Peter Marshall, the multiple Emmy Award-winning host of classic game show “Hollywood Squares,” died Thursday of kidney failure, his publicist Harlan Boll told TheWrap.
Best known for hosting more than 5,000 episodes of the original version of the game show for more than 15 years, he enjoyed an eight-decade career as a singer, actor and emcee. Marshall even quipped that he wanted his official cause of death to be reported as “boredom.”
According to his wife of 35 years, Laurie, he died at his home in Encino, surrounded by loved ones.
Marshall was tapped to host “Hollywood Squares” in 1966: The game show featured celebrities such as Paul Lynde, Joan Rivers, Rich Little, George Gobel and Wally Cox in “squares” that could be won like tic-tac-toe by contestants.
He began his showbiz career while still in his teens after seeing his sister, “Red River” star Joanne Dru, get into modeling. He landed a job as an NBC Radio page and an usher at Paramount Theater.
Marshall was drafted into the Army in 1944 and stationed in Italy, where he served as a disc jockey for the Armed Forces Radio. By 1949, he teamed up with future “Gentleman Prefer Blondes” star Tommy Noonan: The comedy duo appeared in nightclubs, films and theaters as well as on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
In the 1950s, he became a contract player at Twentieth Century Fox, appearing with Noonan in the comedies “The Rookie” and “Swingin’ Along,” as well as the 1964 comedy “Ensign Pulver.” Another notable film role included radio announcer Bert Healy in John Huston’s 1982 adaptation of the musical “Annie.”
Marshall’s stage roles included a role opposite Chita Rivera in “Bye Bye Birdie” on London’s West End and the starring role in “Skyscraper” with Julie Harris in 1965. In the 1980s, he played the lead role of Georges in more than 800 performances of “La Cage aux Folles” on the national tour and on Broadway.
His musical career included the albums “Boy Singer,” “No Happy Endings” and “Let’s Be Frank.” For more than 20 years, he also hosted his own show on the national Music of Your Life radio network.
In 2017, he narrated the documentary “Wait for Your Laugh,” about former “Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Hollywood Squares” regular Rose Marie. In 2002, he published the memoir “Backstage With the Original Hollywood Square.”
Marshall was born Ralph Pierre LaCock in Huntington, West Virginia, on March 30, 1926.
He is survived by his wife, Laurie, daughters Suzanne Browning and Jaime Dimarco and son Pete LaCock. His son David LaCock died in 2021 from complications due to COVID. Marshall was a grandfather of 12 and a great-grandfather of nine. His obit also remembered his caregiver, Louis Soto.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to either Actors & Others for Animals, the Los Angeles-based no-kill animal shelter the Lange Foundation or the Mercy Kids Therapy and Development Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Services have not been announced.
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