Elliott Reid obit

Elliott "Ted" Reid. RIP

Elliott "Ted" Reid passed away last night. He was 93.


Elliott Reid, best known for his roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Absent-Minded Professor, died Friday at the age of 93.

He passed away from heart failure at the assisted-living facility in Studio City, Calif., where he lived, his nephew told the Los Angeles Times.


Reid starred opposite Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and alongside Fred MacMurray in The Absent-Minded Professor.

He also had roles in Son of Flubber and Inherit the Wind and appeared in episodes of I Love Lucy, Perry Mason and Murder, She Wrote, among others.

Reid even impersonated John F. Kennedy at a 1962 dinner with the president in the audience. JFK was reportedly "convulsed" by the performance.

Reid was born Edgeworth Blair Reid on Jan. 16, 1920, in New York City, later taking "Elliott" as his stage name.


A member of The Actors Studio from its inception,[3] Reid was a regular in NBC television's That Was the Week That Was (1964–1965) and made guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote, The Odd Couple, I Love Lucy, Barney Miller, Small Wonder, Perry Mason, and The Munsters.

In 1992 Reid appeared in the season three Seinfeld episode "The Letter", as one of the collectors considering buying a painting of Kramer. Reid's final television role was as Henry on the episode "Please Re-Lease Me" of the television sitcom Maybe This Time. He retired in 1995, but returned for an uncredited role as Miguel in the 2000 short film Scattering Mother and the role of Buddy in the feature film adaptation of the same name in 2005.

Selected filmography



The Ramparts We Watch (1940) — Ralph Gilchrist

Young Ideas (1943) — Jeff Evans

The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) — William 'Andy' Anderson

A Double Life (1947) — Actor in 'A Gentleman's Gentleman'

Sierra (1950) — Duke Lafferty

The Whip Hand (1951) — Matt Corbin

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) — Ernie Malone

Vicki (1953) — Steve Christopher

Woman's World (1954) — Tony Andrews

Inherit the Wind (1960) — Prosecutor Tom Davenport

The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) — Professor Shelby Ashton

Son of Flubber (1963) — Prof. Shelby Ashton

The Thrill of It All (1963) — Mike Palmer

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) — Dr. Chadwick (voice, uncredited)

The Wheeler Dealers (1963) — Leonard

Move Over, Darling (1963) — Dr. Herman Schlick

Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed? (1963) — Tom Edwards

Follow Me, Boys! (1966) — Ralph Hastings

Blackbeard's Ghost (1968) — TV Commentator

Some Kind of a Nut (1969) — Gardner Anderson

Heaven Can Wait (1978) — Waiter (uncredited)

Young Einstein (1988) — Asylum Guard