Larry D. Mann, veteran actor, dies at 91

Larry D. Mann, who began his prolific 40-year-long acting career at the CBC, has died in Los Angeles. He was 91.

His son, Richard Mann, says the actor died of age-related causes on Monday.

Mann first came to the attention of CBC audiences in 1953 when he kidded around with the puppet Uncle Chichimus on the show Let's See. According to a CBC Archives article, Mann got the job when his friend, actor Don Harron, pointed him out to producer Norman Jewison.   

He was also a frequent guest on Wayne and Shuster during the 1950s.

The Toronto-born Mann appeared as Cap'n Scuttlebutt on the Canadian version of the kids' show Howdy Doody and hosted a late-night program called Midnight Zone, which debuted in October 1960. 

Apart from his CBC work, he appeared in more than 20 movies, with roles in The Sting and In the Heat of the Night, among others. 

On TV, his dozens of credits included Gunsmoke, Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres and Hill Street Blues.

He also did voice work for animated shows. He was the voice of Yukon Cornelius in the 1964 animated Christmas favourite Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. 

Mann's last role was playing a talent agent in the 1991 TV show Homefront.

His biography on the Internet Movie Database site lists 157 separate TV and movie credits. 

Mann also did TV commercials, with his best known being a series of Bell Canada spots that appeared in the 1980s in which he was "The Boss." One of those ads can be seen by clicking on the embedded YouTube video below.