Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony Award winner who later became known for his ribald appearances on the Tonight Show and various game shows, has died. He was 76.
Reilly died Sunday in Los Angeles of complications from pneumonia, his partner, Patrick Hughes, told the New York Times.
Reilly began his career in New York, taking acting classes at a studio with Steve McQueen, Geraldine Page and Hal Holbrook. In 1962, he appeared on Broadway as Bud Frump in the original Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. The role won Reilly a Tony Award.
He was nominated for a Tony again for playing Cornelius in Hello, Dolly! In 1997 he received another nomination for directing Julie Harris and Charles Durning in a revival of The Gin Game.
After moving to Hollywood in the 1960s he appeared as the nervous Claymore Gregg on TV s The Ghost and Mrs.
Muir and as a featured guest on The Dean Martin Show.
He gained fame by becoming what he described as a game show fixture in the 1970s and 80s. He was a regular on programs like Match Game and Hollywood Squares, often wearing giant glasses and colorful suits with ascots.
His larger-than-life persona and affinity for double-entendres also landed him on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson more than 95 times.
Reilly ruefully admitted his wild game-show appearances adversely affected his acting career. You can t do anything else once you do game shows, he told The Advocate, the national gay magazine, in 2001.
You have no career.
His final work was an autobiographical one-man show, Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly, about his family life growing up in the Bronx. The title grew out of the fact that when he would act out as a child, his mother would often admonish him to save it for the stage.
Wilson C. Wearn, a former television executive who helped start a company in Greenville that owned newspapers and television stations, has died. He was 87.
Wearn was president of Multimedia Inc. from 1966-77 and chief executive from 1978-81. He was board chairman until 1989.
Wearn died in his sleep Sunday, his son, Buck Wearn, told The Associated Press. Wearn had moved to Atlanta two years ago from Greenville.
Wearn moved to Greenville in 1953 to help a group of businessmen start a new television station called WFBC, which is now WYFF.
The company merged with The Greenville News-Piedmont in 1968 to create Multimedia Inc.
Wearn served as chairman emeritus of Multimedia from 1989 until 1995, when Gannett Co. Inc.
acquired the company.
In the fall of 1989, Multimedia published 14 daily and 43 non-daily newspapers and owned and operated four television stations and seven radio stations. The company also operated more than 100 cable franchises in four states, and produced and syndicated television programs including the Phil Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael shows.
Wearn was born in Newberry. He graduated from Clemson University with a degree in electrical engineering before joining the U.S.
Army.
Following his service, Wearn formed an electronic engineering consulting firm with two friends. With television in its infancy, they advised those wanting to apply for station licensing.
Wearn also was active in the community. He helped raise money for Presbyterian College and Clemson University. He was a trustee of the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, chairman of the Palmetto Society of the United Way of Greenville County and president of the Greenville Chamber of Commerce.
Wearn had three children and six grandchildren. He also is survived by his wife, Millie.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.
m. today at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Greenville.
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