Ted Knight was born on December 7, 1923 in Teryville, Connecticut to Sophia and Charles
Konopka who were Polish-American. Knight dropped out of high school to enlist in
the United States Army in World War II. He was a member of A Company, 296th Combat
Engineer Battalion in Europe. In 1948, he married Dorothy Smith, and the
couple had three children, Ted Jr., Elyse, and Eric.
After the war, Knight studied acting in Hartford, Connecticut. He was talented with puppets
and ventriloquism, which got him a job as a tv kiddie-show host at WJAR-TV in Providence,
Rhode Island in 1950. In 1955, he left Providence for Albany, New York, where he landed a job
at station WTEN, hosting The Early Show, a kids' variety show, playing a "Gabby Hayes"
type character named "Windy Knight". He was also a radio announcer for station WROW radio.
After moving to California in 1957, Knight spent most of this time doing commercial voice-overs
and playing small TV and movie roles. He had a small part playing a police officer seen
guarding Norman Bates at the end of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho in (1960.
He also made guest appearances in numerous series, including Highway Patrol, Lassie, The
Donna Reed Show, The Twilight Zone, Death Valley Days, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The
Untouchables, The Virginian, McHale's Navy, Gunsmoke, Run for Your Life, Bonanza, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., Combat!, The
Fugitive, The F.B.I. and Get Smart as well as dozens of others.
Knight's distinctive voice also got him work as a voice artist for many animated series
produced by Filmation and Hanna-Barbera. His role as the vain and untalented WJM newscaster Ted
Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show brought Knight widespread fame and his biggest success.
He received six Emmy Award nominations for the role, winning the Emmy for "Outstanding
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Comedy" twice.
After The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Knight starred in his own program The Ted Knight Show, which
only lasted for six episodes in 1978. Knight also appeared in a few episodes of The
Love Boat. His most famous film role was in the 1980
comedy Caddyshack, where he played Judge Smails, who is fed up with the carrying-ons
of (Rodney Dangerfield), who played a rich uncouth guest at his golf club.
Knight landed the lead role as the cartoonist Henry Rush in the series Too Close for Comfort in
1980. Throughout the run of the series, Knight would wear sweatshirts from various colleges
and universities, which were often sent to him by students who were fans of the show. ABC cancelled
the show after three seasons, but it was revived in First run syndication in 1984. In 1986,
the show became The Ted Knight Show and saw Henry Rush retire from cartooning and
become part owner of a weekly newspaper. The new format allowed the show to remain a hit,
and a second season was planned until his health became a factor.
A few months after the end of the Mary Tyler Moore Show in 1977, Knight was diagnosed
with colon cancer for which he received various forms of treatment over several years.
In 1985, the cancer returned and, despite vigorous treatments, eventually began to spread
to his bladder and throughout his lower gastrointestinal tract.
Knight continued to work, even after having surgery to remove a tumor from his urinary
tract. However, he experienced complications from the surgery and was advised not to resume
work on Too Close For Comfort until he recovered. Knight's condition continued to worsen. Sadly
Ted Knight died on August 26, 1986, He was only 62 years old.
He was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
His hometown of Terryville, Connecticut, dedicated the bridge on Canal Street over the Pequabuck
River in his memory.