Operation “Sand Dust!” HUSH-HUSH!

Hoo-boy, how much time ya’ got? Born July 27, 1916, in New York City, and destined for greatness. His father was vaudeville great Ed Wynn, whose own credits are too numerous to count, but might be best remembered as Uncle Albert in Mary Poppins. And also as a frequent inspiration for voice actors needing a silly voice (lookin’ at you, King Candy).

Let’s quickly blaze through his highly acclaimed and respectable roles on Broadway, on radio, his hundreds of film and television credits, and the fact that he shared the stage with such famous performers as Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, and talk about what’s really important: his appearances in terrible MST3K movies!

First up is experiment #706, Laserblast, where he lit up the screen as the addled, Kathy-guarding Colonel Farley.

Wynn would move on to the much meatier role of a retired journalist, pulled back into the game by a twist of fate (the arrival of a frowny clone-baby at his house), Jake Noble, in #811, Parts: The Clonus Horror. Vital to the plot by blowing the whole Clonus affair wide open, and then summarily blown up himself just before the heartbreaking denouement of… Parts: The Clonus Horror.

Keenan Wynn died October 14, 1986 (aged 70) in Brentwood, California from pancreatic cancer. A legend really, but nevertheless part of the extended MST3K family. (It’s also Adolfo Celi’s birthday, but I’m not doing two of these.)

Go suck someone else’s garbage!