Harry Rudolph Von Zell (1906–1981) was an American radio announcer, film and television actor, and vocalist, best known for his work on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. He was elected to The Lambs in 1936.
Born on July 11, 1906, in Indianapolis, Indiana, he was the elder child of Iva Clara (née Gohn) and Harry Adolph Von Zell, a sports reporter for the Indianapolis Star. His family later moved to Sioux City, Iowa, where he graduated from high school, and subsequently to California. There, he studied music and drama at the University of California, Los Angeles, before beginning his career in radio in the mid-1920s as a singer and announcer.
Von Zell became a CBS staff announcer and worked on programs such as The Aldrich Family, The Amazing Mr. Smith, and The March of Time. He collaborated with many of radio’s leading personalities, including Lamb Eddie Cantor and Dinah Shore. He is widely remembered for a 1931 broadcast in which he accidentally referred to President Herbert Hoover as “Hoobert Heever.”
In addition to his radio work, he sang with Charlie Barnet and appeared on NBC’s The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. Beginning in 1943, he appeared in more than 28 feature films and numerous Columbia comedy shorts, including The Saxon Charm, Son of Paleface, and Two Flags West.
On television, he participated in experimental broadcasts as early as 1931 and rose to prominence in the 1950s as the announcer and comic foil on The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. Over the course of his career, he worked with a distinguished roster of entertainers, including Will Rogers, Fred Allen, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, Stoopnagle and Budd, “Whispering Jack” Smith, Ed Wynn, and Eddy Duchin. He later appeared in series such as Bachelor Father, Perry Mason, McHale’s Navy, and Ellery Queen, and narrated “Celebrity Golf.” In 1976, he participated in the television special The Good Old Days of Radio.
Von Zell died of cancer on November 21, 1981, at the Hollywood Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. He was survived by his wife of 51 years, Minerva McGarvey (“Mickey”); a son, Kenneth H.; a daughter, Linda Salamone; four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Following his death, flowers were placed on his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (located at 6521 Hollywood Boulevard), and his ashes were scattered at sea.
Researched and written by Lamb Bruce Roberts (2026).