Jack Kruschen, 80; ‘Apartment’ Neighbor

Jack Kruschen, a character actor with a flair for dialects who received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor for his 1960 role in “The Apartment,” has died. He was 80.

Kruschen, who played the Greek grandfather in the 1980s sitcom “Webster,” had been in failing health for many years. He died while traveling April 2, but news of his death was not immediately reported.

In a career that spanned more than six decades, Kruschen appeared in more than 75 movies, including the original “Cape Fear,” “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” “The Ladies’ Man” and “McClintock.” He had 20 years of radio, TV and movie roles behind him when he was cast as Jack Lemmon’s annoyed yet kindly neighbor, Dr. Dreyfuss, in Billy Wilder’s classic comedy “The Apartment.”

The role--and Kruschen’s Oscar nomination--allowed audiences to finally put a name to the familiar face.

“Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon were the best things that ever happened to me,” Kruschen told The Times in 1960. “They worked with me, helped me, brought out the ability to use whatever I have learned of my craft.”

Born in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1922, Kruschen was the son of a watchmaker who later set up shop in Hollywood.

At Hollywood High School, Kruschen appeared in a dialect role in the school production of “The Fortune Teller.” That led to his doing dialect roles in radio dramas for CBS radio.

In the Army during World War II, Kruschen was assigned to the Armed Forces Radio Service. After the war, he moved to New York and returned to radio by doing an Alka-Seltzer commercial in Yiddish.

Returning to Hollywood, he became a regular on the radio and TV versions of Jack Webb’s “Dragnet” and, in 1949, he landed his first small movie part in “Red, Hot and Blue.” A string of other film jobs followed, including small parts in “The Lemon Drop Kid,” “Abbott and Costello Go to Mars,” “Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation” and “The Benny Goodman Story.”

Kruschen even achieved minor cult status as one of the first victims of the Martian death ray in the 1953 sci-fi classic “The War of the Worlds.”

He worked steadily in television after “The Apartment.” Kruschen’s final role was a small part in the 1997 romantic comedy “‘Til There Was You.”

He is survived by his wife, Mary; children; grandchildren; and a sister.