Ken Berry
1933 - 2018
Actor Ken Berry died this past Saturday at the age of 85. His acting career spanned almost forty years, and included featured roles in three long running TV sitcoms: "Mama's Family" (1983-90; 130 episodes), "Mayberry RFD" (1968-71; 78 episodes), and "F Troop" (1965-67; 65 episodes). Of the three, "F Troop" had the shortest first run, but may have been the one that lived and will continue to live the longest in syndication and reruns. For me, Berry will always be remembered as the naive, stumbling, bumbling Captain Wilton Parmenter, commander of the hapless F Troop, stationed at Fort Courage somewhere along the western frontier "where Indian fights were colorful sights, and nobody takes a lickin'..." In reading his obituary, it pleased me to see that Berry himself said that his two seasons on "F Troop" were the favorite experience of his career.
In amongst those three long running shows were the usual array of appearances on shows like Love Boat and Fantasy Island and various television variety shows. His last listed acting credit was on some long forgotten show called "Maggie Winters" in 1999. Apparently, he had a peaceful and happy retirement doing "whatever and wherever (his) day took him", as he put it, "usually to doctors' offices."
RIP Ken Berry.
The "F Troop" Gang
"Jane, not in front of the men."
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