Ned Glass

Nusyn "Ned" Glass was born on April 1, 1906, in Radom, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, into a Jewish family. He emigrated to the United States at an early age, grew up in New York City, and attended City College. He died on June 15, 1984, at Encino Hospital in Encino, California, at the age of 78, following a long illness.

Glass built his early career in vaudeville before transitioning to the stage. His Broadway work spanned from 1931 to 1956 and included the Elmer Rice drama Counsellor-at-Law, the play Between Two Worlds, and the farce The Hot Corner. He continued acting and directing on Broadway until 1936, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signed him as a contract player.

His film career began in 1937 with an uncredited role in True Confession, followed by his first credited screen appearances in two episodes of the serial Dick Tracy Returns in 1938. Glass became a regular presence at Columbia Pictures' short subjects department, where he worked frequently with directors Jules White and Del Lord. White featured him in the Three Stooges short Nutty But Nice in 1940 and paired him with Buster Keaton in the 1939 short Mooching Through Georgia. Glass also appeared in the Stooges shorts Three Little Sew and Sews, From Nurse to Worse, and You Nazty Spy! in 1939 and 1940, I'll Never Heil Again in 1941, and later in Hokus Pokus, Three Hams on Rye, and Flagpole Jitters between 1949 and 1956. A neighbor of Moe Howard in Toluca Lake, Glass was the subject of a myth that Howard arranged his casting in Stooges films; in fact, Howard had little to no input into casting decisions. Glass did not appear in any films released between 1942 and 1947, possibly due to military service. He was also reportedly briefly blacklisted, during which period he worked as a carpenter. He appeared uncredited in the 1952 film The Bad and the Beautiful as the costumer for a film-within-a-film called The Doom of the Cat Men.

Among the highlights of his film work, Glass played a railroad ticket agent in Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest in 1959, Doc the drugstore owner in West Side Story in 1961, a character named Popcorn in Blake Edwards's Experiment in Terror in 1962, and the antagonist Leopold W. Gideon in Stanley Donen's Charade in 1963. Additional film credits included Kid Galahad, Who's Got the Action?, Papa's Delicate Condition, Blindfold, A Big Hand for the Little Lady, The Fortune Cookie, Blackbeard's Ghost, Never a Dull Moment, The Love Bug, Lady Sings the Blues, Save the Tiger, and The All-American Boy. His final film appearance came in the low-budget comedy Street Music in 1981. Over the course of his career, Glass appeared in more than eighty films. Physically distinctive, he was short and bald, with a slight hunch to his shoulders, a nasal voice, and a pronounced New York City accent, qualities that led him to be cast frequently as nervous, cowardly, or deceitful characters.

Glass's television career began in 1952 with an appearance on The Red Skelton Show and ultimately encompassed more than one hundred television credits. He was a recurring presence on CBS, appearing in Jackie Gleason's Honeymooners sketches and in nine episodes of Gunsmoke, at times in the recurring role of a townsman named Husk. From 1955 to 1958, he played Sgt. Andy Pendleton on You'll Never Get Rich, better known as The Phil Silvers Show. He appeared in the syndicated western Boots and Saddles in 1957, as well as in Sheriff of Cochise, The Rebel, and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Glass guest-starred in the NBC sitcom The People's Choice, CBS's Angel, and ABC's Guestward, Ho!, and in 1963 appeared in an episode of the CBS series Glynis. He played Stephens' milkman in a 1966 episode of Bewitched and appeared in two episodes of The Fugitive that same year. In 1967 he appeared in an episode of The Monkees as fight promoter Joey Sholto, and in 1970 played convicted forger Freddie the Forger in an episode of NBC's Get Smart. His most sustained television role was Sol Cooper on the Diahann Carroll series Julia, which he played from 1968 to 1971; his performance in the episode "A Little Chicken Soup Never Hurt Anybody" earned him an Emmy Award nomination in 1969. He also played Uncle Moe Plotnick on Bridget Loves Bernie from 1972 to 1973, and appeared in two episodes of Barney Miller, in 1975 and 1981. His final television appearance was as a pickpocket on Cagney & Lacey in 1982.

In his personal life, Glass was married to actress Kitty McHugh, a sister of character actor Frank McHugh and bit player Matt McHugh. Kitty died by suicide on September 3, 1954. Glass subsequently married actress Jean Burton, though that marriage ended in divorce.