Actor who played diner patron on TV show ‘Alice’

Veteran actor Marvin Kaplan has died at 89.

Best known for his recurring role on the sitcom “Alice,” which ran from 1976 to 1985, Mr. Kaplan died Friday in Burbank, Calif., where he lived, said John Gallogly, executive director of Theatre West, with which Mr. Kaplan was associated.

Besides his portrayal on “Alice” of Henry, a telephone linesman and frequent patron of Mel’s Diner, Mr. Kaplan voiced the character Choo-Choo in the 1960s cartoon series “Top Cat.”

More recently, he made several appearances on the Ted Danson comedy "Becker."

Other credits include the 1963 film “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” in which he and fellow actor Arnold Stang played owners of a gas station that Jonathan Winters hilariously destroyed during a slapstick brawl. He also was in the 1965 Blake Edwards comedy “The Great Race.”

The IMDb website described him as a stocky, bespectacled comic actor with a distinctive nasal Brooklyn voice. Mr. Kaplan was discovered by Katharine Hepburn while performing in a play, and she got him a role in the 1949 film “Adam’s Rib.”

The New York native also was a regular on the sitcom “Meet Millie,” which first aired on radio and was also seen on television from 1952-55. He later served as AFTRA Los Angeles local president for eight years.