King Donovan, Veteran Stage, TV, Film Comedian, Dies at 69

King Donovan, an actor and comedian whose 50-year career on stage, in films and on television included more than 30 shows with his wife, comedienne Imogene Coca, has died of cancer at age 69.

Donovan, who died Tuesday, made his Broadway debut in 1948 in “The Vigil,” and in the early 1950s he played a police sergeant in the 1951 movie “The Enforcer” and a press agent in “Singin’ in the Rain.”

In the late 1950s, he appeared as Harvey Helm on the TV series “Love That Bob” and then as Gracie Allen’s brother on “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.”

He amused audiences in 1958 as the bedraggled professor of journalism in the Broadway show “The Girls in 509.” He also portrayed a detective that year in the film “The Defiant Ones.”

During the 1960s, he played Herb Thornton, the next-door neighbor of Joan and James Nash in the TV series “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies.”

His performances with his wife included a national tour of the musical “Once Upon a Mattress.”

Most recently, he performed in “On the Twentieth Century,” which toured the country for nine months before closing in April.

In addition to Miss Coca, survivors include two sons and a daughter. Private funeral services were held Wednesday.