Peter Marshall, who lengthy led NBC’s beloved “Hollywood Squares” recreation present together with his discuss present host-style candor, has died. He was 98.
Marshall died Thursday morning of kidney failure surrounded by family members at his residence within the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, his household mentioned in an announcement to the Los Angeles Instances supplied by his publicist Harlan Boll.
“Though as Peter remarked, his reason behind demise ought to formally be of boredom,” the household mentioned within the assertion.
Peter Marshall, middle, hosts a rustic music week episode of “Hollywood Squares” in 1980.
(NBC/NBCUniversal through Getty Photos)
The TV star, who was an actor and singer earlier than changing into a game-show fixture at age 40, hosted greater than 5,000 episodes of NBC’s human tic-tac-toe recreation from 1966 to 1981. On the Daytime Emmy-winning present, Marshall would ship foolish questions that segued into entertaining chitchat and inside jokes with comics similar to Joan Rivers, Rose Marie and Paul Lynde — the longtime, snarky middle sq. on the set. The hit present additionally attracted Hollywood elite, together with Aretha Franklin, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ed Asner and Janet Leigh.
“It was the simplest factor I’ve ever finished in present enterprise,” Marshall mentioned in a 2010 interview for the Archive of American Tv. “I walked in, mentioned ‘Hi there stars,’ I learn questions and laughed. And it paid very nicely.”
When “Hollywood Squares” was canceled and his different tv tasks had brief runs, Marshall turned to different kinds of dwell efficiency, notably musical theater, and have become a daily in touring productions of “La Cage aux Folles” and “forty second Avenue.”
The present later relaunched in syndication however Marshall was not invited again to helm it.
“Frankly, I used to be prepared for some modifications and was ready for it,” Marshall informed The Instances in 1987. “I actually didn’t, and don’t, miss that ‘TV star’ factor; it actually wasn’t that essential to me.”
“What I do miss are the great folks I started working with. There was Lynde, Vincent Value, Tony Randall, Betty White … only a nice group. They made the present particular as a result of all of them had model, the kind of factor that separates the entities from the nonentities on this enterprise.”
Marshall, a self-described “melancholy child,” mentioned he labored loads as a result of he had a tough time saying no. He was born Ralph Pierre LaCock in Clarksburg, W. Va., and moved round ceaselessly as a toddler earlier than relocating to New York. His father, who died when Marshall was 10, sometimes sang in a minstrel act and Marshall’s sister, actor Joanne Dru, labored as a showgirl on the Copa Membership.
Cash was laborious received, so he and his members of the family took jobs wherever and every time they might, he mentioned. Marshall got here up singing with huge bands, showing in Las Vegas revues and doing comedy work. He toured as a singer with the Bob Chester Orchestra when he was 15 and labored as an NBC Radio web page and an usher on the Paramount Theater, in response to the Related Press. He was drafted throughout World Battle II and stationed in Italy, the place he hung out as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio.
In 1949, Marshall and Tommy Noonan teamed up and appeared as a comedy duo in nightclubs and theaters, finally hitting the small display on “The Ed Sullivan Present.” As a film contract participant at twentieth Century Fox, Marshall appeared in 1959’s “The Rookie” and 1961’s “Swingin’ Alongside.” He additionally starred reverse Chita Rivera in a 1962 West Finish manufacturing of “Bye Bye Birdie” in London and first starred on Broadway within the 1965 manufacturing of “Skyscraper” with Julie Harris. His different Broadway credit embrace “Excessive Button Sneakers,” “The Music Man” and “forty second Avenue.”
Marshall is survived by his spouse Laurie and three kids: son Pete LaCock, knowledgeable baseball participant for the Chicago Cubs and Kansas Metropolis Royals, daughters Suzanne and Jaime, in addition to 12 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. His son David died from problems of COVID-19 in 2021.
