35 Facts About Frank Gorshin

Frank Gorshin made many guest appearances on television variety and talk shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, Tonight Starring Steve Allen, The Dean Martin Show and Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Frank Gorshin memorized the mannerisms of the screen stars he saw and created an impressionist act.

Frank Gorshin was still in high school when he obtained his first paid employment, which he secured as the prize in a Pittsburgh talent contest in 1951: a one-week engagement at Jackie Heller's New York nightclub, Carousel.

Frank Gorshin's parents insisted that he take the engagement, even though his 15-year-old brother had been hit by a car and killed just two nights before.

In 1953, Frank Gorshin was drafted into the United States Army and posted to Germany.

Frank Gorshin served for a year and a half as an entertainer attached to Special Services.

When Frank Gorshin left the Army, he returned to public performance, and in 1956, he became a prolific film actor.

Frank Gorshin appeared on various television series, including the role of Hank Butts, with Michael Landon cast as Jim Mason, in the 1958 episode "Shadow of Belle Starr" of the syndicated Western series Frontier Doctor, starring Rex Allen.

Thereafter, Frank Gorshin played roles in ABC's crime drama The Untouchables.

In 1961, Frank Gorshin gave a tour de force performance as an impressionist who kills his fiancee under the influence of one of his celebrity characters in The Defenders.

Frank Gorshin guest-starred 12 times on CBS's The Ed Sullivan Show, with his first appearance being on June 17,1962.

Frank Gorshin appeared on the show on February 9,1964, the same night The Beatles and Davy Jones made their debut.

Frank Gorshin was a popular act at nightclubs, notably those of Las Vegas, where he was the first impressionist to headline the main showrooms.

Frank Gorshin was the first impressionist headliner at the Empire Room of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

Frank Gorshin was popular for simulating bodily and facial resemblances, and pitch-perfect imitations of voice, accent, and vocal inflections and mannerisms.

Frank Gorshin was on his way to a Hollywood screen test for the role of Petty Officer Ruby in Run Silent, Run Deep.

Frank Gorshin sustained a fractured skull and spent four days in a coma; a Los Angeles newspaper incorrectly reported he had been killed.

In 1962, Frank Gorshin was cast as Billy Roy Fix in the episode "The Fire Dancer" of the NBC modern Western television series Empire, starring Richard Egan as the rancher Jim Redigo.

From 1966 to 1968, Frank Gorshin played the Riddler on ABC's 1960s live-action television series Batman, starring Adam West and Burt Ward, and was nominated for an Emmy Award.

Frank Gorshin disliked the Riddler's original unitard costume from the comics, and had a green business suit and bowler hat marked with question marks created as an alternative, a variant of which would be later adapted in the comics itself.

Frank Gorshin played the Riddler in ten episodes as well as the 1966 theatrical film, but a pay dispute with ABC prior to season 2 resulted in him being replaced by John Astin for two episodes.

Frank Gorshin was very angry about being replaced by Astin, but he agreed to return in Season 3 in an episode entitled "Ring Around The Riddler".

Frank Gorshin reprised the role in the 1979 television film Legends of the Superheroes.

Frank Gorshin had a memorable role in the 1969 Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" as the bigoted half-whiteface, half-blackface alien Bele from the planet Cheron.

Contrary to popular rumor and several news articles, Frank Gorshin did not receive an Emmy nomination for this role.

In 1982, Frank Gorshin acted and sang the role of irascible King Gama in a TV production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera Princess Ida, as part of the PBS series The Compleat Gilbert and Sullivan, and subsequently in live performance at other venues.

Frank Gorshin appeared as the villainous Dan Wesker in the miniseries Goliath Awaits ; and played the role of Smiley Wilson on the ABC soap opera The Edge of Night, where he used his impersonation talents to mimic other performers on the series.

Frank Gorshin provided the voice of Daffy Duck and Foghorn Leghorn in the 1996 Looney Tunes short Superior Duck as well as voicing Foghorn and Yosemite Sam in 1997's Pullet Surprise and From Hare to Eternity, respectively.

Frank Gorshin died on the day of the telefilm's DVD release.

Frank Gorshin played the strict legendary Harvard Law School Professor, John H Keynes, in the Korean drama Love Story in Harvard, and voiced villain Hugo Strange in three 2005 episodes of The Batman animated series.

Frank Gorshin voiced the characters Marius and Lysander in the computer role playing game Diablo II.

Frank Gorshin's final live appearance was a Memphis performance of Say Goodnight, Gracie, in which he portrayed George Burns.

Frank Gorshin finished the performance and boarded a plane for Los Angeles on April 25,2005.

An ambulance met the plane upon landing and Frank Gorshin was transported to a Burbank hospital, where he died three weeks later, on May 17,2005, aged 72 from lung cancer, complicated by emphysema and pneumonia.

Frank Gorshin is interred at Calvary Catholic Cemetery in the Hazelwood section of Pittsburgh.