American actor (born 1936)

Ronald Alan Masak (born July 1, 1936) is an American actor. He began as a stage performer, and much of his work was in theater until he transitioned to film and television, where he became a familiar character actor.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Film
• 3 Television
• 4 Personal life
• 5 Selected filmography
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

Ronald Masak was born in Chicago to Floyd Louis Masak and Mildred Alice Rudy. His great grandfather Karel Masák (1861-1899) was a Czech immigrant from Zvěrkovice near Týn nad Vltavou.

Film

As with many performers, it was the Army that provided Ron with a platform from which to display his all-around talents for performing, writing and directing. In 1960-61, Ron toured the world doing vocal impressions in the all-Army show en*led "Rolling Along".

In 1968, he appeared alongside Vince Lombardi in the short film, Second Effort. That same year, he also appeared in a supporting role in the submarine action film Ice Station Zebra.

In addition to two guest appearances on the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, he also had a role in the pilot film for "Jeannie" star Barbara Eden's subsequent series Harper Valley PTA and worked again with "Jeannie" co-star Larry Hagman in an episode of the crime series The Rockford Files. Masak appeared on “Bewitched” again in 1969 season 5, episode 25, “Samantha’s Power Failure.”

Television

Masak's first screen role was as the Harmonica Man in "The Purple Testament", an episode of The Twilight Zone in 1960. Masak appeared as "Mike the boxer" on The Flying Nun, season 1, episode 26 ("Where There's a Will"), which first aired March 13, 1968. Masak appeared as "Officer #2" on Bewitched, Season 7, Episode 4 ("Samantha's Hot Bedwarmer"), first aired on October 15,1970, he also appeared in season 5 episode 25 as an ice cream shop manager which aired in 1969, (“Samantha’s Power Failure), and in “Irving Bates, Sr.” in Season 6, Episode 23 (“Just a Kid Again”).

He had a guest appearance as Beauregard Jackson in the episode "Hurricane" on Land of the Lost. He appeared in the second season of Barney Miller episode of "The Horse Thief" as officer Shriker, and was a guest star in the "Welcome Home, Vince" episode of The Feather and Father Gang in 1977 and in the episode "The Two-Million-Dollar Stowaway" of The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978. In 1981, he guest starred on the Magnum, P.I. episode "Skin Deep". He also guest starred on an episode of Quincy, M.E.

He is perhaps best known for a recurring role on Murder, She Wrote as the Cadillac convertible-driving Sheriff, Mort Metzger, although he did make appearances as two other characters in the series, in "Footnote to Murder" as Lt. Lyle Meyer and in "No Accounting for Murder" as Marty Giles.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was dubbed "The King of Commercials" for his many commercials, including voice-over work, most notably for a Vlasic pickles ad. From 1982-83, he voiced "Meatballs" on the CBS cartoon series Meatballs & Spaghetti. He did the voice for Veteran Holt in the video-game Medal of Honor: European *ault.

In 1990, Masak was a panelist on the revival of the television game show, To Tell the Truth, and appeared on several other game shows as a panelist (including Match Game, P*word Plus and Super P*word).

He appeared as Eddie Fenelle, a taxi-driver, in the Columbo episode Ashes to Ashes (1998).

Personal life

Masak married Kay Knebes in 1961; they have six children.

Masak is also the first cousin of actor Michael Gross of Family Ties and former Saturday Night Live cast member Mary Gross.

He was honorary sheriff of Tarzana, California for 35 years.

Selected filmography

References

External links

• Ron Masak at IMDb