Arnold Stang, who created the on-screen persona of a mild-mannered nerd in classic comedy routines, has died at age 91. Stang rose to fame playing a wise-cracking stage hand on Milton Berle's show in the 1950s and quickly became a popular character actor in the Golden Age of Comedy. He provided voice-over work for numerous shows and commercials, and did the voice of Top Cat in the popular 1960s animated series. Stang also appeared in feature films such as
The Man with the Golden Arm opposite Frank Sinatra. However, for retro movie lovers, he will be forever linked with Stanley Kramer's 1963 epic comedy
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in which he and Marvin Kaplan play ill-fated garage owners who have the misfortune of encountering both Jonathan Winters and Phil Silvers on the opening day of their business. The resulting scenario leads to Winters' wholesale destruction of their business in what many consider to be the film's most hilarious sequence. For more on Stang,
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