Dick Curtis, best known as being Jonathan Winters‘ straight man on The Jonathan Winters Show, has died at the age of 95.
The veteran comedic actor and performer died on September 16 of heart failure at Los Angeles’ VA hospital. Curtis’ death was confirmed by his friend, TV writer Paul Jackson, according to Deadline.
Curtis was a regular performer on Winters’ self-titled variety show, which ran for two seasons from 1967-1969, as the host’s straight man — the person in a comedy duo whose lines give a comedian the opportunity to make jokes. Curtis starred in the animated series Motormouse and Autocat and also appeared in The Dick Van Dyke Show in a memorable episode featuring Mary Tyler Moore that is now in the Smithsonian.
In the episode, titled “Coast to Coast Bigmouth,” he played game show host Johnny Patrick who gets Moore’s character, Laura Petrie, to say that Alan Brady wore a toupee. See the moment below.
Curtis can also be seen in The Andy Griffith Show, That Girl, Motel Hell, Support Your Local Gun Fighter, Captain Nice (pictured above), The Odd Couple, and more. He also wrote for Revue ’61 and The Spade Cooley Show. His last on-screen credit was 1984’s What Waits Below.
Curtis became well known in Oregon in the 1980s for starring in a series of comedic commercials for Blitz-Weinhard beer as a state trooper. In one of the most memorable of the ads, he played a state trooper who intercepted beer from the California-Oregon state line.
Curtis is survived by his three daughters, Sydney, Susan, and Shelley Curtis. Shelley was an executive producer on Days of Our Lives and General Hospital from 1983-2006.