| Arte Johnson |
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He was born in Benton HaMichigan and attended the University Of Illinois , graduating in 1949 ---after working on the campus radio station and the U of I Theater Guild with his brother, Cos.--- He initially sought employment in Chicago working for Advertising Agencies , but left for New York to work for Viking Press . His first " Show Business " job came when he impulsively stepped into an Audition line and was cast in a revival of '' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ''. He is best known for his work on '' Rowan And Martin's Laugh-In '', an American Television Show ( 1968 - 1973 ), in which he played various characters including a smoking Nazi soldier with the Catch Phrase "Verrry interesting..." Johnson indicated later that the phrase came from '' Desperate Journey '', a 1942 World War II film with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan playing Army Air Forces Pilots shot down in Nazi Germany ; they managed to cross much of the country without speaking German or knowing the territory, but when captured, their Nazi interrogator doubts their story with the phrase. {Link without Title} His other iconic ''Laugh-In'' character was "Tyrone F. Horneigh" (the last name a 'clean' spelling of the vulgar term 'horny'), the white-haired, trenchcoat-wearing 'dirty old man' who repeatedly sought to seduce "Gladys Ormphby" ( Ruth Buzzi 's brown-clad 'spinster' character) on a park bench. Tyrone would enter the scene, muttering a song, and, spying Gladys on the bench, would sit next to her. He would ask 2 related 'leading questions,' each earning him a hard whack from a shocked Gladys using her purse. His third statement would be an appeal for medical assistance, at which time he would fall off the bench. An example:
Years after ''Laugh-In'' ended its run, the 2 characters were made into an animated Saturday-morning children's show, with Tyrone as a helpful, muttering 'superhero.' ---Arte and his brother, Cos, earned their Emmy Awards while working on Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In.--- In 1976 , Johnson Voiced the cartoon character " Misterjaw ", a blue German accented shark (with a bow tie and top hat) who liked to leap out of the water and shout "HEEGotcha!" or "Gotcha!" at unsuspecting folks on the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises produced ''The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show''. Later in the Seventies , he hosted the NBC Game Show '' Knockout ''. In the 1990s Johnson Voiced "Newt", a Hunting Dog on the Cartoon '' Animaniacs '', who futilely became enamoured of his target, a sexy female Mink named Minerva. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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