Comic Actor and Magician Carl Ballantine Dies
Posted by Harris Lentz in OBITS by Harris Lentz, III on November 3rd, 2009
Carl Ballantine was best known for his role as PT Boat sailor Lester Gruber in the 1960’s television series McHale’s Navy, but had a long career as a stage magician, and comic actor in films and television.
He was born Meyer Kessler in Chicago, Illinois, on September 27, 1917, and became interested in magic at an early age. He began performing on stage in Chicago in the 1930s under the names Count Marakoff and Carl Sharp. He became Carl Ballantine in the early 1940s, and was billed as “The Amazing Mr. Ballantine, World’s Greatest Magician”. It was largely a comedy routine, where Ballantine would stage incompetent magic tricks, which he soon was performing on television.
Ballantine was featured as Merlin in the 1960 production of Tennessee Ernie Ford Meets King Arthur on Startime, and was Gonzorgo in Babes in Toyland for Shirley Temple’s Storybook in 1960. He also appeared on television in episodes of I Dream of Jeannie, The Ghost Busters, Fantasy Island, and Blacke’s Magic. He was a voice actor in several animated series including Garfield and Friends, Freakazoid!, and Spider-Man.
Ballantine died at his home in Hollywood Hills, California, on November 3, 2009, at the age of 92.
