If you've ever heard Broadway Is My Beat, you've heard Jack Kruschen. And if you've ever seen "The Apartment"(1960), you've seen him.
Jack Kruschen was born on March 20, 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Little is
known about his early life. He was discovered by CBS while acting in an operetta as a student
at Hollywood High School. He began his radio career still in his teens. During World War 2 he worked
for the Armed Forces Radio Service. After the war he returned to commercial radio. He was heard weekly
as Detective Mugavan on Broadway Is My Beat, and appeared frequently on
Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar. He was also heard on Dragnet, Sam Spade, and The Danny Thomas Show.
He made his film debut with "Red, Hot, and Blue" in 1949, and is best remembered for his Oscar-nominated
performance as Jack Lemmon's next-door neighbor Dr. Dreyfuss in The Apartment(1960). He expanded into TV
in 1956 with a role on Gunsmoke. He appeared in hundreds of big & small screen roles. Kruschen was in constant demand
as a character actor, mostly in Jewish or Italian ethnic roles. In the original War of the Worlds movie,
he was a mexican farmer, part of the trio who first found the saucer and were vaporized for their trouble. And on the TV
comedy series Webster, he had the continuing role of "Papa Papadopolis".
He died of natural causes on April 2, 2002.
