Gale Gordon co-starred as the second Mr Wilson in Dennis the Menace, replacing Joseph Kearns after he died.
19 Facts About Gale Gordon
2.
Gale Gordon was the first actor to play the role of Flash Gordon, in the 1935 radio serial The Amazing Interplanetary Adventures of Flash Gordon.
3.
In 1949, Gale Gordon recorded the pilot for The Halls of Ivy, starring in the program's title role of Dr Todhunter Hall, the president of Ivy College.
4.
In 1950, Gale Gordon played John Granby, a former city dweller ineptly pursuing his dream of life on a farm, in the radio series Granby's Green Acres, which became the basis for the 1960s television series Green Acres.
5.
Gale Gordon went on to create the role of pompous principal Osgood Conklin on Our Miss Brooks, carrying the role to television when the show moved there in 1952.
6.
Gale Gordon had a recurring role as fictitious Rexall Drugs sponsor representative Mr Scott on yet another radio hit, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, staying with the role as long as Rexall sponsored the show.
7.
The widely acknowledged master of the "slow-burn" temper explosion in character, Gale Gordon was the first pick to play Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy, but he was committed to Our Miss Brooks as well as being a regular on several other radio shows, and had to decline the offer.
8.
Gale Gordon appeared in two guest shots on the show: twice as Ricky Ricardo's boss, Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana Club where Ricky's band played, and later appeared as a judge on an episode of Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.
9.
In 1958, Gale Gordon appeared as a regular in the role of department store co-owner Bascomb Bleacher Sr.
10.
Gale Gordon appeared on the Walter Brennan ABC sitcom, The Real McCoys.
11.
Gale Gordon had a co-starring role in the CBS television comedy Pete and Gladys.
12.
In 1962, Gale Gordon appeared as different characters on two episodes of another ABC sitcom, The Donna Reed Show.
13.
Gale Gordon was under contract to play John Wilson on Dennis the Menace.
14.
Gale Gordon returned, this time as her blustery boss Harrison Otis 'Uncle Harry' Carter at an employment agency that specialized in unusual jobs for unusual people.
15.
Gale Gordon had all but retired from acting when Here's Lucy ended in 1974, but Ball coaxed him out of retirement in 1986 to join her for the short-lived series Life with Lucy.
16.
Gale Gordon was the only actor to have co-starred or guest-starred in every weekly series, radio or television, Ball had done since the 1940s.
17.
Gale Gordon built and restored his own furniture on the property and used the land to become one of the few commercial carob growers in the United States.
18.
Gale Gordon died of lung cancer on June 30,1995, at the Redwood Terrace Health Center in Escondido, California, aged 89.
19.
In 1999, Gale Gordon was inducted posthumously into the Radio Hall of Fame, and for his contribution to radio he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6340 Hollywood Boulevard.