Ted Knight (December 7, 1923 â€" August 26, 1986) was an American
actor and voice artist well known for playing the comedic roles of Ted
Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for
Comfort, and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.Knight was born Tadeusz
Wladyslaw Konopka in the Terryville section of Plymouth in Litchfield
County, Connecticut, to Polish-American parents, Sophia (Kavaleski)
and Charles Walter Konopka, a bartender. Knight dropped out of high
school to enlist in the United States Army in World War II along with
his best childhood friend Bernard P. Dzielinski (also from
Terryville). He was a member of A Company, 296th Combat Engineer
Battalion, earning five battle stars while serving in the European
Theatre.During the postwar years, Knight studied acting in Hartford,
Connecticut. He became proficient with puppets and ventriloquism,
which led to steady work as a television kiddie-show host at WJAR-TV
in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1950 to 1955. In 1955, he left
Providence for Albany, New York, where he landed a job at station
WROW-TV (now WTEN), hosting The Early Show, featuring MGM movies; and
a kids' variety show, playing a "Gabby Hayes" type character named
"Windy Knight". He was also a radio announcer for sister station WROW
radio. He left the station in 1957 after receiving advice from station
manager (and future Capital Cities Chairman) Thomas Murphy that he
should take his talents to Hollywood.
actor and voice artist well known for playing the comedic roles of Ted
Baxter in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Henry Rush in Too Close for
Comfort, and Judge Elihu Smails in Caddyshack.Knight was born Tadeusz
Wladyslaw Konopka in the Terryville section of Plymouth in Litchfield
County, Connecticut, to Polish-American parents, Sophia (Kavaleski)
and Charles Walter Konopka, a bartender. Knight dropped out of high
school to enlist in the United States Army in World War II along with
his best childhood friend Bernard P. Dzielinski (also from
Terryville). He was a member of A Company, 296th Combat Engineer
Battalion, earning five battle stars while serving in the European
Theatre.During the postwar years, Knight studied acting in Hartford,
Connecticut. He became proficient with puppets and ventriloquism,
which led to steady work as a television kiddie-show host at WJAR-TV
in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1950 to 1955. In 1955, he left
Providence for Albany, New York, where he landed a job at station
WROW-TV (now WTEN), hosting The Early Show, featuring MGM movies; and
a kids' variety show, playing a "Gabby Hayes" type character named
"Windy Knight". He was also a radio announcer for sister station WROW
radio. He left the station in 1957 after receiving advice from station
manager (and future Capital Cities Chairman) Thomas Murphy that he
should take his talents to Hollywood.
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