Max Showalter

Max Showalter (June 2, 1917 - July 30, 2000) was an American actor of film, television and stage, as well as a composer, pianist, and singer.

Born in Kansas in 1917, Showalter was exposed to the world of show business early--as a toddler his mother took him with her to her job at the local theater where she played piano for silent movies. By the late 1930s, he had already had dozens of stage roles and made his Broadway debut in Oscar Hammerstein's "Knights of Song. He also appeared for two years in the cast of Irving Berlin's traveling musical "This Is the Army."

But Showalter was best known in the theater world for the role of Horace Vandergelder in the megahit "Hello, Dolly," a role he performed more than 3,000 times, opposite Carol Channing, Betty Grable, Ginger Rogers and Betsy Palmer.

When television first appeared in the late 40s, Showalter was an early participant and his appearances caught the eye of 20th Century Fox boss Darryl Zanuck. He hired Showalter a featured player, changing his name to the more bankable Casey Adams. His movies from that era include 1956's "Bus Stop," 1954's "Naked Alibi," and 1957's "The Female Animal."

In the 1960s, he reclaimed the name Max Showalter and continued to work steadily, appearing such films as 1964's "Sex and the Single Girl," 1965's "How to Murder Your Wife" and the 1966 cult classic "Lord Love a Duck. In later years, you could have spotted him in the crowd of the 1978 disaster "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." His final film was 1984's "Racing With the Moon," though he is perhaps better remembered as Grandpa Fred in "Sixteen Candles," made the same year.

Showalter made more than 1,000 TV appearances, on everything from "Gunsmoke" to "Kojak." But TV trivia buffs also remember what might of been: Showalter (as Casey Adams) starred in the pilot episode for the TV series "Leave It To Beaver" as Ward Cleaver, the role that would later be taken by Hugh Beaumont when the pilot became a series.

Showalter died of cancer at age 83, in the Connecticut River Valley he'd fallen in love with in 1958 when, costarring with Doris Day in "It Happened To Jane," he did some filming in the area. He moved to Chester in 1984, but continued to be active in local musical theater. For many years he produced, directed and narrated the Christmas musical, "Touch of the Child," performed on several Connecticut stages (he also wrote the lyrics and music for that show). He also made a record featuring children's classics and fairy tales, on the American Melody Record label. In recent years, he was often seen visiting his close friend Katharine Hepburn. In addition to acting, composing, directing and performing, he was an active gardener and painter. He was survived by innumberable close friends, collaborators and admirers, and by his Boston Terrier, Bessa May Mucho ("Kiss Me A Lot" as Max translated her name.)

External link

• IMDB entry