Early career Stang claimed he gained his break in radio by sending a postcard to a New York station requesting an audition, was accepted, then bought his own ticket to New York from
Chelsea, Massachusetts with the money set aside for his mother's anniversary gift. Though his widow, JoAnne Stang, explained upon his death that this story was untrue, By 1940, he had graduated to teenaged roles, appearing as Seymour on
The Goldbergs. In October 1941, director Don Bernard hired Stang to do commercials on the
CBS program
Meet Mr. Meek, but decided Stang's constantly cracking voice would hurt the ads. Instead, Bernard ordered scriptwriters to come up with a role for Stang. He next appeared on the summer replacement show
The Remarkable Miss Tuttle with
Edna May Oliver in 1942 and replaced
Eddie Firestone Jr. in the title role of
That Brewster Boy when Firestone joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1943. Comedian
Henry Morgan made him a sidekick on his program in the fall of 1946. Stang appeared in similar roles the following year on radio shows with
Eddie Cantor and
Milton Berle. A notable screen credit was "Sparrow" in
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955).
Television and film Stang moved to the then-new field of commercial television in the late 1940s. He had a recurring role in
The School House on the
DuMont Television Network in 1949. He was a regular on
Eddie Mayehoff's short-lived situation comedy
Doc Corkle in fall of 1952 as well as comedy relief on
Captain Video and His Video Rangers as Clumsy McGee. Then Stang made a guest appearance on Milton Berle's
Texaco Star Theater on May 12, 1953 and joined him as a regular (Francis the Stagehand) the following September, often berating or heckling the egocentric star for big laughs. Stang also had guest roles on several variety shows of the day including
The Colgate Comedy Hour. In early 1951, Stang appeared on ''
Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt, a take-off of The Original Amateur Hour, as "Gerard", supposedly recruiting "talent" for Morgan. In 1954 he became a panelist on the Goodson-Todman game show The Name's the Same''.
Edward Montagne had produced movie short subjects starring Arnold Stang in the early 1950s. Montagne recruited Stang to join his ''
McHale's Navy spinoff Broadside and offered him co-star billing. Stang was then co-starring with the national touring company of the Broadway hit A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and left the show on October 3, 1964 to join Montagne (the play ran six more weeks, with Gil Lamb in the Stang role). "I was originally scheduled to be in the show [Broadside
] when it went on the air last fall," recalled Stang in 1965, "but I was tied up with the road show of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.'' I couldn't get out of the commitment until now." Stang appeared midway through the
Broadside run, having missed the first 21 episodes. He co-starred in the remaining 11 episodes as outspoken master chef Stanley Stubbs. The ratings improved considerably with Stang aboard, but too late to save
Broadside, which had already been canceled. Stang felt responsible: "By helping that show I messed it up for the entire cast. The ratings began to climb and they told us we'd probably be on next season. So everybody waited for the renewal, and when it didn't come the pilot season was over and they were all through for the year." Stang also lent his familiar face and voice to
commercials for the
Chunky candy bar, where he would list many of its ingredients, smile, and say, "Chunky, what a chunk of chocolate!" As a pitchman for
Alcoa aluminum window screens in the late 1960s, he was known for the tagline "Arnold Stang says don't get stung". His voice was so recognizable to the public that his performances could be enjoyed without seeing him in person. While in New York in the early 1940s, he worked for the
Famous Studios cartoon shop, where he supplied the voice for
Popeye's pal Shorty (a caricature of Stang),
Herman the Brooklynese mouse, and Tubby Tompkins in a few
Little Lulu shorts. Stang's major contribution to television was voicing the title role in
Hanna-Barbera's animated sitcom
Top Cat (1961-62).
Later career Stang remained in demand for movies, television shows, TV commercials, and the stage. Producer
Stanley Kramer cast his epic comedy film ''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
(1963) with a host of popular comedy stars and character comedians, and chose Arnold Stang to play alongside Marvin Kaplan, with whom he had appeared on Top Cat'', as mild-mannered owners of a service station. They run afoul of enraged motorist
Jonathan Winters. When Winters goes on a destructive rampage, Stang and Kaplan defend their property. (Stang turns to Kaplan and says earnestly, "We gotta kill him.") This huge-scale comedy is Arnold Stang's most famous movie credit. Stang was in many stage productions; on
Broadway he appeared in a 1969 revival of
The Front Page with
Peggy Cass. He starred in two low-budget feature films during this period,
Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar (1965, featuring
Huntz Hall and
Leo Gorcey) and
Hercules in New York (1970, featuring
Arnold Schwarzenegger billed as "Arnold Strong"). Stang returned to the field of animation in 1976 for the series
Misterjaw. In this parody of
Jaws, Stang was the voice of Catfish, the little sidekick of a playful shark voiced by
Arte Johnson. Stang had a small role as Queasy the Parrot in the 1977 film
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure. He reprised Top Cat in ''
Yogi's Treasure Hunt and Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats''. Stang appeared in "The Grave Robber," an episode of the popular horror anthology series
Tales from the Darkside, playing Tapok, an ancient Egyptian mummy who encounters some unscrupulous archaeologists who lure him into a game of strip poker. He also appeared on an episode of
The Cosby Show with guest star
Sammy Davis Jr. (and made a cameo appearance in
Bill Cosby's 1990 film
Ghost Dad.) He played the photographer in the 1993 film
Dennis the Menace with
Walter Matthau. Stang also provided many voices for the
Cartoon Network series
Courage the Cowardly Dog and
Turner Program Services' original series
Captain Planet and the Planeteers. In one TV ad, Stang played
Luther Burbank, proudly showing off his newly invented "
square tomato" to fit neatly in typical square slices of commercial bread, then being informed that the advertising bakery had beat him to it by producing round loaves of bread. He was also the TV spokesman for
Rent-a-Wreck, a national car-rental agency with a fleet of used, economical vehicles. He provided the voice of the
Honey Nut Cheerios Bee in the 1980s and was a spokesman for
Vicks Vapo-Rub. In 1994, he guest-starred as the voice of Irwin the Mouse in the
Garfield and Friends episode "Thoroughly Mixed-Up Mouse". In 2004, Stang made his last appearance in an interview with animator Earl Kress about the making of
Top Cat (featured on the
Top Cat DVD box set). ==Personal life==