John Wheeler, the well-known character actor who appeared in five Broadway musicals, guest-starred as Tellarites politician Ambassador Gav on Star Trek and performed in an unforgettable McDonald’s commercial, has died. He was 95.
Wheeler died Feb. 6 at his home in Claremont, California, his daughter, Johanna Wheeler, told The Hollywood Reporter.
Wheeler also recurred on CBS’ The Dukes of Hazzard in 1982 as Mr. Rhuebottom, owner of a general store in Hazzard County, and he played William Frawley alongside Frances Fisher as Lucille Ball, Maurice Benard as Desi Arnaz and Robin Pearson Rose as Vivian Vance on the 1991 CBS telefilm Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter.
Unrecognizable under heavy latex makeup, Wheeler made his onscreen debut when he portrayed Gav and tussled with Mark Lenard’s Sarek, a Vulcan, on the second-season Star Trek installment “Journey to Babel,” which premiered in November 1967 and ranks 42nd on THR’s list of the show’s best episodes.
In the show-stopping 1971 choreographed musical commercial “Grab a Bucket and Mop,” Wheeler appears in a white shirt and tie as a McDonald’s manager, and he shows off his strong tenor voice alongside John Amos, Robert Ridgely and others.
Johnnie Lee Wheeler Jr. was born on June 20, 1930, in Corsicana, Texas. His father worked for the railroad, and his mother, Ann, was a homemaker. He attended TCU and the University of the Pacific, graduating in 1952 with a degree in Music, and served for a couple years in the U.S. Army.
Wheeler sang with the New York City Opera in New York, and that got him to the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, where he performed in the Comden-Green musical Wonderful Town. He later was a member of two folk groups led by conductor Robert DeCormier: the Grammy-winning Belafonte Singers, who backed up Harry Belafonte and sang on their own albums, and the DeCormier Singers.
He first made it to Broadway in 1961 in the musical comedy The Happiest Girl in the World, starring Janice Rule and based on tales of Greek mythology, and he followed with turns in four other musicals: 1962’s Kean, 1964’s Café Crown and I Had a Ball and 1966’s Sweet Charity, playing Herman, the dance hall proprietor.
He landed an uncredited part in Elvis Presley’s Live a Little, Love a Little (1968) and portrayed a dancer in Bob Fosse’s 1969 movie adaptation of Sweet Charity that starred Shirley MacLaine (Stubby Kaye played Herman in the movie).
Wheeler’s big-screen résumé included Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969), Support Your Local Gunfighter (1971), Mame (1974), Newman’s Law (1974), Big Bad Mama (1974), Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), The North Avenue Irregulars (1979), The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979) and Apollo 13 (1995).
He also showed up on four episodes of The Odd Couple and Green Acres and three of The Brady Bunch, with other appearances coming on Then Came Bronson, Mannix, Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Here’s Lucy, Happy Days, The Waltons, The Rockford Files, Rhoda, Dallas, Night Court, The Golden Girls and ER, among other shows.
And he was a great Santa Claus, playing him on a 1997 episode of Step by Step and in telefilms that aired in 1996, 2004 and 2005.
In addition to his daughter, survivors include his sons, Christopher and Timothy, and his grandson, Brandon. He was married to Helen Wheeler from 1959 until her death in 2013.