Peter Marshall, the original host of the television game show The Hollywood Squares, passed away today, at age 98, from kidney failure. He had survived a bout of COVID-19 in 2021, which was bad enough that he was in hospice care for a time.
Born Ralph Pierre LaCock, Marshall had been a comedian, singer, actor, and comedy writer, before being tapped to replace Bert Parks, who had been the host of the pilot episode of The Hollywood Squares in 1966. Marshall, who had often played straight-man roles, was an excellent foil for the panel’s funny responses, and hosted the show for 15 years, before stepping away from it in 1981.
One of his children is Ralph Pierre “Pete” LaCock Jr., who played major league baseball, for the Kansas City Royals and Chicago Cubs in the 1970s.
After I saw him some years back in The 49th Man (1953) - as a clarinet player secretly trying to smuggle an a-bomb into the U.S. using a U.S. security test as cover - I never trusted Mr. Marshall to tell truth from fiction again.
He also co-wrote the awful Maryjane (1968) starring Fabian as a high school teacher out to bust a drug ring. One of the co-writers was Dick Gautier (a.k.a. Hymie the robot on “Get Smart”)!
I knew that, because I was a Royals fan when his son played for KC. I’m guessing that everybody on the set knew that fact, but were forbidden to bring it up during filming.
Wow, 98! That’s one helluva run! I hope they gave him a nice cube to spend eternity in.
RIP, Peter. You live on in infinite reruns!
As for Paul Lynde, I was surprised he lived as long as he did. He was a chain smoker and had been morbidly obese as a child. When asked how he planned to spend his retirement, he said “I’m going to lie in bed and eat. I was a fat kid, and I’m going to be a fat old man!”