Edward "Ned" Wertimer (October 27, 1923 – January 2, 2013) was an American actor. He was best known for his role as Ralph Hart, the doorman on the
sitcom
A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...
''
The Jeffersons
''The Jeffersons'' is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. ''The Jeffersons'' is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, ...
''.
[
]
Life and career
Early years
Wertimer was born on October 27, 1923, in Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...
.[ He served as a Navy pilot in ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
,Bachelor of Business Administration
Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...
degree from University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
's Wharton School
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in P ...
. While at the school, he became a member of its Mask and Wig Club, an all-male comedy and musical troupe.[
]
Theater, television, and film
After graduating college, Wertimer went to New York City to perform Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre,Although ''theater'' is generally the spelling for this common noun in the United States (see American and British English spelling differences), 130 of the 144 extant and extinct Broadway venues use (used) the spelling ''Th ...
in such shows as ''Texas Li'l Darlin, a 1949 musical by Robert E. Dolan and Johnny Mercer; 1950's ''The Live Wire'' by Garson Kanin
Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 – March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films.
Early life
Garson Kanin was born in Rochester, New York; his family later relocated to Detroit then to New York City. He attended ...
; 1950's ''The Disenchanted'', by Budd Schulberg
Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg, March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' and ''The Harder They Fall;'' ...
, with Jason Robards
Jason Nelson Robards Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December 26, 2000) was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes ...
; and 1963's ''All in Good Time'' by Bill Naughton
William John Francis Naughton (12 June 1910 – 9 January 1992) was an Irish-born British playwright and author, best known for his play '' Alfie''.
Early life
Born into relative poverty in Ballyhaunis, County Mayo, Ireland, he moved to Bo ...
. He also began performing in small roles in television, a new medium at the time. He was able to show his improvisational skills as a regular guest on ''The Shari Lewis Show
''The Shari Lewis Show'' is a children's television program that first appeared on NBC Saturday mornings from 1960 to 1963.
Premise
The show starred Shari Lewis, who was both the show's host and the puppeteer for the characters Lamb Chop, H ...
''.[
In the mid-1960s, Wertimer moved to Los Angeles to continue his burgeoning television career. He had over 100 guest-star credits on such shows as '' Gunsmoke'', '']McMillan & Wife
''McMillan & Wife'' (known simply as ''McMillan'' from 1976–77) is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the ...
'', ''Car 54, Where Are You?
''Car 54, Where Are You?'' is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 1961 to April 1963. Filmed in black and white, the series starred Joe E. Ross as Gunther Toody and Fred Gwynne as Francis Muldoon, two mismatched New York City p ...
'', ''The Debbie Reynolds Show
''The Debbie Reynolds Show'' is an American sitcom which aired on the NBC television network during the 1969–70 television season. The series was produced by Filmways.
Synopsis
Debbie Reynolds portrayed Debbie Thompson, a housewife married ...
'', ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show
''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (also known simply as ''Mary Tyler Moore'') is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns and starring actress Mary Tyler Moore. The show originally aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977. Mo ...
'', ''A Touch of Grace
''A Touch of Grace'' is an American sitcom that was based on the British series ''For the Love of Ada'' starring Shirley Booth and J. Patrick O'Malley centering on a widow who moves in with her daughter and son-in-law and her romantic relationsh ...
'', ''WKRP in Cincinnati
''WKRP in Cincinnati'' is an American sitcom television series about the misadventures of the staff of a struggling fictional radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio. The show was created by Hugh Wilson and was based upon his experiences working ...
'', ''Mork & Mindy
''Mork & Mindy'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from September 14, 1978, to May 27, 1982. A spin-off after a highly successful episode of ''Happy Days'', "My Favorite Orkan", it starred Robin Williams as Mork, an extraterrest ...
'', ''He & She
''He & She'' is an American sitcom that aired on the CBS television network as part of its 1967–1968 lineup, originally sponsored by General Foods and Lever Brothers.
''He & She'' is widely considered by broadcast historians to have been ah ...
'', ''Family Law
Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations.
Overview
Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include:
* Marriage ...
'' and Happy Days. He also appeared in such films as ''Mame
MAME (formerly an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is a free and open-source emulator designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. Its intention is to preserve ...
'', ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'' is a 1964 American science fiction comedy film directed by Nicholas Webster, produced and written by Paul L. Jacobson, based on a story by Glenville Mareth, that stars John Call as Santa Claus. It also feat ...
'', ''The Impossible Years
''The Impossible Years'' is a 1965 comedy play written by Robert Fisher and Arthur Marx, son of comedian Groucho Marx. After two previews, the Broadway production, directed by Arthur Storch, opened on October 13, 1965, at the Playhouse Theatre, w ...
'', ''Pinocchio
Pinocchio ( , ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of the children's novel '' The Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1883) by Italian writer Carlo Collodi of Florence, Tuscany. Pinocchio was carved by a woodcarver named Geppetto in a Tuscan ...
'', ''The Strongest Man in the World
''The Strongest Man in the World'' is a 1975 American science fiction comedy film directed by Vincent McEveety, produced by Walt Disney Productions and starring Kurt Russell, Joe Flynn, and Eve Arden. It is the second sequel to the 1969 film '' ...
'', '' The Pack'' and '' Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End''.[ He had a role in the 1970 film '' C.C. and Company''.
He was a longtime member of the performers' ]trade union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...
s—Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...
and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) was a performers' union that represented a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording a ...
, which merged in 2012.[
]
''The Jeffersons''
Wertimer appeared as doorman Ralph Hart in a 1975 ''All in the Family
''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series ''Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' episode titled "The Jeffersons Move on Up", which was the pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
for the spin-off series ''The Jeffersons''. The Hart character carried over and Wertimer appeared as the doorman (in 57 of the series' 253 episodes) who always sought a gratuity for his services.[
]
Personal life and death
Wertimer loved traveling around the world, from riding a camel in Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...
to riding an elephant in Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...
to swimming in Australia's Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest coral reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over over an area of approximately . The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland, ...
.[ In addition to his performers' union work, Wertimer was also a voting member for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Emmy Awards. Soon after moving to California in the mid-1960s, he met and married Dr. Skyne Uku, professor emeritus at California State University, Long Beach.]
Filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wertimer, Ned
1923 births
2013 deaths
Accidental deaths from falls
Accidental deaths in California
Male actors from Buffalo, New York
United States Navy pilots of World War II
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni