The Man From UNCLE Episode 34 Guest Star: Harvey Lembeck

- June 30, 2020

Harvey Lembeck (April 15, 1923 – January 5, 1982) was an American comedic actor best remembered for his role as Cpl. Rocco Barbella on The Phil Silvers Show (a.k.a. Sgt. Bilko , a.k.a. You'll Never Get Rich) in the late 1950s, and as the stumbling, overconfident quasi-outlaw biker Eric Von Zipper in beach party films during the 1960s. He also turned in noteworthy performances in both the stage and screen versions of Stalag 17. He was the father of actor and director Michael Lembeck and actress Helaine Lembeck.

As Eric Von Zipper

Born in Brooklyn, Lembeck started his career right out of New Utrecht High School, as a dancer at the 1939/40 New York World's Fair. He was half of an exhibition dance team known as The Dancing Carrolls. His partner, Caroline Dubs, became his wife.

Two weeks after graduation, Lembeck won the role of Sam Insigna in Mister Roberts, which he played on Broadway for nearly three years. Lembeck made three films for 20th Century Fox, You're in the Navy Now, Fourteen Hours, and The Frogmen, all released in the first half of 1951. He went back to Broadway as Sgt. Harry Shapiro in Stalag 17, subsequently playing the same role in the film version directed by Billy Wilder, earning the Theater Owners of America's Laurel Award for outstanding comedy performance and best possibility for stardom. From 1952 to 1954 Lembeck also made nine other films, mostly playing military roles.

The Discotheque Affair

He co-starred with Steve McQueen in Love with the Proper Stranger and then spent part of the early 1960s playing the lovable bad guy malaprop Eric Von Zipper in six American International beach party films, with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. (He did not appear in the second "beach" film, 1964's Muscle Beach Party.) The Von Zipper character, leader of the Rat Pack motorcycle gang, was a parody of Marlon Brando's role in The Wild One (Von Zipper reveals in Beach Blanket Bingo that one of his idols was "Marlo Brandon".) Among other things, Von Zipper pronounced his judgments on others by saying "Him, I like", or "Him, I do not like". In 1964 he also co-starred with Debbie Reynolds in The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

During the late 1960s and 1970s, Lembeck became a mainstay on television, making over 200 guest appearances, including Ben Casey, Mr. Novak, The Munsters, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Route 66, The Monkees, Night Gallery, It Takes a Thief, The Partridge Family, Chico and the Man, Vega$, All in the Family, Batman and Mork and Mindy.

Lembeck continued to perform and teach acting up until his death from a heart attack on January 5, 1982. He was performing in an episode of Mork and Mindy when he took ill, collapsed as he was leaving the set and died. He was age 58. In an interview taped shortly before his own death in 1985, Phil Silvers said he was shocked and saddened by the untimely death of his friend Lembeck, and missed him terribly.

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