Wally Cox
Encyclopedia
Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952 to June 12, 1955.-Overview:Mr. Peepers starred Wally Cox as Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher Robinson J. Peepers...

(1952–55), plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films. Wally Cox was the voice of the popular animated cartoon character Underdog. Although often cast as a meek milquetoast
Milquetoast
A milquetoast is a weak, ineffectual or bland person. The word is derived from the character Caspar Milquetoast from the 1924 comic strip The Timid Soul.Milquetoast may also refer to:...

, he was actually strong and athletic. He married three times and was a close friend of Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

.

Early life and education

Cox was born in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...

. When he was 10, he moved with his divorced mother, mystery author Eleanor Atkinson, and a younger sister to Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...

, where he became close friends with a neighborhood child, Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

. Cox's family moved frequently, eventually to Chicago, Illinois
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, then New York City, then back to Detroit, where he graduated from Denby High School
Denby High School
Edwin C. Denby High School is a public secondary education facility in Detroit, Michigan.Denby opened in 1930 and the building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 2005....

.

During World War II Cox and his family returned to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, where he attended City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...

. He next spent four months in the Army, and on his discharge attended New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

. He supported his invalid mother and sister by making and selling jewelry in a small shop and at parties, where he started doing comedy monologues. These would lead to regular performances at nightclubs such as the Village Vanguard
Village Vanguard
The Village Vanguard is a jazz club located at in Greenwich Village, New York City. The club was opened on February 22, 1935, by Max Gordon. At first, it also featured other forms of music such as folk music and beat poetry, but it switched to an all-jazz format in 1957.-History:Over 100 jazz...

, beginning in December 1948.

He became the roommate of Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...

, who encouraged him to study acting with Stella Adler
Stella Adler
Stella Adler was an American actress and an acclaimed acting teacher, who founded the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City and the The Stella Adler Academy of Acting in Los Angeles with long-time protege Joanne Linville, who continues to teach and furthers Adler's legacy...

. Cox and Brando remained close friends for the rest of Cox's life, and Brando appeared unannounced at Cox's wake. Brando is also reported to have kept Cox's ashes in his bedroom and conversed with them nightly.

Career

In 1949, Cox appeared on the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

 network-radio show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts
Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts is an American radio and television variety show which ran on CBS from 1946 until 1958...

, to the great amusement of host Godfrey. The first half of his act was a monologue in a slangy, almost-mumbled punk-kid characterization, telling listeners about his friend Dufo: "What a crazy guy." The gullible oaf Dufo would take any dares and fall for his gang's pranks time after time, and Cox would recount the awful consequences: "Sixteen stitches. What a crazy guy." Cox's decidedly different standup routine was infectious in its ridiculousness, and just as the studio audience had reached a peak of laughter, Cox suddenly switched gears, changed characters, and sang a high-pitched version of "The Drunkard Song" ("There Is a Tavern in the Town") punctuated by eccentric yodels! "Wallace Cox" earned a big hand that night, but lost by a narrow margin to The Chordettes
The Chordettes
The Chordettes were a female popular singing quartet, usually singing a cappella, and specializing in traditional popular music. The Chordettes were one of the longest lived vocal groups with beginnings in the mainstream pop and vocal harmonies of the 1940s and early 1950s...

. But he made enough of a hit to record his radio routine for an RCA Victor single. The "Dufo" routine ("What a Crazy Guy") was paired with "Tavern in the Town."

He appeared in Broadway musical reviews, night clubs, and early TV comedy-variety programs between 1949 and 1951, creating a huge impact with a starring role as a well-meaning but ineffective policeman on Philco Television Playhouse in 1951. Producer Fred Coe approached Cox about a starring role in a proposed live TV sitcom, Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers
Mr. Peepers is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from July 3, 1952 to June 12, 1955.-Overview:Mr. Peepers starred Wally Cox as Jefferson City's junior high school science teacher Robinson J. Peepers...

, which he accepted. The show ran on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 for three years. During this time, he guest starred on NBC's The Martha Raye Show
The Martha Raye Show
The Martha Raye Show is an hour-long comedy/variety show which aired live on NBC from January 23, 1954, to May 29, 1956. The series was hosted by the late Martha Raye, a Montana native, who often called herself "The Big Mouth." Her boyfriend on the program and a foil for her humor was portrayed by...

. In 1959, Cox was featured in the guest-starring title role in "The Vincent Eaglewood Story" on NBC's western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 series, Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...

, with Read Morgan
Read Morgan
Read Morgan is a former American actor whose longest-running role was as a United States Army cavalry officer in the 1960-1961 season of The Deputy, a western television series on NBC created by Norman Lear. Morgan appeared in thirty episodes as the one-eyed Sergeant Hapgood Tasker, recognized by...

.

Other roles were as the hero of The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
The Adventures of Hiram Holliday
Adventures of Hiram Holliday is a 1939 novel by Paul Gallico, later adapted to a TV series, The Adventures of Hiram Holliday, a half-hour filmed comedy/adventure series which ran for 20 episodes on the NBC Television Network and is now better known than the literary original.-Broadcast dates:The...

, based on a series of short stories of Paul Gallico
Paul Gallico
Paul William Gallico was a successful American novelist, short story and sports writer. Many of his works were adapted for motion pictures...

, as a regular occupant of the upper left square on the television game show Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares
Hollywood Squares is an American panel game show in which two contestants play tic-tac-toe to win cash and prizes. The "board" for the game is a 3 × 3 vertical stack of open-faced cubes, each occupied by a celebrity seated at a desk and facing the contestants...

, and as the voice of the animated cartoon character Underdog. He also was a guest on the game show What's My Line and on the pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

 episodes of Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

and It Takes a Thief. Cox made several appearances on Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...

, as well as The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....

and evening talk shows.

He played character roles in more than 20 motion pictures and worked frequently in guest-star roles in TV drama, comedy, and variety series in the 1960s and early 1970s. Among these was a role as a down-on-his-luck prospector seeking a better life for his family in an episode of Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones
Alias Smith and Jones is an American Western series that originally aired on ABC from 1971 to 1973. It stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Jedediah "Kid" Curry, a pair of Western cousin outlaws trying to reform...

, a western comedy. His television and screen persona was that of a shy, timid but kind man who wore thick eyeglasses and spoke in a pedantic, high-pitched voice.

Cox published a number of books including Mr. Peepers, a novel created by adapting several scripts from the TV series; My Life as a Small Boy, an idealized depiction of his childhood; a parody and update of Horatio Alger in Ralph Makes Good, which was probably originally a screen treatment for an unmade film intended to star Cox; and a children's book, The Tenth Life of Osiris Oakes.

Personal life

During the 1960s and into the '70s, Cox became frustrated by his being typecast as a prim, polite bookworm (or birdwatcher, or accountant), and protested in vain to reporters and interviewers that he was nothing like Peepers. He was physically quite strong, hiked and drove a motorcycle, and was a master electrician. In a 1950s article on Cox's "Mr. Peepers" TV show, Popular Science
Popular Science
Popular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...

Magazine reported that Cox kept a small workshop in his dressing room. (Cox's Hollywood Squares colleague, former Hollywood Squares "square-master" Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall
Peter Marshall may refer to:* Peter Marshall , British author whose works include Demanding The Impossible: A History of Anarchism and Europe's Lost Civilization...

, recalled in his memoir, Backstage With The Original Hollywood Square, that Cox installed and maintained all the wiring in his own home.) Such misperceptions no doubt contributed to the sarcastic and peevish personality that Cox displayed as a comedian; they might also have helped inspire the character of Underdog, whose "Shoe-Shine Boy" persona, in the animated cartoons, reflected the kinds of roles Cox was often given.

TV viewers did, however, get to see a glimpse of Cox's physicality on an episode of I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...

transmitted on May 11, 1960, in which he and host Garry Moore
Garry Moore
Garry Moore was an American entertainer, game show host and comedian best known for his work in television...

 ran around on stage assembling furniture while the panel was blindfolded. A rare glimpse of Cox's athletic build can be seen in the Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

pilot, when he works as a safecracker in a tight, sleeveless t-shirt.

On the June 14, 1976, installment of The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....

, actor Robert Blake
Robert Blake (actor)
Robert Blake is an American actor who starred in the film In Cold Blood and the U.S. television series Baretta. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted for the 2001 murder of his wife, but on November 18, 2005, Blake was found liable in a California civil court for her wrongful death.-Early...

 spoke of how much he missed his good friend Cox, who was described as being adventuresome and athletic.

Cox married three times, to Marilyn Gennaro, Milagros Tirado, and Patricia Tiernan, and was survived by his third wife and two children.

Death

On February 15, 1973, Cox died of a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

 in his home. According to an autopsy, Cox died of a coronary occlusion
Coronary occlusion
A coronary occlusion is the partial or complete obstruction of blood flow in a coronary artery. This condition may cause a heart attack.In some patients coronary occlusion causes only mild pain, tightness or vague discomfort which may be ignored: the myocardium is however damaged....

. Initial reports indicated that he wished to have no funeral and that his ashes would be scattered at sea. A later report indicated his ashes were put in with those of Brando and another close friend and scattered in Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...

 and Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

.

External links

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