RIP Orson Bean

Actor and comedian Orson Bean is dead after being struck by a car while crossing the street ... TMZ has learned.

Orson Bean Dead at 91, Struck and Killed by Car

 

Great match game moment.

 

On "To Tell The Truth" instead of just writing down the number of the contestant he believed was the real one, he sometimes would turn the number into some kind of doodle. Always got a kick out of that as a kid watching the show.

He would also on occasion irritate Kitty Carlisle by blowing on her shoulder whenever she would cover it with some garish or frilly garment that would react to a little wind. Such as this one:

 

"star-studded"

 

Later in life, he was less about being a celebrity and more about acting in interesting movies. Not a fan of his politics, but I thought he was great in "Being John Malkovich."

 

Another of those odd AP obits where the deceased outlived the person who originally filed it in the "morgue."

 

Orson Bean, Harvard '48... Yale nothing.

 

Love this anecdote from the LA Times obit:

Bean had heard of the Blue Angel night club, and shortly after arriving in New York he went there to see if he could audition.

“The door was unlocked and I went up the stairs,” Bean recalled. “There was a light on, and a guy looked up — he was counting receipts — and said, ‘What do you want?’ I said, ‘I’m a comic.’”

The man looked at Bean and said, “Say something funny.”

Bean said, “Belly button.”

“He looked down,” Bean recalled, “and got a little smile on his face and said, ‘I’m short an act tonight. I’ll put you on.’ I got laughs for the first time.”

And from 1950 to 1960, he was the house comic at the Blue Angel.