Legendary actor and comedian Carl Ballantine died at his home in Los Angeles yesterday of natural causes at the age of 92. Billing himself as "Ballantine the Great" or "The Amazing Ballantine," his vaudeville-style comedy routine involved transparent or incompetent stage magic tricks, which tend to flop to the wisecracking Ballantine's mock chagrin.
Ballantine was born Meyer Kessler in Chicago, Illinois. In his early career, Kessler did a straight manipulation act but gave up "real magic" when he realized he could not be as good as some of his peers. He changed his name to Ballantine early on after he noticed a bottle of Ballantine whisky in an advertisement and decided that the name of his vaudeville magic and comedy act was to be "Ballantine, the World's Greatest Magician." He proved successful enough that he became the first magician to headline in Las Vegas. This performance also featured on a bill with Harry James, Betty Grable, and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Nicknamed the "Jipper," Kessler was inspired at age 12 by his barber who would do magic tricks with thimbles while cutting the boy's hair. His first job was working as a printer. In Chicago in the 1930s, Kessler was doing professional straight magic, first as "Count Marakoff" & "Carl Sharp," then, since the early 1940s, switched to comedy magic as "Carl Ballantine." He was billed as "The Amazing Mr. Ballantine" when he played the New York Capitol in 1950, The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953 and the Las Vegas El Rancho Vegas in 1956. He won Tannen's "Louie" Award and the 1985 AMA Performing Fellowship.
Ballantine is probably best remembered as Lester Gruber, one of the PT boat sailors in the ABC sitcom McHale's Navy (1962-1966), starring with Ernest Borgnine and Joe Flynn. He also appeared in feature films including "The Shakiest Gun in the West," "The World's Greatest Lover," "Mr. Saturday Night" and "Speedway." The latter film starred Elvis Presley. He additionally starred alongside Phil Silvers on Broadway in the 1972 revival of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His most recent film appearance was in Aimee Semple McPherson, a 2006 biopic about the female evangelist.
Ballantine was the husband of the actress Ceil Cabot (March 8, 1927 - January 24, 2000). He is survived by his sister, Esther Robinson; and daughters Saratoga, an actress, and Molly, an advertising sales executive.
