Larry Hovis
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| Larry Hovis | |
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 Hovis wearing bulletproof armor on set of Hogan's Heroes |
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| Born | February 20, 1936 Wapato, Washington USA |
| Died | September 9, 2003 (aged 67) Austin, Texas, USA |
Larry Hovis (February 20, 1936 – September 9, 2003) was an American singer and actor best known for playing a fictional prisoner of war on the 1960s television sitcom Hogan's Heroes.
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[edit] Early life and career
Hovis was born in Wapato, Washington, and moved to Houston, Texas, as a small child. As a youth, he was a singer, appearing on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. Hovis attended the University of Houston. During the mid 1950s, Hovis sang in nightclubs. He wrote songs and signed with Capitol Records and released one album.
He also began appearing in local theater productions. After some success, he moved to New York City in 1959 and appeared in Broadway revues such as From A to Z that showcased his singing and comedy talents.
[edit] The move to television
Hovis moved to California in 1963 where he performed stand-up comedy and tried to break into television. In 1964, he was discovered by Andy Griffith's manager and was hired to appear on the hit TV series Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. where he played "Pvt. Larry Gotschalk". He also appeared on The Andy Griffith Show as Gilley Walker, the owner of a car that had several chronic noises that Goober attempted to repair eventually disassembling and reassembling in the Mayberry Courthouse.
In 1965, Hovis was cast as "Sgt. Andrew Carter" in the television show Hogan's Heroes. Hovis' character was part of a group of five Western Allied POWs; each character had a specialized task or talent (Sgt. Carter was the ordnance expert; in a typical episode of the series, it was Sgt. Carter who would be called upon to make an explosive device). In the series Carter was of Sioux ancestry; Larry Hovis was partly of Yakama Indian ancestry. In one episode of the comedy Alice, Hovis played a Native American police detective who arrests a fake Native American conman.
While Hovis was a regular on Hogan's Heroes, he also did other work in the entertainment industry, including writing the screenplay for the 1966 spy-spoof Out of Sight. He also appeared in and wrote comedy bits for Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In.
[edit] After Hogan's Heroes
After Hogan's Heroes was cancelled in 1971, Hovis appeared in several TV shows. He also produced and appeared in the mid-1970s game show Liar's Club.
In the early 1980s, Hovis toured in the musical Best Little Whorehouse in Texas as Melvin P. Thorpe. Later in the decade, Hovis teamed up with Gary Bernstein to form Bernstein-Hovis Productions, which produced the game shows Anything For Money, the original version of Lingo and the short-lived Yahtzee, a TV version of the classic dice game, for which Hovis also announced and served as a regular panelist.
Beginning in the 1990s, Hovis taught drama at Southwest Texas State University, recently renamed Texas State University-San Marcos in San Marcos, Texas.
Larry Hovis died in Austin, Texas, of esophageal cancer in 2003.
[edit] External links
- Larry Hovis website
- Larry Hovis at Find a Grave
