15 Facts About Harvey Lembeck

Harvey Lembeck was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl.

Harvey Lembeck turned in noteworthy performances in both the stage and screen versions of Stalag 17.

Harvey Lembeck was the father of actor and director Michael Lembeck and actress Helaine Lembeck.

Harvey Lembeck was half of an exhibition dance team known as The Dancing Carrolls.

The son of a Brooklyn button manufacturer, Harvey Lembeck yearned for a career as a radio sports announcer.

Two weeks after graduation, Harvey Lembeck won the role of Sam Insigna in Mister Roberts, which he played on Broadway for nearly three years.

Harvey Lembeck made three films for 20th Century Fox: You're in the Navy Now, Fourteen Hours, and The Frogmen, all released in the first half of 1951.

From 1952 to 1954 Harvey Lembeck made nine other films, mostly playing military stereotypes.

However, the role of Harry Shapiro as portrayed by Harvey Lembeck was significant, as it demonstrated the resiliency of the average American under the extreme duress as a prisoner of war during WWII.

Harvey Lembeck appeared twice as Al in "Variations on a Theme" and "Music Hath Charms" on another ABC sitcom, The Donna Reed Show.

Harvey Lembeck co-starred with Steve McQueen in Love with the Proper Stranger and then spent part of the early 1960s playing the lovable bad guy malaprop Eric Von Zipper in six American International beach party films, with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.

In 1964, Jack Kosslyn of the Mercury Theatre asked Harvey Lembeck to take over his actors' workshop.

Harvey Lembeck realized that the improv method, new in the early 1960s, was one of the best ways to develop actors' comedy instincts.

Harvey Lembeck returned to the theatre to star as Sancho Panza in the first national company of Man of La Mancha.

Harvey Lembeck directed the road companies of Stalag 17 and Mister Roberts, along with the revues A Night at the Mark in San Francisco and Flush in Las Vegas.