Peter Marshall, who long anchored NBC’s beloved game show “Hollywood Squares” with his talk-show-like candor, has died. He was 98.
Marshall died Thursday morning of kidney failure surrounded by loved ones at his home in the Encino neighborhood of Los Angeles, his family said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times provided by his publicist Harlan Boll.
“Although, as Peter commented, his cause of death should officially be boredom,” the family said in the statement.
Peter Marshall, center, hosts a Country Music Week episode of “Hollywood Squares” in 1980.
(NBC/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
The television star, who was an actor and singer before becoming a game show fixture in his 40s, hosted more than 5,000 episodes of NBC’s human tic-tac-toe game show from 1966 to 1981. On the Emmy-winning daytime show, Marshall asked silly questions that led to entertaining banter and in-jokes with comedians including Joan Rivers, Rose Marie and Paul Lynde, the longtime centerpiece of the set and a sarcastic force. The hit show also attracted Hollywood’s elite, including Aretha Franklin, Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ed Asner and Janet Leigh.
“It was the easiest thing I’ve ever done in my life in show business,” Marshall said in a 2010 interview with the Archive of American Television. “I walked in, said, ‘Hi, stars,’ read the questions and laughed. And I got paid very well.”
When “Hollywood Squares” was cancelled and his other television projects were short-lived, Marshall turned to other types of live performance, particularly musical theater, and became a regular performer in touring productions of “La Cage aux Folles” and “42nd Street.”
The show was later revived in syndication, but Marshall was not invited back to direct.
“Frankly, I was ready for some changes and I was prepared for them,” Marshall told The Times in 1987. “I didn’t really miss, and I don’t miss, that ‘TV star’ thing; it really wasn’t that important to me.”
“What I miss is the wonderful people I worked with. There was Lynde, Vincent Price, Tony Randall, Betty White – a great group. They made the show special because they all had style, the kind of thing that distinguishes the greats from the greats in this business.”
Marshall, a self-described “depressive child,” said he worked so much because he had a hard time saying no. He was born Ralph Pierre LaCock in Clarksburg, West Virginia, and moved frequently as a child before settling in New York. His father, who died when Marshall was 10, occasionally sang in a minstrel show, and Marshall’s sister, actress Joanne Dru, worked as a chorus girl at the Copa Club.
Money came at a hard time, so he and his family members took jobs wherever and whenever they could, he said. Marshall grew up singing with big bands, appearing in Las Vegas revues and doing stand-up comedy. He toured as a singer with the Bob Chester Orchestra when he was 15 and worked as an NBC radio assistant and usher at the Paramount Theatre, according to the Associated Press. He was drafted during World War II and stationed in Italy, where he spent time as a DJ for Armed Forces Radio.
In 1949, Marshall and Tommy Noonan teamed up and performed as a comedy duo in nightclubs and theaters, eventually making their way to the small screen on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” A film actor under contract to 20th Century Fox, Marshall appeared in 1959’s “The Rookie” and 1961’s “Swingin’ Along.” He also starred opposite Chita Rivera in a 1962 West End production of “Bye Bye Birdie” in London and made his first Broadway appearance in the 1965 production of “Skyscraper” with Julie Harris. His other Broadway credits include “High Button Shoes,” “The Music Man” and “42nd Street.”
Marshall is survived by his wife Laurie and three children: son Pete LaCock, a professional baseball player for the Chicago Cubs and Kansas City Royals, daughters Suzanne and Jaime, as well as 12 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. His son David died of complications from COVID-19 in 2021.
