Paul Picerni, best known as Robert Stack's sidekick on the TV hit The Untouchables has died. He played the role of Lee Hudson on the show from 1960 until 1963.

According to a report from MSN, Picerni also starred in Vincent Price's 1953 movie, House of Wax, which was noted as being the very first 3-D movie from one of the major studios. He was also in the movie The Scalphunters in 1968 and Airport in 1970.

Robert Stack was Eliot Ness in The Untouchables, and he went on to star as the announcer in earlier episodes of America's Most Wanted. While Paul Picerni's roles weren't that prominent, he did appear in guest and small roles on TV in shows like T.J. Hooker, Gunsmoke, Kojak, and Perry Mason.

Were you a fan of The Untouchables? It was actually considered to be a very violent TV show in the early 1960's. Eliot Ness and Lee Hudson were considered dapper TV stars who solved crimes with a sophisticated flair. The show also raised the ire of some Italian-Americans who didn't like the way Italians were portrayed on the show. Can you imagine if those same people ever saw an episode of The Jersey Shore today what they might think?

Paul Picerni passed away back on the 12th of January, but his family chose to keep things private so they could grieve a while before letting the rest of the world in on the fact that he had died. He suffered a heart attack at his home in Llano, California, which is just north of L.A. He was 88 years old.

It's sad that another TV and film actor has passed away, joining a long line of late great Hollywood actors from that same era. As with all of them, Paul Picerni will be forever alive in the films he made and the reruns of the TV shows in which he appeared. May he rest in peace, and may his family find comfort in these days after his passing.


Associated Press reports:


LAS VEGAS – Comic David Frye, whose impressions of Presidents Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and other prominent political figures vaulted him to popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, has died in Las Vegas, his family confirmed Saturday. He was 77.

Frye died at his home Monday of cardiopulmonary arrest, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said.

Frye's sister, Ruth Welch of Boynton Beach, Fla., said he was a born comic genius who wrote his own material and began by imitating neighbors in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they grew up.

"He had an eye for people's movements and an ear for their voices," Welch told The Associated Press on Saturday. "He could really get down people's mannerisms and intonations."

Among other venues, Frye performed at colleges and nightclubs across the country as well as on television programs such as the "Ed Sullivan Show" and "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson."

He reached the height of his popularity doing exaggerated impressions of Nixon, with his shoulders hunched and face bowed down. He also devoted several albums to Nixon before Nixon resigned as president in 1974 amid the Watergate scandal.

Born David Shapiro in 1934 in Brooklyn, Frye also imitated such political and entertainment figures as Hubert Humphrey, George Wallace, William F. Buckley, Walter Cronkite, Kirk Douglas and Howard Cosell.

In a 1986 interview while playing the Riviera Hotel and Casino, Frye told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he rarely made television appearances and therefore hardly ever worked nightclubs anymore.

"I haven't worked on a nightclub stage in years," Frye said. "TV gives you exposure and in turn, drawing power. There aren't too many shows left on TV where a guy like me can perform. So with no drawing power, I'm not in demand on the nightclub circuit."

He recorded the albums "David Frye Presents the Great Debate" in 1980 and "Clinton: An Oral History" in 1998, but never again saw the level of fame he achieved in the Nixon years.

Welch said Frye was a "wonderful" brother who moved to Las Vegas about eight years ago from Beverly Hills, Calif.

"He was a generous person and a very good brother in time of need," she said. "He was very much loved by the whole family, and he'll be terribly missed."

American comedian Charlie Callas, who worked with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin –– as well as opening several of Frank Sinatra’s Vegas shows – has reportedly died at the age of 86.

A professional drummer before becoming a stand-up, Brooklyn-born Callas was most famous for his comic stutter and sound effects. Patton Oswalt paid tribute to that talent this morning, tweeting: ‘Can't believe Charlie Callas is hrrrrn...is hwagooooo...is frrrrppp...is dead. RIP.’

Callas, who died in care centre in Las Vegas yesterday according to the Review-Journal newspaper, provided the voice of dragon Elliot in Seventies family film Pete’s Dragon, while his other movie credits include Mel Brooks’ High Anxiety and Silent Movie. He also had a string of TV guest appearances to his name, but when a 2002 episode of The Simpsons, The Old Man And The Key portrayed him as a washed-up entertainer, it was Dan Castellaneta who provided his voice.

Callas was a chat-show regular – once appearing on the Des O’Connor Show – and was a regular on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show in the Seventies until he upset the notoriously demanding host. Failing to get laughs from the studio audience, Callas deliberately gave Carson a shove – and he never appeared on the show again.