Tige Andrews

Tige Andrews, born Tiger Androwas on March 19, 1920, in Brooklyn, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across more than four decades. He died of cardiac arrest on January 27, 2007, at his home in Encino, California, at the age of 86.

Andrews was one of ten children born to George E. Androwas and Selma Androwas, whose parents had immigrated from the region now comprising Syria and Lebanon. Following Syrian custom, his parents gave him the name Tiger to promote good health. His mother died when he was three years old, and after his father remarried, the family relocated to Middlesex, New Jersey, where Andrews graduated from Bound Brook High School. His father operated a fruit business, and Andrews worked for him during that period. He later attended classes at the University of Beirut medical school before his path shifted toward military service and eventually the performing arts.

During World War II, Andrews served with the United States Army's 45th Infantry Division, attaining the rank of second lieutenant. He received a medical discharge in 1944 after sustaining injuries when his ship sank in the Mediterranean. Following his discharge, he married Josephine Phillips that same year. He subsequently enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, graduating in 1946.

Andrews made his Broadway debut in 1948 as a member of the original cast of Mister Roberts, the war comedy written by Thomas Heggen and Joshua Logan, in which he played the roles of Schlemmer and Insigna. He went on to appear in two additional Broadway productions, Stockade and Threepenny Opera, with his Broadway career spanning from 1948 to 1955. He changed his stage name from Tiger to Tige in 1954. Director John Ford attended a performance of Mister Roberts during a visit to New York and later cast Andrews in the 1955 film adaptation, making Andrews and Henry Fonda the only members of the original Broadway cast to appear in the film.

Also in 1955, Andrews earned critical recognition for his portrayal of the Streetsinger in the off-Broadway revival of The Threepenny Opera, performed in Marc Blitzstein's translation of the Brecht-Weill musical. The production featured German star Lotte Lenya alongside an ensemble that included Beatrice Arthur, Jo Sullivan, John Astin, Jerry Orbach, Ed Asner, and Jerry Stiller. Andrews reprised the role in productions in San Francisco and Los Angeles and subsequently directed the show in Arizona.

On television, Andrews became a recognizable presence beginning in the mid-1950s. He appeared as a cast member of The Phil Silvers Show from 1955 to 1957, billed as Tiger Andrews. His guest appearances across the following decade included roles on U.S. Marshal, The Lawless Years, The Fugitive, Gunsmoke, Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C., The Big Valley, Mr. Novak, and Dundee and the Culhane. He also appeared in the Star Trek episode "Friday's Child" as the Klingon character Kras, the first Klingon character to die in the series.

His most prominent television roles were Lieutenant Johnny Russo on the ABC crime drama The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor and Captain Adam Greer on The Mod Squad, also on ABC. For his work on The Mod Squad, Andrews received nominations for both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, and won a Logie Award. He reunited with his Mod Squad cast members for the 1979 television film The Return of Mod Squad, which marked the cast's final appearance together. After the series concluded, he continued making guest appearances on programs including Kojak, Marcus Welby M.D., Police Story, CHiPs, and Murder She Wrote.

Andrews's film credits included Onionhead in 1958, A Private's Affair in 1959, In Enemy Country in 1968, The Last Tycoon in 1976, and Raid on Entebbe in 1977, in which he portrayed Shimon Peres. He retired from acting in the early 1990s, having accumulated more than one hundred roles across stage, film, and television.

Beyond performing, Andrews was a painter whose work was exhibited in Los Angeles art galleries and included in the book Actors As Artists by Jim McMullan and Dick Gautier. He also collaborated with Sandy Matlowsky and Sid Kuller on two original songs released as a vinyl 45 single on his Tiger Records label in Los Angeles, with "The Modfather" and "Keep America Beautiful" as the A and B sides respectively.

In 1950, Andrews married Norma Thornton, a ballerina who appeared regularly on The Ed Sullivan Show and in the Broadway production of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Together they had six children — Barbara, Gina, Julie, John, Steve, and Tony — and eleven grandchildren. Norma Thornton Andrews died in 1996.