RONNY GRAHAM

Not to be confused with the Ronald Graham, who appeared in the 1939 Broadway production The Boys From Syracuse, actor/screenwriter Ronny Graham made his own New York theatrical debut in 1951. The white-maned, wide-grinning Graham gained prominence in the 1952 revue New Faces, for which he also contributed comedy material; when that production was committed to film in 1953, he was promoted from a mere ensemble player to star, carrying the grafted-on backstage plot line. A busy cabaret performer since 1950, Graham appeared in several one-man shows, and wrote, produced, directed, and/or co-starred in such popular attractions as the annual Upstairs at the Downstairs revue. He also wrote the lyrics and libretto for the Broadway "book" musical Bravo Giovanni. He was seen in dozens of TV commercials, most famously as Mr. Grime in a group of auto-service ads in the early '70s. He was a regular on the video variety series The New Bill Cosby Show (1972) and The Hudson Bros. Show (1974), as well as the sitcoms The Bob Crane Show (1975, as Ernest Busso) and Chico and the Man (1975-1978, as Rev. Bemis). He also wrote several episodes of M*A*S*H during the late '70s. Although he had a starring role in Peter Weir's Gallipoli in 1981, most of Graham's latter film appearances were in association with Mel Brooks, who'd been one of the staff writers for New Faces; among the Brooks endeavors in which Graham was featured (and sometimes made screenplay contributions) were History of the World -- Part One (1981), To Be or Not to Be (1982), Spaceballs (1989), Life Stinks (1991), and Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993). Graham died in 1999 at the age of 79.