I've always loved a certain kind of actor — the kind who turned up at one time or another in almost every show I was watching when I was kid. Guys like Peter Leeds, Tom Pedi, Ed Peck, Dabbs Greer, Lou Krugman, the pre-M*A*S*H Jamie Farr, Herb Vigran, Herbie Faye — there's a long, long list — rarely had regular parts of those TV shows but they always seemed to be guest-starring. Dave Ketchum, who just died at the age of 97, was a regular on a few shows like Camp Runamuck, Get Smart and I'm Dickens, He's Fenster…but most of the time he turned up in guest roles. Producers and directors knew he was reliable and always did his job well.
Dave's job was not just acting. He did stand-up comedy. He wrote for a lot of TV shows. He was in a lot of commercials. I never worked with him but we got to talking on Writers Guild picket lines and he seemed like a nice, funny guy. Here's a rundown on the career of that nice, funny guy.