Over-the-top comedic character actor whose histrionics have provided some memorable moments in films and television. Mars burst on the cinematic scene as the unrepentant Nazi author of "Springtime for Hitler", the musical centerpiece of Mel Brooks' hilarious romp "The Producers" (1967).Mars served his acting apprenticeship in a variety of stock roles and national touring companies before appearing on Broadway in the mid-1960s, most notably in "Any Wednesday" with Sandy Dennis. He quickly moved to the small screen landing a regular role on the highly rated but short-lived Richard Benjamin-Paula Prentiss sitcom "He and She" (1967-68). In-between movie roles, Mars showed up on a number of variety and comedy specials including a stint as a regular on the short-lived "Carol Burnett and Company" (ABC, 1979), several pilots that went unsold, the occasional TV-movie, and numerous animated series, such as "Flintstone Family Adventures" (1980-81), "The New Jetsons" (1985-86), and Disney's "Darkwing Duck" and "The Little Mermaid" (1992-95).
Since "The Producers" (1967), Mars has provided outrageous performances in such comedies as Peter Bogdanovich's "What's Up, Doc?" as a German-accented swell; Mel Brooks' gothic comedy, "Young Frankenstein" (1974), as a heavily accented Transylvanian police officer, and as the slap-happy rabbi in Woody Allen's "Radio Days" (1987). Mars played the marshal in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and Bogdanovich cast Mars again in his less successful romantic comedy "Illegally Yours" (1988).
Mars has also had many opportunities to show a more serious side. He got favorable notices as Shirley MacLaine's husband in Frank Gilroy's dark vision of urban life, "Desperate Characters" (1971), played a former FBI agent in Alan J. Pakula's political thriller "The Parallax View" (1974), and was Lyndon B. Johnson in a docudrama about John F. Kennedy, "Prince Jack" (1984). Mars provided the voice of Triton for Disney's animated classic, "The Little Mermaid" (1989), and played a magician who takes Woody Allen on as an apprentice in "Shadows and Fog" (1992).
Profession(s):
Actor
Sometimes Credited As:
Ken Mars
1985 Debut as voice in a animated TV series, "The New Jetsons"
1982 Debut in a miniseries, "The Rules of Marriage"
1972 First co-starring role in a feature, "What's Up, Doc?"
1972 Debut in a TV-movie, "Second Chance"
1971 Star of an unsold pilot, "Shepherd's Flock"
1967 Feature debut, "The Producers"
1967 Debut as regular in a comedy TV series, "He and She"
Born and raised in Chicago
First became involved in dramatics at a local radio station
First big break playing Max in a national touring company of "The Sound of Music"
Appeared on Broadway in "Any Wednesday" with Sandy Dennis
