JOHN MYLONG

September 27, 1892

John Mylong (aka Jack Mylong-Münz aka Johnny Mylong) was born as Adolf Heinrich Münz in Vienna Austo-Hungaria (now Austria). A Russian-Jewish character actor, he first acted on stage in 1912 and was briefly popular in German films of the early 1930’s. After the  annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938, he emigrated to the United States. In Hollywood, he played assorted characters in B-movies under the name ‘John Mylong’, wisely changing his original name, Adolf. In 1941 he starred in the Theatre Guild’s production of Somewhere in France, which was headed to Broadway, but closed in Washington. 

After arriving in Hollywood, his first American film was The Devil Pays Off (1941) for Republic Pictures. He was uncredited, but naturally played a German character in this war-time drama. He continued doing films in Hollywood and adopted American citizenship in 1948. 

He began doing television in 1952 with “The Sound of Waves Breaking”, an episode of “Lux Video Theatre” featuring Natalie Schaffer and Teresa Wright. 

Mylong did two episodes of “I Love Lucy,” both part of its season five trip to Europe story arc. 

On February 26, 1956 he was seen as a gendarme in “Paris at Last” (S5;E18).

Mylong plays the officer who speaks both French and German (second from left) in the famous tag-team translation scene. The other characters say he’s from Strasbourg but Mylong was originally born in Vienna. On December 20, 2019, CBS broadcast a colorized version of “Paris at Last”.  

Seven weeks later he returned to the series as the Monte Carlo Casino Manager in “Lucy Goes To Monte Carlo” (S5;E25). After Lucy mistakenly gambles her way into a small fortune, he tries to make sense of her confusion and clarifies that Lucy cannot simply walk away from her enormous winnings! 

In 1959, he returned to Desilu to play a role in “Perilous” an installment of “The Westinghouse-Desilu Playhouse” starring Joan Fontaine and Maximilion Schell. The series was produced by Desi Arnaz, who introduced the episode on camera. 

In 1965, he was at Desilu Studios one last time for an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show” titled “Uhny Uftz”, a story about flying saucers!  The episode also featured Lucy-alumni Madge Blake and Ross Elliott. 

Mylong’s final screen appearance came in January 1967 with an episode of CBS’s “Jericho”, a short-lived World War II espionage series in color!  

Mylong died in Beverly Hills on September 8, 1975 at age 82.