Harvey Lembeck
Harvey Lembeck started his career not as an actor, director, or teacher, but right out of New Utrecht High School, as a dancer at the New York Worlds Fair. He was one half of an exhibition dance team known as The Dancing Carols. His partner, Caroline Dubs, was his future wife.
The son of a Brooklyn button manufacturer, Lembeck yearned for a career as a radio sports announcer. Following his discharge from the service at war’s end in 1945, he attended New York University, obtaining a degree in radio arts in 1947. However, he chose the stage as a career upon the advice of one of his instructors, Prof. Robert Emerson, who had seen him perform in college plays.
Two weeks after graduation he won the key role of Sam Insigna in "Mr. Roberts," and played it on Broadway for nearly three years, winning runner-up honors to James Whitmore as New York’s best new actor of 1948.
In 1950, Lembeck made three motion pictures in Hollywood for 20th Century Fox ("Fourteen Hours," "You’re In The Navy Now," and "The Frogmen"). Then he went back to Broadway as Army Sgt. Harry Shapiro in "Stalag 17," which he subsequently played in the Billy Wilder directed film version, earning the Theater Owners of America Laurel Awards for outstanding comedy performance and best possibility for stardom. During this period (1952-54) he also made nine other movies, including the "Willie and Joe" films, based on Bill Mauldin’s popular World War II G.I. cartoon characters. Tom Ewell was Willie, Lembeck played Joe.
In 1954 he returned to Broadway again, appearing in the play, "Wedding Breakfast." His stint with Phil Silvers’ popular Bilko series began in 1955. Lembeck played Bilko’s sidekick, Corporal Rocco Barbella. The legendary show ran for four years.
Having spent a great deal of his adult life in uniform, in 1962, Lembeck once again donned Navy togs to co-star as Seaman Gabby diJulio in the NBC comedy series "Ensign O’Toole" with Dean Jones.
After co-starring with Steve McQueen in "Love with the Proper Stranger," Lembeck spent part of the early 60’s playing the loveable bad guy, Eric Von Zipper, in seven Beach Blanket movies with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello including "Bikini Beach, "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini," and "Beach Blanket Bingo." In 1964 he co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in "The Unsinkable Molly Brown."
It was during 1964 that Jack Kosslyn, of the Mercury Theatre, asked Lembeck to take over his actors’ workshop. Lembeck took this opportunity to create his comedy workshop. Initially working with comedy scripts, he soon ran out of good comedy material and found that improv was a wonderful tool to teach and exercise comedy. He realized that the
improv method, so new in the early 60’s, was one of the best ways to develop actors’ comedy instincts.
Lembeck again returned to the theatre to star as Sancho Panza on Broadway and in the first national company of "Man of LaMancha" staring Richard Kiley. President Lyndon B. Johnson chose this company to give a command performance at the White House.
During the late 60’s and 70’s Lembeck became a mainstay on television making over 200 guest starring appearances in some of the most popular sitcoms and dramas of that time. These shows included "Ben Casey," "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.," "Route 66," "The Monkees," "Night Gallery," "It Takes a Thief," "Chico and the Man," "Vegas," "All in the Family," and "Mork and Mindy" – just to name a few.
Lembeck also had the joy of directing the road companies of "Stalag 17" and "Mr. Roberts" along with the revues "A Night at the Mark," in San Francisco, and "Flush," in Las Vegas.
Lembeck continued to perform and teach up until his death on January 5, 1982. His many students at The Harvey Lembeck Comedy Workshop included Penny Marshall, Robin Williams, and John Ritter. He left behind a loving, close-knit group of family and friends. Lembeck’s love of life and the people in his life is evident not only when you see the sparkle in his eyes in a candid photo but also when you hear those who knew him speak about him. The Workshop became his passion, his need to give back to an industry that had been so generous. His students became his joy, their success, his thank you.
Even though Lembeck is gone, his love of both acting and actors, and his generosity of spirit live on, not only in films and television but every week within the walls of the space he created – The Harvey Lembeck Comedy Workshop.
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