Henry Polic II (1945-2013)

Henry Polic II (20th February 1945 – 11th August 2013) was an American screen, stage, as well as voice actor, and was best known on Webster as Jerry Silver.

In the 1980s, Henry Polic II was frequently viewed as a popular guest player on numerous game shows. His most regular guest slots were on the several manifestations of Pyramids, as he featured many times on the Pyramid of the $25,000 and the Dick Clark as well as the John Davidson-hosted versions of the Pyramid of the $100,000 for producer Bob Stewart. Henry Polic also did countless other work, as well as hosting the 1986 game show Double Talk, the 1988 pilot revival eye Q, and duty sharing announcements with Dean Goss and Johnny Gilbert on the $100,000 Pyramid. Polic’s specialties included regional and foreign accents, baritone singing and ballroom dancing.

From the beginning of the 1990s up to his death, Henry Polic was possibly best known in Batman as the first accented British voice of the Scarecrow: The Animated Series. Initially he had a deep, angry voice tone, but eventually made his voice higher to suit the role. While working at Florida’s State University Henry Polic guest stared in the Theatre’s Production School in a Christmas Carol production, whereby in 1996 he acted as Scrooge. Besides Henry Polic’s game show he also hosted Double Talk from 1986 to 1987.

Veteran actor Henry Polic II, acted as the Nottingham Sheriff in the Mel Brooks series, and also when Things Were Rotten as well as Jerry Silver in Webster, died at 68 years, after a long illness with cancer.

Henry Polic was a well-known game-show player, featuring frequently on the Pyramid of $25,000 and its eventual manifestation, the Pyramid of $100,000, of which Polic together with Dick Clark hosted. Furthermore, Henry was a game-show host as well, and also running the 1986 ABC’s Double Talk. Apart from being a popular game show host, Henry Polic acted as Dracula briefly in NBCs 1970s series Monster Squad and featured as a guest in numerous shows, including Mork & Mindy, Alice, Eight Is Enough, Sheena, Murder, She Wrote, as well as Saved by the Bell. Besides Polic’s work on Batman, he gave his voice to the Smurfs series and other various series such as the Dukes and midnight patrol as well as the happy days gang.

On Webster, Henry Polic acted as Jerry Silver, a confidant as well as the secretary to Katherine (Susan Clark), which had 54 episodes of the entire series, and ran from 1983-1989 on ABC as well as in syndicate.

Born in 1945 in Pittsburgh, Henry Polic went to Florida State University and got his master’s degree in acting. After graduation, he was enlisted and stationed at Kansas Fort Riley, and later connected with the Tent Theatre of Missouri, and Miami’s Player’s Theatre, to mention but a few. The early 1970s saw Henry Polic move to Los Angeles where he made his debut in TV as the Nottingham Sheriff in 1975 and also in the When Things Were Rotten comedy, which featured Richard Gautier as Robin Hood.

Henry Polic also had film credits which included, the 1978 Joan Rivers, the 1977 Beau Geste Last Remake, the 1980 Oh, God! Book II, then the 2000 Bring Him Home and lastly the 2001 All You Need. Henry Polic appeared in over 70 local and regional productions, including the global premiere of Sister Act musical Broadway hit, whereby he initiated the Monsignor Howard role. Other theatrical credits in which Polic also starred were 1776 production of Civic Light Long Beach, West’s Never Gonna Dance Music Theatre, Putting It Together, Is This Your Life, and the global production premiere of A Couple of Guys at the Movies. Henry Polic’s stage directing credits include Fools for the Actors Cooperative in Hollywood as well as the Ventura Rubicon Theatre; Jim Geoghan’s world premiere of Two Gentlemen of Corona; Nebraska’s world production premiere production; both the New York as well as Los Angeles Brine County Wedding productions; and a record breaking box office Dracula production.

Polic was an event host and celebrity auctioneer, who over the year helped raise over $2 million for charities such as the Foundation Concern for Cancer Research, Adam Walsh Foundation, the Diabetes Association of American and the Foundation for Leukemia. Polic taught an acting class for the camera at Los Angeles Emerson College Center and he also taught an acting course in performing at the Academy of American Dramatic Arts. Henry Polic was also member of The Fund Actors from 1973 and an organization’s member of the western council, which recognized him with the emeritus status. In addition, a scholarship memorial fund was founded in Henry Polic’s name within the State of Florida which provides finances in helping produce annual new works for the Schools of Theatre.

Henry Polic II is a common face among audiences from his various movie, television as well as stage roles, and is also for his acclaimed work as a theatre director. Henry Polic was passionate about his work in the theatre and some of his acting credits included regular series roles in the Webster comedies as well as the classic TV series. In addition, he has had many guest star roles such as the episodes of Sheena, She Spies, Cosby, news radio, and Profiler. Apart from acting credits Henry Polic has film credits too, which include All you need, Beau Geste Last Remake, the trail of the old, Bring Him Home, Oh God, Book II, Drum, and Rabbit test a comedy by Joan River.

Below is a detailed list of Henry Polic’s most famous works:

•CREDITS – Stage Appearances

• Room Service, 1987
• A Christmas Carol Scrooge, Theatre School, Florida State University, 1996
• Polic also featured in The Last Pad; Boys in the Band, Boysin the Band; a Broadway production; the fantastic; Man of La Mancha; Pal Joey and 1776, Is This Your Life? Civic Light opera Long Beach; Tamarind Theatre.

•CREDITS – Stage Directing

• Wedding of Brine Country, 1996

•Film Appearances

• Captain, Beau Geste Last Remake, 1977
• Scavenger Hunt, Naked policeman, 1979
• (Himself) Oh, God! Psychiatrist 5, Book II, 1980
• Tarlow Stephen, Double Trouble, 1992
• James/MacBeth, Scott’s Play, 1999
• Bring Him Home, 2000
• All You Need Mr. Etheridge, 2001
• Valette, 2002
• Button the King, Would I Lie to You?, 2002

•Television Appearances – Series

• (TV debut) Nottingham Sheriff, and When Things Were Rotten, 1975
• Regular, Summer and Fall Bert Show, 1976
• Yo Yogi, 1991
• The Monster Squad, Count Dracula, 1976-1977
• Jerry Silver, Webster, 1983-1987
• Combustion, 2004
• Morton and Hayes, 1991
• Voice of, The All-New Scooby as well as Scrappy-Doo Show, 1983, (animated).
• Talk show Host, Double Talk/Celebrity Double Talk, 1986
• The kids show for Tom and Jerry 1990
• Sub announcer, The Pyramid of $100,000, syndicated, 1992
• Potsworth and Company, 1990
• Hollywood Chaos, 1989
• Super password, 1994
• Body Language, 1984
• Alice, 1977

•Miniseries

• Mark Steiner, Scruples, 1981

•Movies

• I Yabba-Dabba Do, voice, 1993 (animation)
• Doc Thompson, Animal Planet, the Old Drum trail, 2000

•Pilots

• Heck’s Angels, 1976
• McNamara’s Band, Schnell, 1977

•Specials

• Surviving the 1970s and Maybe Bump into Happiness, 1978
• Voices of the Wolf Leader and Tracker, Christmas Special of The Smurfs (animated), 1986
• The Yellow Ribbon Party of Bob Hope, 1991

•Episodic

• Man, The Bionic Woman, 1976
• The Failure, Walter, 1977
• The Jewel Thief/I Want to Get Married, Marty, 1978
• “War between the Bradford’s,” Eight Is Enough, 1978
• Dr. Phillips, 1979
• Hooray for Bulgaria,1979
• Donald, The Incredible Hulk, 1980
• Pierre, “The Caller/ Convenience Marriage/No Girls/Prosecution Witness,” The Boat of Love, 1980
• Redding Jay, ” Airline Bag of Maltese,” Eight Is Enough, 1980
• “Guinness on Tap,” 1981
• Bors, “The Perfect Volcano/Husband,” 1981
• Frederick, “The very rare of Wines,” 1982
• Francois, Burglars of Beauty, Lacey and Cagney, 1982
• Randy Turner, “We Got Know When to Hold them, 1983
• My Way, Ivo, E.R, 1984
• Gun Shy, 1983
• E.R, Dr. Raja, 1984
• Stern Roy, Hotel, Illusions,1985
• Guest, The Pyramid of $100,000, 1985
• Dupree Alan, “the Home Fires keep Burning,” Murder, She Wrote, 1986
• Bishop Arthur, “The Old Grand Lady,” Murder, She Wrote, 1989
• “Something New, Something Old,” Brothers, syndicated, 1989
• City mayor’s voice, “For Who the Bells Klang: 2,” (animation), Tale Spin syndicated, 1990
• Vincent Val, “Hair Today, and Gone Tomorrow,” They were from out of Space, 1991
• “Daffy Dicks,” Maitre’d, Hayes and Morton, 1991
• Darkroom, 1982
• The Scarecrow/Jonathan Crane’s voice, Fear Nothing, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman and Robin as well as Batman: The Series Animation), 1992
• The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice, Victory fear, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman and Robin as well as Batman: The series animation), 1992
• The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice, Dreams within the Darkness, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman & Robin as well as Batman: The series animation), 1992
• Mr. Bainbridge Saved by the Bell, “Snow White and the Seven Dorks,”1992
• The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice in, the holiday of Harley, Batman (animation; also called Adventures of Batman & Robin as well as Batman: The series animation), 1994
• Detective school, 1979
• The Scarecrow/ Jonathan Crane’s voice in, the Lock-Up, Batman(animation; also called The Adventures of Batman & Robin as well as Batman: The series animation), 1994
• Verne Jules, Eighty Arms Around the World, Mighty Max, 1994
• Richard, The Crisis of Three Carat, Profiler, 1999
• Fantasy Island, 1978 – 1981
• Sheena, Wild Thing, syndicate, 2000
• Rabbit test, 1978
• Superman, 1988
• The odd new couple, 1982
• Osborne Michael, She Spies, Gone Bad, syndicate, 2003
• Henry Polic featured as first man, voice; Golden Palace, Don Coyote and Sancho Panda adventures(animation), syndicate; Yo! Yogi voice; (animation); and as voice of, SuperTed (animation).

•Television Work

• Extra voices, Scooby as well as Scrappy-Doo (animated), ABC, 1979
• Additional voices, The Smurfs (animation; also known as adventures of Smurf), 1981

Conclusion

In summary, Henry Polic II, a television personality for close to forty years, died at 68 years. The actor began his career in 1975 with ABC, on which he acted as the Nottingham Sheriff. He later went on and acted as Dracula briefly in the 1970s series the Monster Squad and later on guest-starred in a dozen of shows, such as Mork and Mindy, Saved by the Bell, Alice, Eight Is Enough, Sheena, and Murder, She Wrote.

Acting in various supporting roles, Henry Polic remained a popular face of TV for American generations from the 1970’s through to his death. In addition, he went on to accomplish mainstream status for children as well as adults alike during his period as the main voice of Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow on Batman: The animation series.

When it came to opinions, people’s opinions were very similar in that when it came to doing voice overs Henry Polic II was exceptional and was generally considered an all-round good actor. Besides all these remarkable credentials, Henry Polic was a well-known contestant of the game show, having appeared on the Pyramid of $25 000 and a later editions. Throughout his career, Henry Polic never restricted himself to one particular or specific public profile, and even though his roles were generally resigned to supporting roles, he rarely appeared in similar types of categories within TV and movies more than a dozen times.

Regrettably, the actor’s life as well as career were short lived due to illness. It was cancer that ended Henry Polic’s. Henry Polic died at 68 years in Sherman Oaks, California, and was survived by his sister, a nephew and two nieces.

Source by Eric Mwebe