Larry Storch, star of F Troop and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, has passed away at the age of 99. Storch’s personal manager, Matt Beckoff, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the actor died on Friday morning of natural causes in his New York apartment on the Upper West Side. “If I told you how nice he was, you wouldn’t believe it,” Beckoff said. The actor played the sidekick Corporal Randolph Agarn on the ABC sitcom F Troop back in the 1960s, and was an accomplished voice actor, with roles in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, The Brady Kids, and The Batman/Superman Hour where he played The Joker.
Videos by ComicBook.com
While F Troop only aired for two seasons on ABC, it found a new generation of viewers thanks to syndication. The western comedy starred Ken Berry as Captain Wilton Parmenter, Forrest Tucker as Sergeant Morgan O’Rourke, and Storch as his shorter accomplice Corporal Randolph Agarn. Storch also portrayed Agarn’s various cousins on F Troop, such as the Canadian Lucky Pierre from Canada, the Russian Dmitri Agarnoff, and the Mexican Pancho Agarnado, as well as his sister Carmen.
“I was supposed to be the sergeant,” Storch said in a 2007 interview with The Asbury Park Press, “but when they saw Forrest Tucker dressed in a cavalry suit — he looked like a polar bear — they said, ‘That’s going to be it.’ And Forrest Tucker said: ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to need a corporal around here, and I think he and I would have good chemistry.’”
Born Jan. 8, 1923, Lawrence Samuel Storch grew up in the Bronx, where he attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He appeared at the Paramount Theater in New York with Benny Goodman and Peggy Lee, before shipping out for World War II. Part of his duties included delivering supplies to a submarine as a member of the USS Proteus.
Lucille Ball was so impressed with Storch that she hired him to open for her husband, Desi Arnaz, and his orchestra at Ciro’s on the Sunset Strip in Palm Springs. The stand-up work paid Storch $125 a week, but it helped fill out his resume enough to earn gigs in clubs in Las Vegas and New York, as well as appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Storch was married to fellow actor Norma Storch, who also happened to be his manager. The two got married in 1961 and stayed together until Norma Storch died in 2003. Larry Storch is survived by Norma’s daughter June, who Norma had with the song-and-dance man Jimmy Cross; his daughter Candace; step-daughter Larry May; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Photo credit ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Image
