Pat Harrington

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BIRTHDAY

August 13, 1929

New York City, New York, USA

RECENT CREDITS

King of Queens (TV) Mar. 20, 2006

Curb Your Enthusiasm (TV) Nov. 13, 2005

Yes, Dear (TV) May. 17, 2004

Columbo (TV) Sep. 15, 1974

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BIOGRAPHY

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This wiry comic actor is perhaps best known for playing Dwayne Schneider, the meddling building superintendent who takes it upon himself to look out for "Ms. Romano" (Bonnie Franklin) on the long-running CBS sitcom "One Day at a Time" (1975-84). Pat Harrington Jr., the son of vaudevillian and early TV comedy player Pat Harrington, came to prominence in the mid-1950s as a TV advertising time seller for NBC. Jonathan Winters overheard the comedian doing foreign dialects and before he knew it, Harrington was a regular on "The Steve Allen Show" (NBC, 1959-61), playing Italian golf pro Guido Panzini, a role he also reprised on Allen's various later syndicated TV efforts. In 1959-60, he also played a suitor for daughter Terry Williams (played by Penney Parker) on "The Danny Thomas Show"/"Make Room For Daddy". While making nightclub appearances in the early 60s, he briefly hosted "Stump the Stars" (CBS, 1962), a revised version of the audience participation show "Pantomime Quiz". Harrington's first regular berth on a sitcom was "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (ABC, 1969-70), in which he was public relations guy Tony Lawrence, the best friend of the title character. But he achieved small screen immortality with "One Day at a Time". Harrington's Schneider was highly stylized, wearing T-shirts with a cigarette pack rolled under the arm, a tool belt (with tools he never seemed to use), and a pepper-up-the-scene, milk-the-applause manner. On a show that was about a divorced woman trying to make a life for herself without a man, Schneider was partly created to give the male members of the audience someone to want to watch--and they loved him. Harrington won an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1984, the series' final season. He also carried the Schneider shtick into a lucrative gig as spokesperson for Ace Hardware Stores.

Not of all of Harrington's TV work was confined to comedy. He also was especially fine in several dramatic episodes of "Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law" and the legal drama "Savage" (NBC, 1973). Harrington starred in the 1977 NBC comedy movie "Benny and Barney: Las Vegas Undercover". Since the late 80s, he has found a second career as a voice actor in such animated series and specials as "A Garfield Christmas" (CBS, 1987) and "I Yabba-Dabba Do!" (ABC, 1993).

On the big screen, Harrington made his feature film debut with a small role in the 1958 remake of "Stage Struck". But possibly his best role was as the leader of automated midgets in "The President's Analyst" (1967), in which he appears towards the end seemingly in real control of the world. Harrington narrated the 1974 hit animated film "Fritz the Cat" and, more recently, appeared in the independent feature "Road Trip to Heaven" (1992).

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