21 Facts About Ted Cassidy

Ted Cassidy tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction works such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie, and he played Lurch on The Addams Family in the mid-1960s.

Ted Cassidy narrated The Incredible Hulk TV series and voiced The Hulk in the show's first 2 seasons.

Ted Cassidy transferred to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he played college basketball for the Hatters and was active in the student government.

Ted Cassidy was an accomplished musician, and moonlighted playing an organ for patrons of a Luby's Cafeteria in Dallas' Lochwood Shopping Center.

Ted Cassidy "was right in the middle of the excitement" on the day John F Kennedy was assassinated, and was among the first to interview eyewitnesses W E Newman Jr.

Ted Cassidy's height gave him an advantage in auditioning for unusual character roles.

Ted Cassidy played the character named Thing, though associate producer Jack Voglin would take over the role in scenes involving both characters.

Ted Cassidy voiced Lurch in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and in the 1973 animated series adaptation of The Addams Family.

Ted Cassidy did more work with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the early 1970s, playing Isaiah in the postapocalyptic drama pilots Genesis II and Planet Earth.

Ted Cassidy reprised the role in the 1977 episode "Bigfoot V".

Ted Cassidy starred in Bonanza's "Decision in Los Robles" in 1970.

Concurrent with his appearances on The Addams Family, Ted Cassidy began doing character voices on a recurring basis for the Hanna-Barbera Studios, culminating in the role of Frankenstein Jr.

Ted Cassidy was the voice of Meteor Man in Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, as well as the hero in the Chuck Menville pixillated short film Blaze Glory, in which his already-deep voice was enhanced with reverb echo to give the character an exaggerated super-hero sound.

Ted Cassidy voiced Ben Grimm in The New Fantastic Four.

Ted Cassidy went on to perform the roars and growls for Godzilla in the 1979 cartoon series that Hanna-Barbera co-produced with Toho, and was the voice of Montaro in the Jana of the Jungle segments that accompanied Godzilla during its first network run.

Ted Cassidy's voice was the basis for the sinister voice of Black Manta, as well as Brainiac and several others on Super Friends.

Ted Cassidy was the original voice of Moltar and Metallus on Space Ghost from 1966 to 1968.

In deleted scenes from the original Battlestar Galactica TV pilot movie, "Saga of a Star World", Cassidy can be heard providing temporary voice tracks of the Cylon Imperious Leader, before actor Patrick Macnee was contracted to voice the character.

Ted Cassidy underwent surgery at St Vincent Medical Center in Los Angeles to have a benign tumor removed from his heart.

Ted Cassidy was readmitted to the same hospital, where he died on January 16,1979, at age 46.

Ted Cassidy was cremated and his ashes were scattered in his backyard.