LOS ANGELES – Peter Marshall, the actor and singer turned game show host who played straight man to the stars for 16 years on “The Hollywood Squares,” has died. He was 98.
He died Thursday of kidney failure at his home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, publicist Harlan Boll said.
Marshall helped define the form of the smooth, professional, but never-too-serious modern game show host on more than 5,000 episodes of the series that ran on NBC from 1966 to 1981.
But he was often closer to a talk show host, and the tic-tac-toe game the contestants played, while real, was all an excuse for a good time. The questions Marshall posed to regulars like Paul Lynde, George Gobel, and Joan Rivers were designed to be set-ups for joke answers before the real ones followed.
“The Hollywood Squares” would become an American cultural institution and make Marshall a household name. It would win four Daytime Emmys for the outstanding game show during his run and spawned dozens of international versions and several U.S. reboots.
Marshall had a warm rapport with Weaver, Lynde, and others, but said that Gobel, the wry comedian, actor, and variety show host, held a special place, tweeting in 2021 that it’s “no secret he was my closest friend on Hollywood Squares and my absolute all-time favorite Square!”
Marshall had lived nearly an entire show business life before he took the “Squares” podium at age 40.
He had toured with big bands starting as a teenager, had been a part of two comedy teams that appeared in nightclubs and on television, appeared in movies as a contract player for Twentieth Century Fox, and had sung in several Broadway musicals when the opportunity came up after Bert Parks, who hosted the pilot, bowed out.
After “The Hollywood Squares,” Marshall would host a few other short-lived game shows, but mostly resumed his career as a singing actor, starring in more than 800 performances of “La Cage Aux Folles” on Broadway and on tour, and singing in the 1983 film version of “Annie.”
He was married three times, the last to Laurie Stewart in 1989.
The couple survived a bout with COVID-19 early in 2021. He was hospitalized for several weeks.
His four kids include son Pete LaCock, a professional baseball player for the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals. Marshall is also survived by daughters Suzanne and Jaime, son David, 12 grandchildren, and nine great-great-grandchildren.
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