Chuck McCann, an actor of numerous credits and a major figure in children’s television in New York City in the 1950s and ’60s, died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center at age 83.
“He died today … from congenital heart failure,” said Edward Lozzi, McCann’s publicist for over 15 years. “He was our generation’s god of comedy. His connections to stars and showbiz range from working with his heroes Oliver & Hardy, Mae West and Cary Grant, to contemporary icons such as Hugh Hefner, Howard Stern, George Schlatter, Tim Conway, Carol Burnett, Harvey Korman, Stan Lee and Jerry Lewis. He knew everyone.”
Born in Brooklyn to a bandleader father, McCann was known to a generation of children who grew up watching his children’s shows in the New York City metropolitan area during the 1960s, having worked his way up to regional star status by apprenticing on a number of other children’s shows, including Captain Kangaroo and Rootie Kazootie (the show on which he met his one-time puppeteer and sidekick, Paul Ashley).
McCann also lent his voice to the best-selling early ’60s comedy album “The First Family,” which lampooned the newly elected President John F. Kennedy and his family.
In 1968 he had a supporting role in “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” a dramatic feature film starring Alan Arkin.
McCann moved to Los Angeles in the 1970s and began a long run of television work that included commercials and appearances on “Little House on the Prairie,” “Bonanza,” “Columbo,” “The Rockford Files” and “The Bob Newhart Show.”
In more recent years he did voice work for many animated TV shows.
In 2017, he recorded a comedy podcast, “Trump: The Last Family” with Kevin Sean Michaels, a modern send-up to the best-selling “The First Family.”
McCann leaves behind his wife of 40s years, Elizabeth Fanning, and daughters Jennifer and Siobhan, according to Lozzi.