Theodore Crawford Cassidy (July 31, 1932 – January 16, 1979) was an American actor. He tended to play unusual characters in offbeat or science-fiction works, such as Star Trek and I Dream of Jeannie, and he played Lurch on The Addams Family TV series of the mid-1960s. He also narrated the intro sequence for the 1977 live-action The Incredible Hulk TV series and provided the growls and roars for the Hulk for the first two seasons before his death, with actor Charles Napier providing the title character's vocals for the remainder of the series.
Early life Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Elwood Lewis Cassidy and Emily Cassidy (nee Crawford), who were of Irish ancestry. He was raised, however, in Philippi, West Virginia, where his father was an agent for the Eaton Paper Company. He was academically gifted and attended third grade at age six. During his freshman year of high school, at age 11, he was on the football and basketball teams. After graduating from high school, Cassidy attended West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon (1948–50), where he was a member of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. He transferred to Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, where he played college basketball for the Hatters (1954–55) and was active in the student government.
Career Cassidy graduated from Stetson University with a BA degree. He began his broadcast career at WCOA in Pensacola during the summer of 1958 and through the fall of 1959. He then moved on to work as a DJ on WFAA in Dallas. He was an accomplished musician and moonlighted playing an organ for patrons of a Luby's Cafeteria in Dallas' Lochwood Shopping Center. He "was right in the middle of the excitement" on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and was among the first to interview eyewitnesses W. E. Newman Jr. and Gayle Newman.
Television
Cassidy's height gave him an advantage in auditioning for unusual character roles. His best-known role is Lurch on The Addams Family, in which he feigned playing the harpsichord (although he was in fact an accomplished organist). With a separate contract, he also played the character named Thing, though associate producer Jack Voglin took on the role in scenes involving both characters. Though the character of Lurch was originally intended to be mute, Cassidy's ad-libbed "You rang?" in response to the butler call was an immediate hit. It became his signature line, and he was given more lines. Several episodes were written to feature Lurch. Cassidy reprised the role of Lurch in later appearances. In the Batman episode "The Penguin's Nest" (1966), he appears during the heroes' familiar climbing scene up the side of a building, as a tenant who is playing the Addams Family theme on a harpsichord prior to sticking his head out of the window and speaking to Batman and Robin. He voiced Lurch in an episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), and in the 1973 animated series adaptation of The Addams Family. He again reprised Lurch in the TV film Halloween with the New Addams Family (1977). According to Thomas "Duke" Miller, a TV/movie/celebrity expert, Cassidy also had a small role opposite George Peppard in one episode of the TV movie series Banacek. Cassidy played a worker in an auto scrapyard who attempted to kill Banacek because the investigator traced him as part of the plot to steal a rare and valuable book. In addition to The Addams Family, Cassidy found steady work in a variety of other television shows. He had a prominent role on NBC's The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as Injun Joe, the enemy of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. In the 1967 The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode "The Napoleon's Tomb Affair", Cassidy played a henchman, Edgar, who kidnaps, tortures, and repeatedly tries to kill Napoleon and Illya. Cassidy also provided the voices of the more aggressive version of Balok in the Star Trek episode "The Corbomite Maneuver" and the Gorn in the episode "Arena", and played the part of the android Ruk in the episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". Cassidy did more work with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in the early 1970s, playing Isaiah in the postapocalyptic drama pilots Genesis II and Planet Earth. In the Lost in Space episode "The Thief from Outer Space", he played the Slave to the alien Thief (Malachi Throne), who threatens the Robinsons. In The Beverly Hillbillies episode "The Dahlia Feud" from 1967, he played Mr. Ted, a large, muscular gardener who plants dahlias for Mrs. Drysdale. In 1968, Cassidy appeared on Mannix in the episode "To Kill a Writer" as Felipe Montoya, on Daniel Boone in "The Scrimshaw Ivory Chart" as a pirate named Gentle Sam, and in two episodes of I Dream of Jeannie as the master of Jeannie's devious sister in the episode "Genie, Genie, Who's Got the Genie?", and Jeannie's cousin in the episode "Please Don't Feed the Astronauts". In the two-part The Six Million Dollar Man episode "The Return of Bigfoot" (1976), Cassidy provided the body and vocal effects of Bigfoot (the role was originally played by professional wrestler André the Giant in a previous two-parter). Cassidy reprised the role in the 1977 episode "Bigfoot V". Cassidy also starred in Bonanza's "Decision in Los Robles" in 1970.
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