Kenneth Mars, ‘Otto Mannkusser’ from ‘Malcolm’ dies at 75

[HMG Celebrity News] – Kenneth Mars, the popular character actor whose 40+ year career gave us the unstable playwright in Mel Brooks’ ‘The Producers,’ and Otto Mannkusser from ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ has died of cancer at his home in the San Fernando Valley. He was 75.

Born in Chicago on April 14, 1934, Kenneth got his break in the classic NBC comedy ‘Car 54, Where Are You?’ way back in 1962. From there his credits read like a list of classic TV, from ‘Gunsmoke’ and ‘Get Smart’ to ‘Star Trek: DS9.’

The film world soon took notice and in 1968 Mel Brooks cast Kenneth as ‘Franz Liebkind.’ the clinically unstable author of a bootlicking homage to Hitler, thinly disguised as a musical. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder played two scheming producers who want to put it on Broadway in an inept, and hopelessly doomed plot to get rich. The result won an Oscar.

Another memorable role came in 1974 with ‘Young Frankenstein.’ This time Kenneth was Inspector Kemp, an officious policeman hunting Gene Wilder’s monster. There was a wooden arm with a will of its own, a German accent so thick even other Germans couldn’t make out a word, and an eye patch and a monocle…On the same eye.

You may also remember Ken as Hugo Simon, the Croatian musicologist whose pretentious thesis gets trashed by Barbra Streisand in Peter Bogdanovich’s evergreen 1972 comedy ‘What’s Up Doc.’

His vocal skills also brought lots of cartoon work, including ‘The Little Mermaid,’ ‘The Jetsons’ and ‘The Land Before Time.’ Several successful forays into theater brought his career to the enviable total of 198 separate roles.

In a statement issued yesterday, Kenneth’s family say he passed quietly on Saturday at his home in Grenada Hills after a long struggle with pancreatic cancer. He’s survived by two daughters and six grandchildren.

A private funeral is planned for later this week. Donations in remembrance can be made to the ‘Smile Train’ charity in Washington D.C.

Source: THR