“Newhart’s” Tom Poston Dies At 85

He had the kind of career that perfectly suited the characters he would portray – frenetic and scattered.

Tom Poston, who played the clueless handyman George Utley on the “Newhart” TV series, has died. He succumbed Monday night at home after what family members call a ‘brief illness’.

The veteran character actor made his last big role his most famous, winning a new generation of fans, but he’d been around years before moving to a fictional Vermont inn.

Poston first came to prominence as one of the bit players on the original Tonight Show with Steve Allen, as part of the bizarre but hilarious ‘man on the street’ interview segments.

His roles on Broadway left him with the perfect ability to ad lib his way through everything and audiences loved him.

He would later gain fame all over again as a panelist on game shows in the 60s, especially “To Tell The Truth”, where his wit was frequently one of the highlights of the show.

“Newhart” was his last stint with the famous monologist-turned-sitcom star, but it wasn’t his only one. He’d also made several appearance on the original “Bob Newhart Show” playing a character named “The Peeper”, a practical joker and one of psychologist Dr. Bob Hartley’s best friends.

It was on that show that he met his wife, Suzanne Pleshette, who played Newhart’s fictional spouse Emily.

And it seemed like each successive decade brought Poston to a new audience. By the 70s, he’d moved on to the groundbreaking “Mork & Mindy,” where he played annoying dog owning neighbour Franklin Delano Bickley.

He wasn’t known as a film actor, but would often show up in some of the oddest places, including 1978’s “Rabbit Test” with Billy Crystal.

Other film credits include “Cold Turkey,” “The Happy Hooker,” “Christmas With the Kranks,” “Beethoven’s 5th” and “The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.”

But it was his stints with Newhart where he gained his greatest and longest lasting fame and his old cohort remembered him as a wonderful sidekick.

“Tom was always the ‘go-to guy’ on ‘Newhart’ in addition to being a good and longtime friend,” Newhart praised.

“How rare that a gentle, sweet person could be so incredibly funny,” Crystal relates. “I grew up watching Tom on ‘The Steve Allen Show’ as a kid. What an incredible gift to become friends with him and to learn about comedy from a true professional. He was a combination of Stan Laurel and Jack Benny. We will all miss him.”

Poston made his career playing bumblers and once conceded he could relate to all of them.

“In ways I don’t like to admit, I’m a goof-up myself,” he mused in 1983. “It’s an essential part of my character. When these guys screw up it reminds me of my own incompetence with the small frustrations of life.”

Poston leaves behind Pleshette and three children.

He was 85.

Photo credit: Frederick M. Brown for Getty Images