The Year without a Santa Claus (1974) alternate cast

When he was 11, he wanted to be a comedian like Sid Caesar. Then, when he was 15 and saw Lee J. Cobb in 'Death of a Salesman,' he decided he would be a comedy actor and found that Mel Brooks was a great influence on his screen writing. He combined both talents with directing in The World's Greatest Lover (1977), followed by The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975).

Barely 5' tall, the little "yente" with the big, expressive talent and mischievous twinkle in her eye, Yiddish icon Molly Picon, entertained theater, radio, TV and film audiences for over seven decades. Born Malka Opiekun to Polish-Jewish parents in New York on February 28, 1898, she would gradually assist in popularizing the Yiddish culture into the American mainstream as well as overseas. Raised in Philadelphia, she began performing at age 5 in song-and-dance routines.

Breaking into the big time with a vaudeville act called "The Four Seasons" in 1919, she eventually made an endearing comedic name for herself as the "Sweetheart of Second Avenue" of New York's Lower East Side Yiddish Theatre District. The indefatigable Picon was a real live wire and played very broad, confident, dominant characters on stage, which ended up making it hard for her to be taken seriously in dramatic pieces.

Molly's marriage in 1919 to Yiddish playwright and stage star Jacob Kalich, was a fruitful one. He became her mentor, collaborator, co-star, the author of many of her popular plays and the manager of her career. Molly and her husband toured much of Europe in 1921 so that she could perfect her Yiddish. After returning to the United States, she starred in more than 200 Yiddish productions, performing comic renditions of "The Working Goil" and "The Story of Grandma's Shawl."

As for film, she appeared in such Yiddish/Jewish pictures as Hütet eure Töchter (1922) and Good Luck (1923). Come the advent of sound, she would be fondly remembered for her native-language showcases of the 30s, notably in Yidl mitn fidl (1936), the story of a traveling musician who dresses as a boy to avoid unwarranted male advances and as a Yiddish Cinderella, a dutiful but unappreciated daughter who cares for her father and his large family, in Mamele (1938), the last Jewish film made in Poland. During one musical vignette, Picon portrays her character's grandmother in several stages of life. In 1931, she opened the Molly Picon Theatre in New York and by 1934 had her own radio program.

One of America's finest storytellers, Molly made her English-speaking Broadway debut in 1940 as a Jewish widow in the dramatic "Morning Star," then returned in 1942 with her Yiddish musical offering "Oy Is Dus a Leben!" and with the 1948 comedy "For Heaven's Sake, Mother." She remained a strong stage presence throughout the 1940s and 1950s as she included more and more English-speaking plays as well. In the 1960's she returned to Broadway with delightful appearances in "Milk and Honey," How to Be a Jewish Mother" and "The Front Page."

Molly grew with delightful ease into matronly roles, became synonymous with the well-meaning but overbearing and coddling "Jewish mama." Such amusing, unflappable film roles would be found in the social comedy Come Blow Your Horn (1963) as Sinatra's meddling Italian mother; the musical Fiddler on the Roof (1971) as Yente the turn-of-the-century matchmaker (her husband had a minor role as Yankel); the delightful madam in the rollicking slapstick comedy For Pete's Sake (1974) starring Barbra Streisand; and as Mom Goldfarb in the Burt Reynolds action vehicles The Cannonball Run (1981) and Cannonball Run II (1984). Molly also began embracing TV on occasion, appearing to both humorous and heartwarming effect in such popular 60's programs as "Dr. Kildare," "Gomer Pyle" and "Car 54, Where Are You?"

Following her husband's death in 1975, Molly slowed down considerably. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease in her later years and died at age 94. Picon wrote her first biography about her family in So Laugh a Little in 1962, and much later (1980), her autobiography, Hello, Molly! She was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. Vicariously known as the "Jewish Charlie Chaplin" and "Jewish Helen Hayes," she was a patriot and humanitarian at heart, with an energy, creativity and ability to entertain that couldn't help but make her one of entertainment's most beloved citizens.

Don Messick is a legendary voice actor who spent his entire adult-hood in entertainment. He started out wanting to be a ventriloquist. Thankfully for cartoon lovers that career didn't pan out. How do you think his potential career would've stacked up against Edgar Bergen and later, Paul Winchell? No matter, Messick made his way to the hallowed halls of MGM in the early '50s on the recommendation of another voice actor, Daws Butler. At the time, MGM/Tex Avery were doing the theatrical "Droopy" cartoons. Bill Thompson, known for his hilarious voices on the radio show 'Fibber McGee and Molly', borrowed his Wallace Wimple voice and applied it to Droopy. Whenever Thompson couldn't make it to a session, MGM would ask Daws Butler to fill-in. Daws had been working for MGM since the mid '40s. Later, Daws apparently grew tired of the role and suggested Don Messick be Bill Thompson's fill-in. Butler, it's been said, literally squeezed his cheeks together to try and get that sound for Droopy while Messick simply thickened his tongue and loosened his jaws. Messick made the rounds and did every voice-over role large and small in this era. In 1957 Hanna-Barbera started their own company after departing from MGM...Daws Butler and Don Messick were the two voice actors the animation titans employed during the early days. Don was always heard as the "second banana" character or a walk-on. At various times he was the villain. His voice was heard as the 'narrator' on all of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons. On "Ruff and Reddy", the duo's first made-for-TV cartoon series, Don was heard as "Ruff" the cat and as the Droopy-sounding "Professor Gizmo". Messick was also the narrator who interracted with the duo and got caught up in the action much like a soap opera announcer on radio. Daws was "Reddy", the dog, among other nameless characters in the show. In this 1957-1966 time span, Don Messick was cast as Daws Butler's voice partner and as the cartoon narrator. "Boo-Boo" was the little friend of "Yogi Bear" who lived in Jellystone Park. Yogi stole "pic-a-nic" baskets while Boo-Boo always tried, unsuccessfully, to steer Yogi to a more safer life always reminding him "the Ranger isn't going to like it, Yogi". The Ranger in question was "Ranger Smith", the park ranger who always chased and stopped Yogi's latest schemes. Messick gave voice to the Ranger. Daws was Yogi. In other programs, Messick was heard as "Pixie Mouse" to Daws Butler's "Dixie Mouse" and "Mr. Jinx". On "Snagglepuss", Messick was always heard as the villain, mostly the befuddled "Major Minor". Daws was Snagglepuss. In Huckleberry Hound, Daws was the star character while Messick usually did the narration as well as played a villain. Messick would later provide the voices of "Astro" and "RUDI" on the Jetsons. As a versatile voice actor, Messick performed a dozen wacky space aliens on the space cartoons of the mid '60s. The gibberish of "Gloop" and "Gleep" on the Herculoids cartoon was Messick. "Blip", "Igoo", "Zorak", "Tundra", and "Zoc" are just a few of the characters that Messick groaned or grunted for in the outer space cartoons...his most famous non-verbal voice is the snickering dog, "Muttley"...later called "Mumbley". "Richochet Rabbit", "Vapor Man", "Falcon 7", "Dr. Benton Quest", and "Multi-Man" are other voices from Messick in that era. In 1969 he provided the voice for his most famous role, "Scooby-Doo". Throughout the '70s and beyond, Messick gave voice to this cowardly great dane. In 1980 he became the voice of nephew, "Scrappy-Doo", while in later versions Daws Butler was on hand as "Scooby-Dum". On the 1977 Laff-a-Lympics cartoon, Messick not only announced the show but he performed some of the characters too. "Papa Smurf" became Messick's biggest original character in the '80s but he remained busy providing voices for his older characters in new Hanna-Barbera productions. Daws Butler and Mel Blanc were also living off their famed characters by reprising the voices in numerous made-for-TV cartoon movies and Saturday morning TV in the late '70s on into the next decade. Messick remained a much-used voice actor and in 1988 ABC announced "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo". Messick was back in the role and voiced the character until it's demise in 1990. His friend and voice partner, Daws Butler, passed away in 1988. In 1989 Mel Blanc passed away leaving Don Messick, June Foray, Stan Freberg, and Paul Winchell as the remaining link to the classic era. In 1989 The Smurfs went out of production. On the new Tiny Toon Adventures, Messick was heard as "Hamton Pig", a role he remained with until his mysterious retirement in 1996 at the age of 69 which was later revealed to be a result of a stroke. Don Messick died in 1997, closing a chapter in animation history in the process.

A show-stopping comic for decades, the inimitable Arnold Stang, with the trademark Runyonesque voice and thick, black glasses, started out famously on radio before branching out to include Broadway, films and especially TV. Born on September 28, 1918, in New York City (for decades he himself perpetuated the myth of being born in 1925 in Chelsea, Massachusetts), he was the son of a lawyer. Following the 1929 stock market crash, his father was forced to look elsewhere for work and managed a living as a salesman. The scrawny kid from Manhattan grew up in Brooklyn and attended New Utrecht High School.

During his teen years (early 1930s) he auditioned for and won roles on radio's "Horn and Hardart's Children's Hour," a variety show, and the kiddie program "Let's Pretend," which set off a two-decade stint as one of radio's most popular vocal personalities. His squawky, unmistakable voice was heard as Jughead in the "Archie Andrews" series and as neighbor Seymour Fingerhood on the beloved, Bronx-styled Gertrude Berg classic "The Goldbergs," among others. He even appeared in radio soap operas and mysteries on occasion, often providing comedy relief. A reliable and feisty second banana, he traded quips with the best of them: Eddie Cantor; Jack Benny; Fred Allen; Fanny Brice; Milton Berle, you name it.

In between radio work Stang could sometimes be seen on the stage, his first legitimate play being on Broadway with the short-lived "All In Favour" (1942). This was followed by "You'll See Stars" at the end of that same year. He subsequently moved from radio to TV with the help of Milton Berle in the late 1940s and eventually found a very comfortable niche in comedy as a foil to the big stars. On the satirical Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt (1951), he was a regular member of Henry Morgan's stock company as a nerdy teen named Gerard. Plain, plucky but rather sad-sack, his puny-looking nerd types (5'3" and not much over 100 pounds) seemed to beg to have sand kicked in their faces. Yet, as much as they could be pushed around, they often displayed stubborn, delinquent-like streaks and could be mighty pesky in nature and irritating to the nth degree.

Stang also lent his vocal talents quite successfully to cartoon voiceovers beginning with Popeye the Sailor's pal Shorty. He later moved into a lengthy hitch as "Hoiman" the mouse in Paramount's popular "Herman and Katnip" series, but his best known animal character, of course, came later with the title role in Joseph Barbera - William Hanna 1961 classic cartoon series Top Cat (1961). His playing of "T.C", the slick, smart-alecky, Brooklynesque mastermind behind a gang of alley cats, was very reminiscent of Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko character from The Phil Silvers Show (1955).

Film work for Stang would be very sporadic over the years providing secondary but stalwart support in such escapism as Seven Days' Leave (1942), My Sister Eileen (1942), Let's Go Steady (1945), Two Gals and a Guy (1951) and the all-star epic It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963). Stang's best featured part was a rare dramatic role opposite Frank Sinatra in the then-daring topical movie about drug addiction entitled The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). Here he played Frank Sinatra's seedy but loyal pal Sparrow, a role that easily could have influenced Dustin Hoffman when he created his Ratso Rizzo character a decade and a half later in Midnight Cowboy (1969).

From the 1950s, the bespectacled comedian would be a steadfast TV commercial spokesman pitching such products as Delco, Chunky candy ("Chunky...what a chunk o' chocolate!") and Orkin ("Stop squawkin', call Orkin!") using his own, unique style. As for the stage, a few of his later stints included the 1969 Broadway remake of "The Front Page," the role of Hysterium in a production of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," and a part in Woody Allen's "Play It Again, Sam". The owlish comedian continued acting into the 90s with small roles in such movies as Ghost Dad (1990) and Dennis the Menace (1993).

Long married (since 1949) to wife JoAnn Taggart, a writer, Stang died of pneumonia at age 91 in Newton, Massachusetts, just before Christmas in 2009. He was also survived by his two children, David Donald and Deborah Jane.

Actor, composer, songwriter, voiceover artist and author. He joined ASCAP in 1956, and his chief musical collaborators included Tony Romano, Ruby Raksin, Walter Gross, and Ed Brandt. His popular-song compositions include "Hollywood Soliloquy", "The Clown", "Drowning My Sorrow", and "Voice in the Wind".

A bandleader of the 1940s and a radio, film, and TV actor who celebrated his Southern roots. He was a principal of long standing among the comedian Jack Benny's radio retinue, parlaying his popularity into his own radio series, in which his wife, Alice Faye, co-starred.

Linton, Indiana birthplace, but he spent much of his early years in Nashville, Tennessee, which helped explain his little Southern accent and, later on, the self-deprecating remarks of his radio persona. Harris started his musical career in San Francisco as a drummer. In the later 1920s, he formed an orchestra with Carol Lofner and began a lengthy residency at the St. Francis Hotel. When the collaboration came to an end in 1932, Harris formed and headed his own band, which was centered in Los Angeles. He wed actress Marcia Ralston in Sydney, Australia, on September 2, 1927. Phil Harris, Jr., the couple's adopted son, was born in 1935. Their divorce was finalized in September 1940.

Harris joined The Jell-O Show Starring Jack Benny (later renamed The Jack Benny Program) in 1936 as musical director. He sang, led his band, and, when his penchant for witty one-liners became apparent, joined the Benny ensemble as Phil Harris, a brash, hard-drinking, hipster-talking Southerner whose good nature overcame his ego. His jive-talk nicknames for the other people in Benny's orbit were his signature. Benny identified as "Jackson," but Harris's typical response was a jovial "Hiya, Jackson!" Strangely enough, given his true Hoosier origins, his signature song was "That's What I Like About the South."

In 1941, Harris wed Alice Faye, a second marriage for both (Faye had previously been briefly wed to singer-actor Tony Martin). Before Harris passed away, Faye and Harris were married for 54 years. During World War II, Harris and his band joined the United States Navy in 1942 and remained there until the end of the conflict. Faye had virtually given up on her cinematic career by 1946. After studio head Darryl F. Zanuck allegedly cut her scenes from Fallen Angel (1945) to boost his protégé Linda Darnell, she reportedly drove off the 20th Century Fox lot.

A radio show called The Fitch Bandwagon extended an invitation to Harris and Faye to join. Big bands, including Harris's own, used the event as a platform at first, but once Harris and Faye gained notoriety, it evolved into something very different. The couple's wish to raise their kids in Southern California without traveling about at the same time as Bandwagon gave rise to the well-known situation comedy, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show. Elliott Lewis played layabout guitarist Frank Remley in the series, and Great Gildersleeve co-star Walter Tetley played annoying grocery boy Julius. Harris played the conceited, illiterate bandleader husband, and Faye played his acidic but devoted wife, helped by actresses playing their two young daughters. For eight years, the Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show was broadcast on NBC until radio succumbed to television.

Following the concert, Harris brought his music career back to life. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he had multiple guest appearances on television shows, such as Hollywood Palace, The Dean Martin Show, Kraft Music Hall, and other musical variety shows. He performed as a voice actor and vocalist for animated movies. He played Baloo the Bear in The Jungle Book, Robin Hood as Little John, and The Aristocats as Thomas O'Malley.

In the years after his radio peak, The Jungle Book was his biggest hit. In addition to providing the character's voice, Harris performed "The Bare Necessities," one of the movie's biggest hits, which brought Harris's former status as a well-known radio star to the attention of a new generation of young admirers. Harris also performs a stunning scat-singing rendition of "I Wanna Be Like You" with Louis Prima. Harris made a brief comeback to Disney in 1989, this time to voice Baloo for the animated series TaleSpin, which was in development at the time. Regretfully, by that point he had become too old to pull off the voice. Actor Ed Gilbert later took his position. in the 1991 film Rock-A-Doodle directed by Don Bluth, in which he played the friendly, laid back farm dog Patou.

Some of Harris's best-known songs were from the early 1950s novelty album "The Thing." In the song, a foolish man discovers a box that holds a strange secret, and he tries to get rid of it. Harris also led a band that frequently performed in Las Vegas in the 1970s and early 1980s, frequently sharing bills with swing era icon Harry James.

Bing Crosby was another close friend and acquaintance of Harris's; in fact, upon Crosby's passing, Harris filled in for his friend, providing color commentary for the annual Bing Crosby Pro-Am Golf Tournament telecast. The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show's previous program opened with Harris recounting his victory in a previous competition.

Harris was a longtime resident and benefactor of Palm Springs, California, where Crosby also made his home. Harris was also a benefactor of his birthplace of Linton, Indiana, establishing scholarships in his honor for promising high school students, performing at the high school, and hosting a celebrity golf tournament in his honor every year. In due course, Harris and Faye donated most of their show business memorabilia and papers to Linton's public library.

Phil Harris died of a heart attack in 1995 at the age of 91, in Palm Springs after a heart attack. Three years later, Alice Faye passed away from stomach cancer. Harris was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame two years prior to his passing. In Riverside County, California, at Forest Lawn-Cathedral City, Harris and Faye are buried. While Alice Harris Regan was last known to be residing in New Orleans, Phyllis Harris was last known to be residing in St. Louis, where she had been with her mother by her father's bedside when he passed away.

Mike Lookinland was born on 19 December 1960 in Mount Pleasant, Utah, USA. He is an actor, known for The Brady Bunch (1969), The Brady Bunch Variety Hour (1976) and The Way of the Gun (2000). He has been married to Kelly Wermuth since 11 May 1987. They have two children.

Dark-haired, usually-mustachioed American actor with a cheeky grin, who achieved pop culture status through his portrayal of the kooky patriarch "Gomez Addams" in the hit TV series The Addams Family (1964), John Astin was born on March 30, 1930 in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, but he discovered a passion for the theater and began to perform in minor plays and do voice-over work for commercials. He first got noticed thanks to a small role in West Side Story (1961), then appeared in several other films before being cast as "Gomez Addams". While "The Addams Family" was initially a huge hit, its popularity petered out after two years, and Astin moved on to other work including the offbeat Bunny O'Hare (1971), playing a grizzled but not- particularly-bright gunfighter in the Western spoof Evil Roy Slade (1972), an appearance in the Disney comedy Freaky Friday (1976) and dual roles in National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985).

He has since lent his comedic talents to numerous appearances as "Dr. Gangreen" in several corny "Killer Tomato" movies, and has contributed his voice to recreate "Gomez Addams" in the animated series The Addams Family (1992), then played "Grandpa Addams" in the successful TV series The New Addams Family (1998). In addition, Astin has contributed voices to several animated shows, and he still appears in films regularly.

English actress, on screen (as Cherry Davis) from early childhood. Lisa was born Shirley Ann Davis into a family with a strong musical background. Her father was banjo player, guitarist and singer Harry Davis, who at one time conducted the Oscar Rabin Orchestra as co-leader. He sister was big band vocalist and occasional actress Beryl Davis. Lisa was trained at the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, West London. She first appeared as a child in British films. At the age of fourteen, she was invited to Hollywood by Walt Disney to audition for a role in Alice in Wonderland. However, the planned live-action version of the Lewis Carroll classic never materialized, nor did her intended part in the MGM movie Young Bess (1953) two years later.

Nonetheless, Lisa remained in America, attended acting schools at MGM and Columbia and eventually appeared as guest performer in several TV programs, repeatedly featured in different roles on The Bob Cummings Show (1955), The George Burns Show (1958) and in Perry Mason (1957). On the big screen, she had the female lead in two horse operas: Fury at Gunsight Pass (1956) and The Dalton Girls (1957) (a rare villainous performance as ruthless outlaw Rose Dalton). More on the debit side was her role as Zsa Zsa Gabor's Venusian acolyte Motiya in the lamentable Queen of Outer Space (1958).

A decade after her arrival in Hollywood, Disney remembered Lisa Davis and offered her the voice-over part of Cruella De Vil in his animated movie One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961). Being an avid dog lover, the actress opted instead to read for the role of the nicer protagonist Anita Dearly.

Lisa also worked on Broadway from 1955 (as Cherry Davis) in Damn Yankees and as understudy for the part of Polly Peachum in The Threepenny Opera. She retired from acting in 1968 and has latterly resided as Lisa Waltz in Studio City, California.

The son of a circuit-riding Methodist preacher in rural Alabama, Pat Buttram became one of America's best-known comic entertainers. He left Alabama a month before his 18th birthday to attend the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. An announcer from radio station WLS was on hand to interview members of the crowd and settled on Pat as a typical visitor from the South. The interview that followed was anything but typical. Pat made a hit with his hilarious observations on the fair and was immediately offered a job with the station. This led to a long and happy association with the popular "National Barn Dance" radio program. During those years Pat met Gene Autry, who took a liking to the young comic and later brought him to Hollywood to replace Smiley Burnette, who had found other work while Gene served in WWII. Together Pat and Gene made many western films and a television series, The Gene Autry Show (1950), which aired from 1950 until 1956. They remained close friends until Pat's death in 1994.

In 1952 Pat married actress Sheila Ryan, whom he had met on the set of Mule Train (1950). Over the next 40 years Pat prospered in radio, films and television, making stand-up appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948) (aka "The Ed Sullivan Show") and lending his vocal talents to many animated television shows and films, including several Walt Disney features. In the early 1960s he revealed a flair for dramatic acting when Alfred Hitchcock tapped him for roles in two The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) episodes. His big television break came in 1965 with the role of "Mr. Haney" in the long-running CBS comedy Green Acres (1965). Throughout his career Pat was in constant demand as a toastmaster and after-dinner speaker, where his agile and sophisticated wit belied his "countrified" appearance. In 1982 Pat founded the Golden Boot Awards to honor actors, directors, stunt people and other industry professionals who have made significant contributions to the western film genre. Proceeds from the annual event are donated to the Motion Picture Health and Welfare Fund.

A brash character actress who specialized in cinema, television, and theater, Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley was born on November 13, 1906 in Broseley, Shropshire. She was the youngest of four sisters - including Angela Baddeley, also an actress - and her half-brother, Very Rev William Baddeley, was a Church of England Minister.

Not much is known about Baddeley's early life. She made her stage debut in 1918, and became popular in London stage comedies and revues prior to World War II, known for her dancing talent and natural comic ability. She memorably performed several times with Hermione Gingold. Baddeley made her film debut in 1927, with a role in the extremely obscure silent comedy A Daughter in Revolt (1927), but didn't come to attention until twenty years later, when she portrayed the affable but blowzy Ida in the film noir Brighton Rock (1948).

Known for her memorable character roles, Baddeley dabbled in such movies as Passport to Pimlico (1949), A Christmas Carol (1951), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951), The Pickwick Papers (1952), The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), Mary Poppins (1964), and The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964). She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her acid-tongued performance in Room at the Top (1958). At two minutes and thirty-two seconds, it is the shortest performance to ever be nominated for the award.

Baddeley became a household favorite for her role as irritable cockney housekeeper Mrs. Naugatuck on the '70s comedy series Maude (1972). She landed guest spots on multiple other shows, including but not limited to Hancock's Half Hour (1956), The Patty Duke Show (1963), Bewitched (1964), Night Gallery (1969), The Bionic Woman (1976), The Love Boat (1977), Charlie's Angels (1976), Wonder Woman (1975), Fantasy Island (1977), and Magnum, P.I. (1980).

Baddeley's two marriages failed, and she had a daughter, Pauline Tennant, from her first. She was in a long-term relationship with actor Laurence Harvey until he left her for Margaret Leighton, and died on August 19, 1986 at the age of 79 following a series of strokes.