LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Marshall, the actor, singer, turned game show host who served as straight man to the stars of “The Hollywood Squares” for 16 years, has died at the age of 98.
He died of kidney failure on Thursday at his home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, said publicist Harlan Boll.
During his more than 5,000 episodes that aired on NBC between 1966 and 1981, Marshall helped define the modern game show host: smooth and professional, yet never taking himself too seriously.
But he was often more like a talk-show host, and while the tic-tac-toe games the contestants played were real, it was all just an excuse to have some fun: Marshall’s questions to regulars like Paul Lynde, George Goebel, and Joan Rivers were meant to set up joke answers before the real ones followed.
“It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in show business,” Marshall said in an interview with the Archive of American Television in 2010. “I walked into the studio and said, ‘Hello, stars,’ and I read the questions and laughed. And the pay was great.”
“Hollywood Squares” became an American cultural institution and put Marshall on the map. During Marshall’s run, the show won four Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Game Show and spawned dozens of international and American reboots. It not only provided a platform for character actors such as Charlie Weaver (the stage name of Cliff Arquette) and Wally Cox, but also featured occasional guest appearances by a variety of A-list stars, including Aretha Franklin, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ed Asner, and Janet Leigh.
Marshall had warm relationships with Weaver, Linde and others, but said Goebel, the sarcastic actor and variety show host, was special, tweeting in 2021 that “it’s no secret he was my best friend of the Hollywood Squares and my absolute favorite Squares!”
Marshall had been in show business most of his life until he took the stage in “Squares” at the age of 40.
As a teenager, he toured with big bands, was part of two comedy troupes that performed in nightclubs and on television, appeared in films under contract with 20th Century Fox, and had a few roles in Broadway musicals after pilot host Bert Parks was fired.
“I’m a singer first, not a game show host,” Marshall told his hometown newspaper, the Huntington, West Virginia, Herald-Dispatch, in 2013. “It was just a fluke. I’d performed on Broadway with Julie Harris and I was planning on going back to Broadway when I auditioned. I thought it would be a few weeks, and it turned into 16 years.”
“The Hollywood Squares” started out as a more serious affair, but early on a producer suggested he write jokes for Linde, a perennially sarcastic comedian who sat in center square and became as famous as Marshall on the show.
That first joke would set the template for the next few years.
Marshall: “Paul, why do bikers wear leather?”
Linde: “Because chiffon wrinkles.”
“That changed everything,” Marshall told Archive Television. “I was the straight man, so being a comedian was easy for me.”
Marshall was born Ralph Pierre LaCocque in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and moved around the state as a child, living in Wheeling and Huntington.
When Marshall was ten years old, his father died and his mother and sister, actress Joan Dru, moved to New York to pursue careers in show business, so Marshall went to live with his grandparents, who he soon joined.
At age 15, he toured as a singer with the Bob Chester Orchestra. He also worked as a reporter for NBC Radio and as an usher at the Paramount Theater. He was drafted during World War II and stationed in Italy, where he made his first radio appearance as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio. In 1949, he formed a comedy duo with Tommy Noonan and appeared in nightclubs, theaters and on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
He became a contract actor for 20th Century Fox in the 1950s, appearing in films such as The Rookie in 1959 and Swingin’ Along in 1961.
He missed out on a chance at a leading role in Hollywood, but found it in musical theater.
In 1962, he starred in Bye Bye Birdie opposite Chita Rivera in London’s West End. Linde also played a leading role in the Broadway version, which he reprised in the film, and in 1965 made his Broadway debut in Skyscraper opposite Julie Harris.
He also appeared in the Broadway versions of “High Button Shoes,” “The Music Man” and “42nd Street.”
After “The Hollywood Squares,” Marshall hosted several other short-lived game shows but resumed his acting career, primarily singing, starring in more than 800 performances of “La Cage aux Folles” on Broadway and on tour, and sang in the 1983 film version of “Annie.”
He has been married three times, most recently to Laurie Stewart in 1989.
The couple both contracted COVID-19 in early 2021 but survived; the husband was hospitalized for several weeks.
Marshall’s four children include son Pete LaCock, who plays professional baseball for the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals. Marshall is survived by daughters Suzanne and Jamie, son David, 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
