Producers"
Character actor Kenneth "Ken" Mars, whose German-type accents helped him land the role of nutbar Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in Mel Brooks' 1968 movie The Producers, died Saturday of pancreatic cancer at his Granada Hills, California home. He was 75.
Mars had a longtime career as a voice actor during his four-decade-long career. He voiced Grandpa Longneck in many installments of The Land Before Time series, which ran theatrically and on television as well as on video.
Born in Chicago on April 14, 1936, Mars voiced King Triton in Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid and its 2000 direct-to-video sequel, The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. Also in animated films, he was Professor Screweyes in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993) and King Colbert in Thumbelina (1994).
Mars portrayed regular characters or provided narration in the cartoon series Uncle Croc's Block (1975); Captain Caveman (1980); Laverne & Shirley in the Army (1981); The Smurfs (1981-89); The Biskitts and Saturday Supercade (both 1983); The Flintstone Kids, Potato Head Kids and Teen Wolf (all 1986); The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy (1988); Midnight Patrol: Adventures in the Dream Zone and TaleSpin (both 1990); Darkwing Duck (1991); Fievel's American Tails (1992); The Pink Panther (1993); Bruno the Kid (1996); and Cow and Chicken (1997).
He was in the voice casts of Super Friends, Richie Rich and The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang (all 1980); The Little Rascals and The Shirt Tales (both 1982); The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show and The Dukes (both 1983); Challenge of the GoBots (1984); The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and The Jetsons (both 1985); Foofur (1986-87); The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, Garfield and Friends, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Fantastic Max (all 1988); The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures, New Kids on the Block and Tom and Jerry Kids (all 1990); and Droopy, Master Detective (1993).
His live-action TV series included Malcolm in the Middle;Fernwood Tonight and its spinoff, America Tonight; and the 1967-68 CBS series He & She.
The 6'3" actor married Barbara Newborn in 1977.
Kenneth Mars is survived by daughters Susannah Mars Johnson and Rebecca Mars Tipton; their husbands, Gary Johnson and Wayne Tipton; and grandchildren Alex Tipton, Kate Johnson, Noah Tipton, Nick Tipton, Olivia Johnson and Sam Tipton.
Services will be private. Remembrances on his behalf can be made to Smile Train in Washington, D.C.
Re: Actor Kenneth Mars, 75, played Nazi in "Producers"
[In reply to]
Ken Mars played another memorable Mel Brooks-directed character as the phony-armed Inspector Kemp in "Young Frankenstein". He also appeared in the films "What's Up Doc", "Fletch", "Protocol", "Shadows and Fog" (directed by Woody Allen), and "Goin' Coconuts" which was Donny and Marie Osmond's first film.
(This post was edited by artytoons on Feb 14, 2011, 5:58 PM)
Re: Actor Kenneth Mars, 75, played Nazi in "Producers"
[In reply to]
Mr. Mars' output in animation was huge, although his impact was diluted by the number of series in which he was simply a voice cast member with no specific character attached.
He voiced the Director and the Dogcatcher in the 1987 TV special Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats.
Series where he guested in individual episodes included Captain Planet and the Planeteers and Tiny Toon Adventures (both 1990), Batman: The Animated Series (1992), Mighty Max (1993), Duckman (1994), Freakazoid! (1995), and Jungle Cubs and The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (both 1996).
Re: Actor Kenneth Mars, 75, played Nazi in "Producers"
[In reply to]
for his regular character roles in tv animation:
Ken Mars played the voice of the villainous King Max on "The Biskitts" who pursued the tiny Biskitt dogs in his attempts to steal the treasure they were guarding.
Mars's role in "Saturday Supercade" was in the "Pitfall" segment as Quick Claw, the cowardly talking lion who accompanied Pitfall Harry on various jungle adventures.
Mars' role in "Laverne and Shirley in the Army" was as General Turnbuckle, the superior of Sgt. Squealy who commanded Army Privates Laverne and Shirley. Squealy the pig was often on the receiving end of the cartoon violence inflicted by Laverne and Shirley.
(This post was edited by artytoons on Feb 15, 2011, 10:17 AM)
