Bit of an O'Bit: ROGER PERRY

Thanks to Trekkies, Roger Perry was not just a mild character actor. He could go to a memorabilia show if he wanted, and get his $20 for an autographed photo. Anyone who guested on the original “Star Trek” has thousands of awed fans.

But for most people, it was Roger…who?

I’d characterize him as Alan Young without the sense of humor. Dick York without the freaky face. Roger usually played a mild-mannered guy without all that much personality. He lacked the charisma to be a romantic lead; good looking but that’s all. He could’ve taken the John Agar roles in bad science fiction movies, but…John Agar took those. Lucille Ball gave him a break and one of his first roles, in an episode of "Desilu Playhouse" in 1959. Some "December Bride" episodes followed, and his first sitcom pilot, "Arthur," turned up on the summer replacement compilation series "New Comedy Playhouse," which was how CBS got some use from unsold shows. Also failing that year: "The Trouble with Richard" starring Dick Van Dyke.

The first time I attached the name and face was when he played the son on the one-season (they did 34 episodes back then) “Harrigan and Son.” Yes, the theme song was "Harrigan," the George M. Cohan classic. Pat Obrien played his father. They were both attorneys, handling, as I vaguely recall, some silly or serious but heart-warming cases. A few years later, he played a detective on “Arrest and Trial” which starred Chuck Connors and Ben Gazzara, who did most of the arresting and lawyering. The show was unique for its time as a tedious 90 minute production. I vaguely remember that one too, but I think the tedium probably had more to do with the trial than the arrest. Roger's other major series appearances were 10 episodes of "Facts of Life" and 12 episodes of "Falcon Crest" both between 1981-1985 obviously the continuing character he played on each show was not in competition with the other and didn't have the same audience. The aging actor had few TV credits after that.

Perry was versatile and professional, so he turned up in all the usual shows of the era, from "The FBI" to “Ironside” to “Barnaby Jones.” In one of them, he had a change of pace playing the son of a dating service owner…who liked to kill women. He was very good as the reasonably handsome but twisted villain. He could suavely get dates and just as suavely execute them.

In real life, he was straight man to manic ex-“Laugh In” actress Joanne Worley for 25 years. After their divorce, it took only two years for him to hook up with the exact opposite of brash loudmouth Worley: the Goldie Hawnesque Joyce Bulifant, who played all kinds of charming blonde bubbleheads in the 60's and 70s, and breaking stereotype a bit by playing the comforting wife of Murray Slaughter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." At that time she was married to "Bewitched" producer William Asher. Perry's was her fifth marriage but it lasted 16 years…until his death at the age of 85. Prostate cancer. Roger Perry (May 7, 1933 – July 12, 2018) was a card…a “Star Trek” card…but he also had some horror fans devoted to him, thanks to playing straight man to the vampire in both “Count Yorga, Vampire” (1970) and “Return of Count Yorga” (1971).