The Show Place

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tom Poston, the baggy-eyed comic actor who made a career of playing befuddled, glum characters on such TV shows as "Newhart" and "Mork & Mindy," has died at age 85, a spokeswoman for his family said on Tuesday.

Poston, also remembered as a longtime celebrity panelist on the popular U.S. game show of the 1950s and 1960s, "To Tell the Truth," died on Monday at his Los Angeles home after a brief illness, according to the spokeswoman, Tanner Gibson.

Details of his illness were not revealed.

A Cleveland native who was as a military pilot during World War Two, Poston made his Broadway debut in 1947 in the Jose Ferrer production of "Cyrano de Bergerac" and soon found work in film and television.

He gained fame on national television as a sketch comedy regular on the original "The Tonight Show" with Steve Allen during the 1950s.

But Poston made his biggest mark playing sidekick roles on various situation comedies, including a memorable recurring role as Bob Newhart's old college pal Cliff "The Peeper" Murdoch on "The Bob Newhart Show" in the 1970s.

Their chemistry was so good that Poston was later cast as the somewhat absent-minded caretaker George Utley on Newhart's new series in the 1980s, "Newhart," a part that earned him three Emmy nominations.

Poston also joined Robin Williams' hit ABC sitcom "Mork & Mindy" in 1979 as the grouchy downstairs neighbor Mr. Bickley, and in 1995 was cast in another ABC hit comedy, "Grace Under Fire," playing Floyd, the father of series star Brett Butler's pharmacist friend, Russell ( Dave Thomas).

Film roles included his 1953 debut as a detective in "The City That Never Sleeps."

He is survived by his third wife, actress Suzanne Pleshette, with whom he appeared on "The Bob Newhart Show" and married in May 2001.

I had no idea he married Suzanne Pleshette!

And, yes, that's one of his sons on "Crossing Jordan".