Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 20, 1924. Callas served in the United States Army during World War II. He began his career as a drummer playing in groups with Tommy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, and Buddy Rich.

The comedian and actor was most commonly known for his work with Mel Brooks, Jerry Lewis, and Dean Martin and his many stand-up appearances on television talk shows in the 1970s.
Appearing on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show in 1967, one of the guests, Jerry Lewis, practically fell off his chair in hysterics as Callas performed his hunting routine. Lewis turned to Griffin and said he had to use Callas in his current project. The one appearance on the Griffin show landed Callas a role in Lewis' film, The Big Mouth. Lewis recalled the story on his short lived 1984 talk show in which Callas served as his sidekick and performed the hunting routine.


Familiar from his many appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson (from which he was eventually permanently banned by Carson himself, on air, for shoving Carson in a desperate attempt to generate laughs while bombing), he is known for his rubbery face, trademark nervous chattering and dark comedy. He appeared on The Andy Williams Show at various times as "Captain Weird", a parody of superheroes. Aside from comedy, his only known dramatic role was that of a restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, in the popular 1970s show, Switch. He was also a regular performer on The ABC Comedy Hour in 1972.

Instead of a quote from Mr. Callas I sugest you play the above vidoos and enjoy all of his great sound effects.

Good Night Mr. Callas

Stay Tuned

Tony Figueroa