Dolph Sweet

Adolphus Jean Sweet, known professionally as Dolph Sweet, was born on July 18, 1920, and grew up in Northport, New York. An American actor, he accumulated nearly 60 television and film roles and more than 50 stage credits over the course of his career, with Broadway appearances spanning from 1961 to 1976. He is perhaps best remembered for playing police chief and father Carl Kanisky on the NBC sitcom Gimme a Break!, a role he held from 1981 until his death on May 8, 1985.

Sweet began his studies at the University of Alabama in 1939 before interrupting them to serve in World War II. He flew as a second lieutenant and navigator on B-24 Liberator bombers with the 44th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the Eighth Air Force. His aircraft was shot down over Romania during Operation Tidal Wave, and he spent two years as a prisoner of war. During his captivity, he participated in short plays staged by fellow prisoners, an experience that ignited his interest in acting. After the war, he played semi-professional football and boxed while completing a master's degree in English and comparative drama at Columbia University. He also married Reba Gillespie during this period; the couple had a son, Jonathon, born around 1952, before divorcing in 1973. In 1974, Sweet married Iris Braun.

Following graduation, Sweet joined the faculty at Barnard College, where he taught for twelve years and eventually led the drama department. He made his Broadway debut at age 40 in a 1961 production of Rhinoceros starring Zero Mostel, departing his teaching position shortly afterward. His Broadway career continued through 1976 and included productions such as Billy, Streamers, The Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window, The Penny Wars, and The Natural Law. That same year as his stage debut, he landed his first significant film role in The Young Doctors.

Throughout the 1960s, Sweet appeared in films including You're a Big Boy Now (1966), A Lovely Way to Die (1968), The Swimmer (1968), and Finian's Rainbow (1968), while also building a television presence on series such as The Defenders, The Edge of Night, Another World, and Dark Shadows. He had a recurring role as a policeman during the single 1965–66 season of the legal drama-comedy The Trials of O'Brien. Playing law enforcement figures became a recurring pattern in his work across both film and television.

His film output continued steadily into the 1970s with appearances in Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970), The Out-of-Towners (1970), The New Centurions (1972), Fear Is the Key (1972), Sisters (1972), Cops and Robbers (1973), The Lords of Flatbush (1974), Amazing Grace (1974), The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training (1977), Which Way Is Up? (1977), Go Tell the Spartans (1978), Heaven Can Wait (1978), and The Wanderers (1979). He also voiced the transit-police captain Costello in the 1974 film The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and played recurring character Gil McGowan, a policeman, on the soap opera Another World from 1972 to 1977. A notable television credit from this period was his portrayal of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in the 1978 miniseries King, based on the life of Martin Luther King Jr. He also made guest appearances on Little House on the Prairie and Mrs. Columbo.

As the 1980s began, Sweet appeared in Below the Belt (1980), the television film Gideon's Trumpet (1980), and Reds (1981), along with television series including Hill Street Blues and Hart to Hart. His most prominent role of the decade, and of his career, was Carl Kanisky on Gimme a Break!, the employer of housekeeper Nell Carter's character. Sweet was diagnosed with stomach cancer during the show's fourth season following unsuccessful abdominal surgery in the summer of 1984, but he continued working through his illness. He died at Tarzana Hospital in Tarzana, California, on May 8, 1985, survived by his wife and son. The fourth season's final episode aired on May 11, three days after his death and just hours after his funeral, at which co-star Nell Carter delivered the eulogy. Carter also recorded a brief eulogy that aired at the start of that same episode. Sweet's ashes were scattered at sea.