Kenneth Mars

Mars was born in Chicago. His father, Bernard "Sonny" Mars, was a radio and television personality.[https://www.chicagotribune.com/1985/09/02/bernard-sonny-mars-71-noted-tv-radio-personality/ Profile], chicagotribune.com; accessed June 27, 2015. Kenneth studied fine arts and acting at Northwestern University.

Mars made his acting debut in 1962 as a book publisher on Car 54, Where Are You? He later appeared on such television series as Gunsmoke, Get Smart, McMillan & Wife, Columbo, Harry O, The Bob Crane Show, and Police Woman.{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kenneth-mars/credits/160466/|title=Kenneth Mars| website=TVGuide.com|publisher=TV Guide|access-date=April 24, 2019}} He also appeared in dramatic roles such as Will Turner, a former FBI agent, in Warren Beatty's The Parallax View.

Mars played Harry Zarakartos on the Richard Benjamin-Paula Prentiss 1967 CBS-TV sitcom He & She. He was featured in a number of small roles in broadcasts such as the Misfits of Science pilot episode and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Shadowplay". He was cast opposite Bette Davis in Hello Mother, Goodbye!, a 1973 television pilot aired by NBC but never picked up as a series. From 1970 to 1974, Mars guest starred in five episodes of Love, American Style, playing various characters.

In 1977, Mars became a series regular on both the Sha Na Na variety series and on Norman Lear's talk show parody Fernwood 2-Night in the recurring role of eccentric William W.D. 'Bud' Prize, from the Fernwood Chamber of Commerce. He continued the role on the revamped America 2-Night in 1978. In 2001, Mars portrayed a comedic famous but washed-up photographer on Just Shoot Me. Before his death, his final television roles were Otto, the German dude ranch owner on Fox's Malcolm in the Middle, an appearance on Disney Channel's Hannah Montana, and a reprise of his role as Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time television series.

In 1969, Mars portrayed a marshal trying to raise a posse to pursue Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, only to have his address to the townsfolk hijacked by a friendly bicycle salesman. Mars frequently played characters with exaggerated accents. He portrayed German characters in The Producers (1967) and Young Frankenstein (1974), and played a Croatian musicologist, Hugh Simon, in What's Up, Doc? (1972). His first broadly accented character was that of Sir Evelyn Oakleigh in the 1962 Off-Broadway revival of the Cole Porter musical Anything Goes. He also appeared in the 1962 Broadway play The Affair.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

In 1975, ABC/Dunhill released a comedy LP produced by Earl Doud, Henry the First, featuring Mars in a number of comedy bits as Henry Kissinger, including a cover version of the Bachman–Turner Overdrive song, "Takin' Care of Business".{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/henry-the-first-mw0000856963|title = Henry the First - Kenneth Mars | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic| website=AllMusic }}

Mars cultivated a lengthy voice acting career, launching it by voicing several characters on Uncle Croc's Block. He voiced the roles of Ariel's father King Triton in The Little Mermaid and in the video games Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II.

He voiced Littlefoot's Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time series of films and the spin-off television series, and the villainous Professor Screweyes in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. He played some minor roles on the popular radio show, Adventures in Odyssey. He played Sweet William in Fievel's American Tails, which took place after An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. He voiced characters on many animated television series, such as The Smurfs, The Biskitts, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, TaleSpin, and as Ludwig van Beethoven in the Animaniacs episode sketch "Roll Over, Beethoven", as well as video games such as Fallout and Kingdom Hearts.

In 2008, Mars retired from acting after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years prior. His final performance was as Grandpa Longneck in the animated television series The Land Before Time.

In 1977, Mars married Barbara Newborn. They had two daughters. The marriage lasted until his death in 2011.

In 2006, Mars was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had already spread beyond his pancreas. His cancer made him so ill that he could not reprise his role as King Triton for The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, so Jim Cummings took over the role. As well as being unable to voice Triton, he also could not voice Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. (Littlefoot's Grandpa does appear in the film, but has no lines.) He died on February 12, 2011, at the age of 75.

• Henry the First (1974) - Henry Kissinger

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Category:1935 births

Category:2011 deaths

Category:20th-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American male actors

Category:21st-century American comedians

Category:Male actors from Chicago

Category:20th-century American comedians

Category:American male film actors

Category:American male television actors

Category:American male voice actors

Category:American male video game actors

Category:American male comedians

Category:Dunhill Records artists

Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California

Category:People from Granada Hills, Los Angeles

Category:Northwestern University alumni

Category:Comedians from Chicago