He was Paul Lynde without the venom, and out there in as many ways when his Claymore Gregg on The Ghost & Mrs. Muir was up against Lynde's Uncle Arthur on Bewitched. From his wild, double entendre appearances on The Match Game and Hollywood Squares and The Tonight Show in the Seventies to his later roles in The X-Files, The Drew Carey Show and SpongeBob SquarePants-- to Alec Baldwin's great imitation on Saturday Night Live-- Charles Nelson Reilly was one of television's cheerful subversive anarchists-- and a fine actor and director to boot.
Word comes that he died Friday at 76.
It's just too bad that the gossip site TMZ chose to note his passing with the same smirky kissoff they offered Jerry Falwell. Especially since he helped make the world safe for their smarmy double entendre riffs...
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