Marty Ingels, R.I.P.

Boy, this is a tough one. Comic actor Marty Ingels has died at the age of 79 from a massive stroke. He was best known for his starring role on the 1962 situation comedy, I'm Dickens, He's Fenster. He was Fenster. Before that, he was a "discovery" and protégé of Jerry Lewis who stuck Ingels in one or two of his features and then left all his scenes on the cutting room floor.

Briefly, he had a recurring role as Rob Petrie's army buddy Sol on The Dick Van Dyke Show. True story of how he got the part: Ingels was dating a waitress who worked at the International House of Pancakes in West Hollywood. One night, he's sitting there in the wee small hours, waiting for her to get off work. At various times in his life, Ingels had a dread, almost crippling fear of being alone. That was when he didn't have the dread, almost crippling fear of being around other people.

So he was sitting there in the IHOP and who should walk in but Carl Reiner and Sheldon Leonard? He had read in Variety that they were producing a new TV show and that evening, they'd gone to see a play in order to get a look at some actor. Instantly, Ingels — who was then without any show biz prospects — got his lady friend to rustle up a waiter outfit for him. He put it on and waited on their table and was very funny. Either Reiner or Leonard asked him, "Are you an actor?" He said he was. They invited him to come in and audition…and he got the part.

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He was in two episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show before they got rid of him. He admitted in later interviews that he was impossible to work with, going through massive mood swings and alternately being too friendly to people and then too hostile. When he got cast in I'm Dickens, He's Fenster, he had problems, too. And one time when he guested on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, he had what he later described as an on-air nervous breakdown and he walked off the set during the program.

Eventually, most of his performing career went away, though he did occasionally do voiceovers. In his autobiography, he told the story of how he got his first cartoon job for Hanna-Barbera in 1982 as the voice of Pac-Man. It's a nice story that somehow overlooks the fact that he'd done voices before that for the studio — on The Catanooga Cats in 1969 and on The Great Grape Ape Show in 1975.

Mostly, Ingels acted as an agent and as someone who circumvented agents. Let's say you wanted to hire Orson Welles to do a commercial for your product. You called Mr. Welles' agent and offered $200,000 for his services. The agent might tell you your product was below Mr. Welles' dignity and your offer was below his established price. So you then phoned Ingels who would find a way to get to Welles, talk him into the deal…and of course collect a commission on it. Ingels made a lot of money doing this and made enemies of a lot of agents in the process.

There are a great many other stories about Marty Ingels. Earlier this evening when I first posted this, I told one of them that was not flattering. I just (a few hours later) read it again and decided that it was too soon to tell that story so I've deleted it. My apologies to his friends and family for posting it at a time when they deserve a little peace. I'll see how I feel in a week or two and may or may not repost it.