HANS CONRIED

April 15, 1917

Hans Georg Conried Jr. was born in Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was a descendant of Pilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna, Austria. He was raised in Baltimore and in New York City. He studied acting at Columbia University and went on to play major classical roles onstage. Conried worked in radio before turning to movies in 1939. During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Army in September 1944.

He made his screen debut at MGM in 1938′s Dramatic School.  

He first appeared with Lucille Ball in The Big Street (1942), playing a headwaiter, an uncredited role. 

His radio experience led him to Lucille Ball and her radio sitcom “My Favorite Husband” (1948-51) where he was frequently heard playing a variety of roles, including most of Liz Cooper’s teachers, and her neighbor Mr. Wood.  He was the first actor to play George’s boss, Mr. Atterbury, the role assumed by Gale Gordon when it became a regular character.  

In September 1949 he made his television debut on an episode of “Oboler Comedy Theatre” immediately appearing in the very next episode as well. 

In his first appearance on “I Love Lucy” he played used furniture buyer Dan Jenkins in “Redecorating” (ILL S2;E8). In real life, Dan Jenkins was the name of a journalist friend of the Arnazes who wrote a column for TV Guide.

DAN JENKINS: “I’m a lousy businessman, but I like the way you sing ‘Babalu’ so I’ll take it.”

He returned to the series five weeks later to play Percy Livermore in “Lucy Hires an English Tutor” (ILL S2;E13), both in 1952. 

The character of the fastidious tutor was based on his many creations on “My Favorite Husband,” where he taught Liz Cooper everything from swimming to history! 

In this episode, Ricky and Lucy read books to build their literacy one of which is Peter Pan. Hans Conried had just voiced Captain Hook for the Disney animated feature film of Peter Pan to be released just a month later, in February 1953. In October 1955 he did an episode of Desilu
Productions’ “Cavalcade of America.” 

That same year he forged a relationship with another TV comedy star, Danny Thomas, appearing in his first of 23 episodes of the Desilu
Studios-filmed “Make Room For Daddy” aka “The Danny Thomas Show”. In his fourth episode he created the role of Uncle Tonoose, which he played from then on. 

In August 1957, he did an episode of Desilu’s helicopter series “Whirlybirds”.  In 1958 he did an episode of “The Californians” (above) as ‘Painless’ Peter Pepper, filmed at Desilu Studios. 

On “The Lucy Show” he made two appearances as Dr. Gitterman, a drama / music coach. Again, this character was inspired by those he first did on “My Favorite Husband.” 

Dr. Gittereman returned the following season in “Lucy Plays Cleopatra” (TLS S2;E1). This time he coached Lucy in Drama to prepare her to play Cleopatra for The Danfield Community Theatre. 

He even gets into the act as Marc Anthony!  This was the first episode filmed in color, although it was aired in black and white.

In 1964 Conried did two episodes of the Desilu game show “You Don’t Say”. 

For Desilu Distributing, Conried hosted “Fractured Flickers” – a show that added its own soundtrack to old movies.  He did all 26 episodes of this one-season wonder. 

In 1973 he appeared with Lucille Ball for the last time on an episode of “Here’s Lucy” starring Danny Thomas, who he was then most associated with because of “Make Room for Daddy.” 

He played an art studio owner at odds with an eccentric artist played by Danny Thomas. 

Towards the end of his life he did extensive voice work in animation. 

Conried died on January 5, 1982 at the age of 64. He was married to Margaret Grant since 1942; the couple had four children.