Peter Marshall, longtime host of 'The Hollywood Squares,' dies at 98

NEW YORK, NY.- Peter Marshall, who coaxed cheeky rejoinders from celebrities such as Burt Reynolds, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers and Paul Lynde as the longtime host of “The Hollywood Squares,” for years one of the most popular game shows on television, died Thursday at his home in Encino, California. He was 98.

His wife of 35 years, Laurie Marshall, said the cause was kidney failure.

Marshall, an actor, singer and comedian with an authoritative baritone, hosted “The Hollywood Squares” from 1966 until 1981. The show brought him four Daytime Emmy Awards.

“The Hollywood Squares,” which stuffed celebrity guests and risque humor into a daytime game show, was a variation on tic-tac-toe, played by two contestants on a set that featured a grid of nine squares rising above the stage, with a celebrity guest seated in each square.

A contestant would choose a square, Marshall would ask the star inside it a question and the star would usually respond with a quip — a zinger, in the show’s parlance — before giving a serious answer. The contestant would then tell Marshall whether he or she thought the star had answered correctly, and the square would be won if the contestant was right. The first contestant to complete a line won the game; the first to win two games won cash and prizes.

The center square was reserved for the funniest celebrity; comedian Lynde occupied it for much of the show’s run.

Among the show’s regular cast were Wally Cox, Rose Marie and Cliff Arquette, in character as Charley Weaver. Guest stars included actors Gene Hackman and Gloria Swanson; comedians Andy Kaufman and Redd Foxx; baseball stars Mickey Mantle and Henry Aaron; and musical performers such as Dolly Parton and Alice Cooper.

As Marshall noted in his memoir, “Backstage With the Original Hollywood Square” (2002), written with Adrienne Armstrong, some contestants became celebrities themselves. Naomi Judd, a young single mother from Kentucky, appeared on “The Hollywood Squares” before she teamed up with her daughter Wynonna to sing country music.

Running back O.J. Simpson, who had recently won the Heisman Trophy at the University of Southern California, was also a contestant. He was the only contestant to later appear on the show as a celebrity.

Marshall played the straight man to his comic co-stars. He recalled that the show’s producers, Bob Quigley and Merrill Heatter, had said they prized one quality in particular when they sought a host: “‘We’re looking for a complete nonentity,’ they told me. ‘Well, look no further,’ I said, and they offered me an audition.”

Marshall maintained that answers were never provided to contestants or celebrities in advance, as they had been during the quiz show scandals of the 1950s. He did admit, however, that questions were tailored to fit a particular star’s expertise or comic sensibility, and that jokes, or at least the outlines of them, were prepared for the less-hilarious celebrities.

A week’s worth of shows were taped in one evening, and between tapings, cast members enjoyed a boozy dinner, creating a more insouciant atmosphere on the set. The condensed schedule left Marshall time to work in Las Vegas and appear in the touring companies of musicals such as “The Music Man” and “Guys and Dolls” during the summer.

Many of the show’s best zingers were collected on a CD that accompanied Marshall’s memoir. A typical exchange went like this:

“True or false,” Marshall asked Lynde. “Some airlines now give you a thorough frisking before permitting you to board the plane.”

“That’s the only reason I fly,” Lynde replied.

And another, between Marshall and Rivers:

“Is it a good sign if your man loves animals?” he asked.

“Not to excess,” she replied.

“The Hollywood Squares” was wildly popular throughout the late 1960s and ’70s, with episodes syndicated in prime time for virtually all of the ’70s.

But in 1976, NBC switched the show’s daytime time slot, which hurt ratings. After four moves in as many years, NBC canceled the show in 1980 to make room for an experimental daytime program, “The David Letterman Show.”

Letterman’s show proved unpopular with daytime audiences and was soon canceled. Marshall did not return to NBC, but he continued to host the syndicated “Hollywood Squares” for a year before it left the air.

Peter Marshall was born Ralph Pierre LaCock on March 30, 1926, in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and lived in Wheeling until he was 10, when his father, a pharmacist also named Ralph, died.

Marshall stayed with his extended family in Huntington, West Virginia, while his sister, Letitia, moved to New York City with their mother, Jeanne LaCock, a costume designer. His mother got a job at Macy’s, and his sister became a model under the name Joanne Marshall. Marshall joined them, and by 14, he was working nights as an usher at the Paramount Theater in Times Square.

He also worked as a page at NBC radio, where he learned how to be a disc jockey and got his first job in show business, as a singer with Bob Chester’s band, when he was still a teenager. According to an account in The Huntington Quarterly, the bandleader suggested that Marshall change his name from LaCock, so he adopted his sister’s modeling surname. (His sister later took the name Joanne Dru and became a successful actress before marrying singer Dick Haymes.)

Marshall graduated from high school in West Virginia before his singing career was interrupted by the draft in 1944; he was sent to Italy and became a DJ on an Army radio station.

After he was discharged, his sister’s second husband, actor John Ireland, introduced him to actor and comedian Tommy Noonan, his half brother. Together they started a comedy act, Noonan and Marshall, and performed in nightclubs and theaters, on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and in a few feature films, notably the military comedy “The Rookie” (1959), in which they starred. Marshall’s experience as Noonan’s straight man would prove invaluable training for “The Hollywood Squares.”

Noonan and Marshall abandoned their act to focus on their solo careers in the early 1960s, and Marshall began performing in musicals. He played Albert (the role originated on Broadway by Dick Van Dyke) to Chita Rivera’s Rose in the original London production of “Bye Bye Birdie” in 1961.

In 1965, he starred in the Broadway musical “Skyscraper” with Julie Harris. Quigley and Heatter contacted him about hosting “The Hollywood Squares” soon after the musical ended its run in 1966.

Marshall’s first two marriages, to Nadene Teaford and actress Sally Carter, ended in divorce. He married Laurie Stewart in 1989. In addition to her, his survivors include three children from his first marriage, Suzanne Browning, Jaime Dimarco and Pete LaCock, a former major league baseball player; 12 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. Another son, David LaCock, died in 2021.

Marshall’s career did not end with “The Hollywood Squares.” He returned to the stage in the 1980s as Georges in “La Cage aux Folles,” first in the national company and then on Broadway, and starred in a televised version of “H.M.S. Pinafore” with the London Symphony Orchestra.

He also appeared in the 1982 film version of “Annie” and on TV shows such as “The Love Boat,” “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.” He released two albums of jazz standards and hosted an online radio show playing music of the big-band era.

Marshall hosted other game shows, including “All-Star Blitz” on ABC and “Fantasy” on NBC, but none had the longevity of “The Hollywood Squares,” which has been resurrected several times, most recently from 1998 to 2004, with Tom Bergeron as the host.

Later revivals of the format have included MTV 2’s short-lived “Hip-Hop Squares,” which featured rappers such as Ghostface Killah; the country-music-themed “Nashville Squares”; and, most recently, “Celebrity Squares” on BET.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.