From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Sheldon Leonard Bershad February 22 1907 January 11 1997 was an American film and television actor producer director and writer Sheldon Leonard Bershad was born in Manhattan New York City the son of middle class Jewish parents Anna Levit and Frank Bershad He graduated from Syracuse University in 1929 As an actor Leonard specialized in playing supporting characters especially gangsters or heavies in films such as Its a Wonderful Life 1946 as bartender Nick To Have and Have Not 1944 Guys and Dolls 1955 and Open Secret 1948 His trademark was his especially thick New York accent usually delivered from the side of his mouth In Decoy 1946 Leonard uses his heavy persona to create the hardboiled police detective Joe Portugal On radio from 1945 to 1955 Leonard played an eccentric racetrack tout on The Jack Benny Program and later in the TV series of the same name His role was to salute Benny out of the blue in railroad stations on street corners or in department stores Hey Bud Cmere a minute ask Benny what he was about to do and then proceed to try to argue him out of his course of action by resorting to inane and irrelevant racing logic As The Tout he never gave out information on horse racing unless Jack demanded it One excuse the tout gave was Who knows about horses Leonard was part of the cast of voice actors on the Damon Runyon Theatre radio show 19481949 He was part of the ensemble cast of the Martin and Lewis radio show He also appeared frequently on The Adventures of the Saint often playing gangsters and heavies but also sometimes in more positive roles Leonard was also a regular on the radio comedy series The Adventures of Maisie in the 1940s During the 1950s Leonard provided the voice of lazy fat cat Dodsworth in two Warner Bros Merrie Melodies cartoons directed by Robert McKimson In the adventure movie The Iroquois Trail 1950 Leonard played against type in the significant role of Chief Ogane a Native American warrior who pursues and fights the frontiersman Nat Hawkeye Cutler George Montgomery in a climactic duel to the death with knives Later in the 1950s and 1960s he established a reputation as a producer of successful television series including The Danny Thomas Show aka Make Room For Daddy 195364 The Andy Griffith Show 196068 Gomer Pyle USMC 196469 The Dick Van Dyke Show 196166 and I Spy 196568 He also directed several TV series episodes including four of the first eight episodes of the TV series Lassie Season 1 1954 Leonard also provided the voice of Linus the Lionhearted in a series of Post Crispy Critters cereal TV commercials in 196364 which led to a Linus cartoon series that aired on Saturday and later Sunday mornings on CBS 196466 and ABC 196769 He also was briefly the star of his own television show Big Eddie 1975 where he played the owner of a large sports arena The show lasted for only ten episodes
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