Ron Masak obit

Ron Masak, Sheriff Mort Metzger on ‘Murder, She Wrote,’ Dies at 86

He also starred opposite Vince Lombardi and The Monkees and, as 'The King of Commercials,' provided the voice for the animated stork in spots for Vlasic pickles.

 

 He was not on the list.

Ron Masak, the familiar character actor who as Cabot Cove Sheriff Mort Metzger was the beneficiary of Jessica Fletcher’s crime-solving prowess on the last eight seasons of Murder, She Wrote, has died. He was 86.

Masak died Thursday of natural causes at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, his granddaughter Kaylie Defilippis told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Chicago native appeared six times on Police Story, five times on Bewitched and four times on Webster and also showed up on everything from The Flying Nun, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeannie, Ironside and The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Magnum, P.I., The Rockford FIles, Columbo, Falcon Crest and Cold Case during his six-decade career.

In February 1960, the everyman actor portrayed a harmonica-playing soldier on “The Purple Testament,” the 19th episode of The Twilight Zone, and had a turn as a nutty Dracula-like count on The Monkees in 1968.

On the summer 1973 ABC sitcom Love Thy Neighbor, based on a hit British TV show, Masak and Joyce Bulifant portrayed a husband and wife who discover they’re not as open-minded as they thought when a Black couple (Harrison Page, Janet MacLachlan) move in next door.

Masak made his big-screen debut in the John Sturges espionage thriller Ice Station Zebra (1968), starring Rock Hudson and Ernest Borgnine, then appeared opposite George Hamilton in Evel Knievel (1971) and as a bartender and friend of Barbara Eden’s character in Harper Valley P.T.A. (1978).

A Hollywood columnist once dubbed Masak “The King of Commercials,” and he served for 15 years as a pitchman for Vlasic pickles, voicing the animated, bow-tied stork that sounds a lot like Groucho Marx.

After playing a couple of other characters on the series, Masak joined the Angela Lansbury-starring Murder, She Wrote in 1988 for its fifth season after the previous inept Cabot Cove sheriff, Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley), left Maine to live with his sister in Kentucky. (In reality, Bosley had departed to star on NBC’s Father Dowling Mysteries.)

He appeared as Metzger on 41 episodes of the CBS show through 1996, with his character — who had quit the New York Police Department in search of a quieter work life up north — driving around town in a red 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. 

Masak’s daughter Kathryn (one of his six kids) played Metzger’s deputy, Lynn Olsen, on a handful of episodes.

Ronald Alan Masak was born on July 1, 1936, and raised on the South Side of Chicago near Comiskey Park. His father, Floyd, was a salesman and musician and his mother, Mildred, a merchandise buyer.

“I was the class clown, I was the showoff in school,” he said in 2011. “I once had a teacher tell me if she could have stopped laughing at me, she would have failed me.”

Masak grew up wanting to be an athlete and at age 16 was scouted by baseball Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. He said the Chicago White Sox offered him a contract for $8,500, but he turned it down.

 

After graduating from Kelly High School, Masak, inspired by Larry Parks in The Jolson Story (1946), got into acting at Chicago City College and while serving as a military policeman in the U.S. Army.

He did lots of impersonations early in career, and in 1956 he sang “Hard Headed Woman” as Elvis Presley on The Spade Cooley Show.

In 1968, Masak portrayed an inexperienced salesman opposite legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi in the motivational short film Second Effort, and he went on to work on similar projects with James Whitmore, Burgess Meredith and Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda (1982’s Ya Gotta Believe, which he wrote and directed).

(A big fan of the Dodgers, Masak suited up as a catcher for Hollywood Stars games at Dodger Stadium for more than three decades, had season tickets for some 40 years and often drove players to the ballpark. Steve Garvey is the godfather of one of his kids and Steve Yeager was a neighbor.)

In the mid-’70s, Masak took over as the voice of the stork in the Vlasic commercials from Pat Harrington Jr., who had stepped aside after being hired to play handyman Dwayne Schneider on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time.

“I was doing my impression of Pat Harrington’s impression of Groucho Marx,” he said in a 2020 interview. “By the end of my run, I was just doing me with Groucho readings.”

He also did TV spots as Lou Costello and commercials for such products as Zenith televisions, Rice-a-Roni, Glad sandwich bags, Spray & Wash and Ford automobiles.

Masak had top billing in the 1974 family film The Man From Clover Grove, was a regular on Match Game and hosted Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons from Los Angeles for years.

He wrote about the interactions he had with famous folks over the decades in his 2015 book, I’ve Met All My Heroes From A to Z.

In addition to daughter Kathryn and granddaughter Kaylie, survivors include his wife, Kay, whom he married in September 1961; their other children Tammy, Debbie, Christine and twins Michael and Robert; nine other grandchildren; and two cousins, actors Michael and Mary Gross.

Masak said President George H.W. Bush once asked him just where Cabot Cove was. “I said, ‘Mr. President, it’s somewhere between Kennebunkport and Universal Studios.'”

Actor (122 credits)

  Quigley 2 (pre-production)

Grandpa Frank

  The Curse of the Gorgon (completed)

Ron

 2020 The Last Page of Summer

Dan (surfer)

 2018 Angels on Tap

Jud

 2015 The Bold and the Beautiful (TV Series)

Scott, Big Bear Caretaker

- Episode #1.7081 (2015) ... Scott, Big Bear Caretaker

 2014 My Trip Back to the Dark Side

Mr. James Griffin

 2012 Lose Yourself (Video)

Mr. Griffin

 2011 My Trip to the Dark Side (Video)

Mr. James Griffin

 2008 Cold Case (TV Series)

Gus Medica

- Pin Up Girl (2008) ... Gus Medica

 2006 American Dragon: Jake Long (TV Series)

Marty

- Family Business (2006) ... Marty (voice)

 2006 The Benchwarmers

Principal

 2005 Medal of Honor: European Assault (Video Game)

Vetaran Holt (voice)

 2002 The Stoneman

Detective Lt. J.D. Hill

 2000 The Thundering 8th

Spike Sills

 1998 No Code of Conduct

Julian Disanto

 1998 Columbo (TV Series)

Eddie Fenelle

- Ashes to Ashes (1998) ... Eddie Fenelle (as Ron Másak)

 1997 Snowden on Ice (TV Movie) (voice)

 1997 When Time Expires (TV Movie)

TV Evangelist, Thermot's Interface

 1996 Adventures of Nicholas at Roaring Camp (TV Movie)

Narrator (voice)

 1985-1996 Murder, She Wrote (TV Series)

Sheriff Mort Metzger / Marty Giles / Lt. Meyer

- What You Don't Know Can Kill You (1996) ... Sheriff Mort Metzger (as Ron Másak)

- Race to Death (1996) ... Sheriff Mort Metzger (as Ron Másak)

- Evidence of Malice (1996) ... Sheriff Mort Metzger (as Ron Másak)

- Murder in Tempo (1996) ... Sheriff Mort Metzger (as Ron Másak)

- Home Care (1995) ... Sheriff Mort Metzger (as Ron Másak)

1995 Cops n Roberts

Vince Palermo

 1991 They Came from Outer Space (TV Series)

Ron Smeckles

- Ads Are Us (1991) ... Ron Smeckles

 1989 Listen to Me

Monica's Father

 1988 Superman (TV Series short)

- Wildsharkk/To Play or Not to Play (1988) ... (voice)

 1986-1988 Webster (TV Series)

Woody / Woody Feldman

- The Painting (1988) ... Woody

- The Strike (1987) ... Woody

- Katherine the Brave (1987) ... Woody Feldman

- The Derby (1986) ... Woody

 1988 She's the Sheriff (TV Series)

The Governor

- New Year's Eve (1988) ... The Governor

 1987 Bustin' Loose (TV Series)

Sergeant McCall

- Rain, Rain, Go Away (1987) ... Sergeant McCall

 1987 The Law and Harry McGraw (TV Series)

Lt. Briggs

- Dead Men Don't Make Phone Calls (1987) ... Lt. Briggs

 1987 Starman (TV Series)

Henry Bridges

- Dusty (1987) ... Henry Bridges

 1986 The Real Ghostbusters (TV Series)

Slug / Toy Ghost

- Ghosts R Us (1986) ... Slug / Toy Ghost (voice, uncredited)

 1985 New Love, American Style (TV Series)

- Love and Passion Point

 1985 Remington Steele (TV Series)

Harry Cranston

- Forged Steele (1985) ... Harry Cranston

 1985 Falcon Crest (TV Series)

Doug Eberhart

- The Trial (1985) ... Doug Eberhart

 1985 Diff'rent Strokes (TV Series)

Ray Harris

- Sam's New Pal (1985) ... Ray Harris

 1976-1984 This Is the Life (TV Series)

Claude, 'The Clown'

- Little Boy Lost (1984)

- The Clown (1976) ... Claude, 'The Clown'

 1984 E/R (TV Series)

Rudy

- Mr. Fix-It (1984) ... Rudy

 1984 Jennifer Slept Here (TV Series)

Maloney

- Take, Jennifer Please (1984) ... Maloney

 1984 Masquerade (TV Series)

- Sleeper (1984)

 1984 The Yellow Rose (TV Series)

Johnny Tupeio

- Debt of Honor (1984) ... Johnny Tupeio

 1984 Goodnight, Beantown (TV Series)

Capt. Brolley

- Lost and Foundering (1984) ... Capt. Brolley

 1983 Heart Like a Wheel

Yankee Announcer Mel Allen (uncredited)

 1982 Meatballs and Spaghetti (TV Series)

Meatballs (1982) (voice)

 1982 The Neighborhood (TV Movie)

Nick Riccardo

 1982 The Kid from Nowhere (TV Movie)

Olympics Announcer

 1981 Private Benjamin (TV Series)

Sgt. Bender

- Undercover Judy (1981) ... Sgt. Bender

 1981 Jessica Novak (TV Series)

Sgt. Galvin

- Closeup News (1981) ... Sgt. Galvin

 1979-1981 Quincy M.E. (TV Series)

Dick Wilcox / Ed Shannon

- Sugar and Spice (1981) ... Dick Wilcox (as Ron Másak)

- The Death Challenge (1979) ... Ed Shannon

 1981 Magnum, P.I. (TV Series)

J.J. Stein

- Skin Deep (1981) ... J.J. Stein (as Ron Másak)

 1980 The Further Adventures of Wally Brown (TV Movie)

Warren Burdett

 1980 Police Story: Confessions of a Lady Cop (TV Movie)

Dimaggio

 1980 The Aliens Are Coming (TV Movie)

Harve Nelson

 1979 Eischied (TV Series)

Chuck Murray

- Friday's Child (1979) ... Chuck Murray

 1979 Supertrain (TV Series)

Fred

- Express to Terror (1979) ... Fred

 1979 Pleasure Cove (TV Movie)

Joe

 1978 Wonder Woman (TV Series)

Duane

- Skateboard Wiz (1978) ... Duane

 1978 Harper Valley P.T.A.

Herbie Maddox

 1978 The Bastard (TV Series) (voice, uncredited)

 1978 No Margin for Error (TV Movie)

Onorato

 1975-1978 Police Story (TV Series)

Chuck Onorato / Gino Panelli / Officer Jerry Toppazini / ...

- No Margin for Error (1978) ... Chuck Onorato

- End of the Line (1977) ... Gino Panelli

- Monster Manor (1976) ... Officer Jerry Toppazini

- Vice: 24 Hours (1975) ... Det. Vukouich

- Little Boy Lost (1975) ... Elgort

1978 Laserblast

Sheriff

 1978 Alice (TV Series)

J.W.

- The Eyes of Texas (1978) ... J.W.

 1977 The Rockford Files (TV Series)

Virgil Cheski

- Forced Retirement (1977) ... Virgil Cheski

 1977 The Banana Company (TV Movie)

Muldoon

 1977 The Feather and Father Gang (TV Series)

Arnold

- Welcome Home, Vince (1977) ... Arnold

 1977 In the Glitter Palace (TV Movie)

Fred Ruggiero

 1976 Barnaby Jones (TV Series)

Albert Woods

- Fraternity of Thieves (1976) ... Albert Woods

 1976 Once an Eagle (TV Mini Series)

Maynard Lambert

- Part 3 (1976) ... Maynard Lambert

 1976 Woman in the Rain

 1976 Jeremiah of Jacob's Neck (TV Movie)

Chief Tom Rankin

 1976 McNaughton's Daughter (TV Mini Series)

Sam Bacon

- The Smashed Lady (1976) ... Sam Bacon

 1976 Good Heavens (TV Series)

Buck

- Good Neighbor Maxine (1976) ... Buck

 1975 Lucky Lady (voice)

 1975 Barney Miller (TV Series)

Officer Shriker

- Horse Thief (1975) ... Officer Shriker

 1975 The Law (TV Mini Series)

Matt Lee

- Special Circumstances (1975) ... Matt Lee

- Prior Consent (1975) ... Matt Lee

- Complaint Amended (1975) ... Matt Lee

 1975 Police Woman (TV Series)

Pincus

- Sidewinder (1975) ... Pincus

 1974 Land of the Lost (TV Series)

Beauregard Jackson

- Hurricane (1974) ... Beauregard Jackson

 1974 Emergency! (TV Series)

Bob

- Camera Bug (1974) ... Bob

 1974 The Man from Clover Grove

Claude Raintree

 1974 Good Times (TV Series)

Sloane

- J.J. Becomes a Man: Part II: J.J. Is Arrested (1974) ... Sloane

 1970-1973 Love, American Style (TV Series)

Mr. Posniak (segment "Love and the Odd Couples") / Patrolman (segment "Love and the Love Nest") / Harve (segment "Love and the Wake-Up Girl") / ...

- Love and the Big Top/Love and the Locksmith/Love and the Odd Couples/Love and the Unwedding (1973) ... Mr. Posniak (segment "Love and the Odd Couples")

- Love and the Amateur Night/Love and the Cheaters/Love and the Love Nest/Love and the Unbearable Fiance (1972) ... Patrolman (segment "Love and the Love Nest")

- Love and the Detective/Love and the Guilty Conscience/Love and the Mixed Marriage/Love and the Wake-Up Girl (1971) ... Harve (segment "Love and the Wake-Up Girl")

- Love and the Banned Book/Love and the First-Nighters/Love and the King (1970) ... Charlie Burrows (segment "Love and the King")

 1973 Love Thy Neighbor (TV Series)

Charlie Wilson

- Charlies Charm (1973) ... Charlie Wilson

- The Minstrel Show (1973) ... Charlie Wilson

- Let's Have a Baby (1973) ... Charlie Wilson

- Take Two and Hit to Right (1973) ... Charlie Wilson

- The Grass Is Always Greener (1973) ... Charlie Wilson

1973 Medical Center (TV Series)

Anesthesiologist

- No Margin for Error (1973) ... Anesthesiologist

 1972 The Bob Newhart Show (TV Series)

Mike Mitchell

- P-I-L-O-T (1972) ... Mike Mitchell

 1972 The Delphi Bureau (TV Series)

- The Deadly Little Errand (1972)

 1972 Here Comes the Judge (TV Movie)

 1972 Heat of Anger (TV Movie)

Police Sergeant

 1972 Longstreet (TV Series)

Vic

- Through Shattering Glass (1972) ... Vic

 1971-1972 Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (TV Series)

Stan Krause

- The Color of Respect (1972) ... Stan Krause

- Men Who Care: Part 2 (1971) ... Stan Krause

 1972 Mannix (TV Series)

Barry Gates

- The Sound of Murder (1972) ... Barry Gates (uncredited)

 1971 Mission: Impossible (TV Series)

Ed Campbell

- Nerves (1971) ... Ed Campbell

 1971 Insight (TV Series)

Joe Salsa

- Crunch on Spruce Street (1971) ... Joe Salsa

 1971 McMillan & Wife (TV Series)

1st Policeman

- Husbands, Wives, and Killers (1971) ... 1st Policeman

 1971 Funny Face (TV Series)

Husband

- The Marrying Kind (1971) ... Husband

 1971 The Mary Tyler Moore Show (TV Series)

Ed Mims

- Didn't You Used to Be... Wait... Don't Tell Me (1971) ... Ed Mims

 1971 Marcus Welby, M.D. (TV Series)

Stan Krause

- Men Who Care (1971) ... Stan Krause

 1971 Ironside (TV Series)

Michaels

- The Priest Killer (1971) ... Michaels

 1971 The Marriage of a Young Stockbroker

1st Baseball Fan

 1971 Evel Knievel

Pete

 1971 The Young Lawyers (TV Series)

F.P. Expert

- And the Walls Came Tumbling Down (1971) ... F.P. Expert (uncredited)

 1971 Assault on the Wayne (TV Movie)

CPO Corky Schmidt

 1970 Nancy (TV Series)

Hawkins

- Budget, Budget, Who's Got the Budget? (1970) ... Hawkins

 1969-1970 Bewitched (TV Series)

Police Officer #2 / Clancey / Irving Bates, Sr. / ...

- Paul Revere Rides Again (1970) ... Clancey

- Samantha's Hot Bedwarmer (1970) ... Police Officer #2

- The Salem Saga (1970) ... Police Officer #2

- Just a Kid Again (1970) ... Irving Bates, Sr.

- Samantha's Power Failure (1969) ... Buck

 1970 Arnie (TV Series)

Gabe

- Change of a Lifetime (1970) ... Gabe

 1970 Tora! Tora! Tora!

Lt. Laurence Ruff - USS Nevada

 1970 Nanny and the Professor (TV Series)

Frankie

- I Think That I Shall Never See a Tree (1970) ... Frankie

 1969 Vernon's Volunteers (TV Movie)

 1969 Mayberry R.F.D. (TV Series)

Jim

- Goober and the Telephone Girl (1969) ... Jim

 1969 A Time for Dying

Sam - the Bartender

 1969 Daddy's Gone A-Hunting

Paul Fleming (uncredited)

 1968-1969 I Dream of Jeannie (TV Series)

MacWhorter / Joe

- Jeannie and the Secret Weapon (1969) ... MacWhorter

- Genie, Genie, Who's Got the Genie?: Part 4 (1968) ... Joe

 1968 Second Effort

Ron

 1968 The Good Guys (TV Series)

Andy Gardner

- Nostradamus Rides Again (1968)

- Let 'Em Eat Rolls (1968) ... Andy Gardner

 1968 Get Smart (TV Series)

Schlermer

- The Worst Best Man (1968) ... Schlermer

 1968 Ice Station Zebra

Paul Zabrinczski

 1968 Premiere (TV Series)

Sergeant Ford

- Walk in the Sky (1968) ... Sergeant Ford

 1968 The Flying Nun (TV Series)

Mike

- Where There's a Will (1968) ... Mike

 1967-1968 The Second Hundred Years (TV Series)

Cop

- Shine On, Harvest Moonshine (1968) ... Cop

- Oh Dad, Oh Dad (1967) ... Cop

 1968 The Monkees (TV Series)

The Count

- Monstrous Monkee Mash (1968) ... The Count

- Fairy Tale (1968) ... The Count

 1964 Handling Marital Conflicts (Short)

Mr. Addams (uncredited)

 1960 The Twilight Zone (TV Series)

Harmonica Man

- The Purple Testament (1960) ... Harmonica Man

 1959 Police Station (TV Series)

- Episode #1.1 (1959)

 1957 The Spade Cooley Show (TV Series)

Self as Elvis (1958)