American actor (1931-2007). Born in
New York City, he began a long career on
Broadway in the
1950s, appearing in "
Hello, Dolly" and "
Bye Bye Birdie" and getting nominated for a
Tony Award for his work in "
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." He also got work in
television, appearing on "
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," "
The Golddiggers," "
Arnie," and as a
regular on
Steve Lawrence's
variety show. He also starred in
Sid and Marty Krofft's
trippy "
Lidsville" on
Saturday morning TV.
In 1973, Reilly got
famous, thanks to a
gig on a
game show called "
Match Game." The main point of "Match Game" was that the
host,
Gene Rayburn (who, as
coincidence would have it, Reilly had met years ago when he
understudied for him in "Bye Bye Birdie"), would ask a
celebrity panel to
fill in the blank in a
joke. There were other
rules, of course, but the main purpose of the
game was to get celebrities to make
corny and/or
racy jokes. Reilly was pretty good at this, and his on-screen
personality as a pseudo-
snooty put-down artist (usually sparring with
Brett Somers) quickly made him the
star of the program. Reilly was one of very, very few openly
gay television performers in those days -- it may have affected his ability to get other TV roles, but it didn't dent his popularity on "Match Game" a bit. He stayed with the game show for nine years and even returned during the show's brief
revival in 1990. In addition, his popularity on "Match Game" got him on
Johnny Carson's "
Tonight Show" almost a hundred times.
Reilly spent some time working as a
Broadway director in 2001, but he's best known for his various
guest appearances on television shows, particularly as the
quirky author Jose Chung on the
hilarious "
Jose Chung's From Outer Space" episode of "
The X-Files."
Reilly died of complications from
pneumonia in late May of 2007.
Research from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) and from http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/Set/7880/MG/BioChuck.html)