Actor-comedian Orson Bean, 91, hit and killed by car in LA

 Orson Bean, witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car in Los Angeles, authorities said. He was 91.

Los Angeles County Coroner’s office confirmed Bean’s Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a “traffic-related” fatality. coroner’s office provided location where Bean was found, which matched reports from local news outlets.

A man was walking in Venice neighborhood when he was clipped by a vehicle and fell, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Brian Wendlinginitially told local stations. A second driver n struck him in what police say was fatal collision. Both drivers remained on teh scene. Police were investigating and didn’t identify pedestrian to local outlets, which named Bean based on eyewitness accounts.

Bean enlivened such TV game shows as “To Tell Truth” and played a crotchety merchant on “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.”

He appeared in a number of films — tably, “Anatomy of a Murder” and “Being John Malkovich” — and starred in several top Broway productions, receiving a Tony d for 1962 Comden-Green musical “Subways Are for Sleeping.” But fans remembered him most for his many TV appearances from 1950s onward.

“Mr. Bean’s face comes wrapped with a sly grin, somewhat like expression of a child when sneaking his hand into cookie jar,” New York Times ted in a review of his 1954 variety show, “ Blue Angel.” It said he showed “a quality of being likable even when his jokes fall flat.”

Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1928 as Dallas Frederick Burrows, he never lost Yankee accent that proved a perfect complement to dry, laconic storytelling that established him as popular humorist. He h picked st name Orson Bean “because it sounded funny.”

His far, George, was a founding member of American Civil Liberties Union and Bean recalled later that his “house was filled with causes.” But he left home at 16 after his mor died by suicide.

In a 1983 New York Times interview, he recalled his early career in small clubs where show consisted of “me — master of ceremonies, comedian and magician — maybe a dog act, and a stripper.” It was a pia player in one such club, he said, who suggested replacing Dallas Burrows with some funny name like “Roger Duck” — or Orson Bean.

Bean’s quick wit and warm personality me him a favorite panelist for six years on “To Tell Truth.” game required panelists to quiz three contestants to figure out which one was a real table and which two were impostors. dramatic outcome inspired a national catchphrase as host turned to three and said: “Will real (table’s name) please stand up?”

Bean’s style appealed to both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson, and he appeared on “ Tonight Show” more than 200 times.

But his early career was hobbled for a time when he found himself on Hollywood blacklist in early years of Cold War.

“Basically I was blacklisted because I h a cute communist girlfriend,” he explained in a 2001 interview. “I stopped working on TV for a year.”

blacklist didn’t stop him in ater. Bean starred on Broway as a timid fan magazine writer in George Axelrod’s 1955 Hollywood spoof “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?” alongside Jayne Mansfield and Walter Matthau. He also starred on Broway with Maureen O’Sullivan in “Never Too Late” and with Melina Mercouri in “Illya Darling,” based on her hit film “Never on Sunday.”

Bean took a break from his career for a time in 1970s when he dropped out and moved to Australia, where he lived a hippie lifestyle. But he returned to U.S. and — after a period as a self-described “house-husband” — resumed his career.

“I got sick of contemplating my navel and staring up at sky and telling myself how wonderful it was t to be doing anything,” he explained in a 1983 interview with New York Times.

In 1990s, he played shopkeeper Loren Bray on long-running drama “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” He remained active on screen in recent years with guest shots in such shows as “Desperate Housewives,” “How I Met Your Mor” and “Modern Family.”

Meanwhile, his politics turned more conservative. He became related to a leing right-wing commentator, Andrew Breitbart, when his daughter, Susannah, married him. Breitbart died in 2012 and Steve Bann, later a top viser to Donald Trump, took over Breitbart’s eponymous website, for which Bean h penned occasional columns.

Bean wrote a memoir called “Too Much Is t Eugh” and a book about a n-tritional rapy called “Me and Orgone.”

He h alrey shown his interest in n-tritional thinking in 1964 when he bought a building in Manhattan and opened up a school based on philosophy of Summerhill, progressive British school founded by A.S. Neill.

“I said to myself, we have to start with children. Why t start a school?” he told New York Times.

That same year, he co-founded Sons of Desert, an organization dedicated to comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, with chapters around world.

More recently, income from “Dr. Quinn” and or voice and acting work allowed Bean to finance Pacific Resident ater Ensemble in Venice, where he appeared with his third wife, actress Alley Mills.

He h a daughter, Michele, from his first marri to Jacqueline de Sibour, and sons Max and Ezekiel and daughter Susannah from his marri to Carolyn Maxwell.

Im Source: AP