Kenneth Mars

Kenneth Mars
Mars in 1967
Born	(1935-04-04)April 4, 1935 Chicago, Illinois, U.S.[1]
Died	February 12, 2011(2011-02-12) (aged 75) Granada Hills, California, U.S.
Other names	Ken Mars
Alma mater	Northwestern University[1]
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1962–2008
Spouse	Barbara Newborn ​ (m. 1977)​
Children	2

Kenneth Mars (April 4, 1935 – February 12, 2011)^[1] was an American actor. He appeared in two Mel Brooks films: as the deranged Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind in The Producers (1967) and Police Inspector Hans Wilhelm Friedrich Kemp in Young Frankenstein (1974).^[2] He also appeared in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up, Doc? (1972) as well as Woody Allen's Radio Days (1987) and Shadows and Fog (1991).

Mars appeared in two seasons of Malcolm in the Middle as Otto Mannkusser, Francis's well-meaning but dimwitted boss, a German immigrant who owns a dude ranch. He voiced King Triton, Ariel's father, in the 1989 Disney animated film The Little Mermaid and its sequel, as well as its companion television series and the Kingdom Hearts series. He also had several other animated voice-over film roles, such as Littlefoot's grandfather Longneck in The Land Before Time series (1994–2008), Professor Screweyes in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Prince Cornelius's father King Colbert in Thumbelina (1994), and Tuskernini in Darkwing Duck (1991–1992). He voiced the Vault 13 Overseer in Interplay's Fallout (video game).

Early life

Mars was born in Chicago. His father, Bernard "Sonny" Mars, was a radio and television personality.^[3] Kenneth studied fine arts and acting at Northwestern University.^[1]

Career

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.^[4] 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.^[4] He was featured in several 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.^[4]

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, reprising the role on 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 reprising his role as Grandpa Longneck in The Land Before Time television series.^[4]

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. He frequently played characters with exaggerated accents, portraying German characters in The Producers (1967) and Young Frankenstein (1974) and 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]}

In 1975, ABC/Dunhill released a comedy LP produced by Earl Doud, Henry the First, featuring Mars in several comedy bits as Henry Kissinger, including a cover version of the Bachman–Turner Overdrive song, "Takin' Care of Business".^[5]

Mars also had a voice acting career, which began with voicing several characters on Uncle Croc's Block. In film, he voiced Ariel's father King Triton in The Little Mermaid and Littlefoot's grandfather Longneck in The Land Before Time franchise and its spin-off television series, as well as the villainous Professor Screweyes in We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story and Sweet William in Fievel's American Tails, sequel to An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. He had voice roles in various animated television series, such as The Smurfs, The Biskitts, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, TaleSpin, and Ludwig van Beethoven in the Animaniacs episode sketch "Roll Over, Beethoven", as well as video games such as Fallout and Kingdom Hearts, in which he reprised his role as Triton. He also played various minor roles on the popular radio show, Adventures in Odyssey.

In 2008, Mars retired from acting after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer two years prior.^[1] His final performance was as Longneck in the animated television series The Land Before Time.^[1]

Personal life

In 1977, Mars married Barbara Newborn. They had two daughters, and the marriage lasted until his death in 2011.^[1]

Illness and death

In 2006, Mars was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer that had already spread beyond his pancreas.^[1] Due to the cancer, he was unable to reprise his role as Triton in The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning, with Jim Cummings taking over the role. As well, Longneck did not have a speaking role in The Land Before Time XIII: The Wisdom of Friends. Mars died from cancer on February 12, 2011, at the age of 75.^[1]

Filmography

Discography

• Henry the First (1974) - Henry Kissinger

References

External links

• Kenneth Mars at IMDb
• Kenneth Mars at the TCM Movie Database