'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' Star Elliott Reed Dies at 93

The Los Angeles Times reports that Elliott Reid, best known for his roles in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Absent-Minded Professor, passed away on Friday, June 21 at age 93. According to the report, the actor's nephew confirmed that he died from heart failure at the assisted-living facility in Studio City, Calif. where he resided.

Reid worked regularly in radio dramas during the Golden Age of radio. His credits include Orson Welles's The Mercury Theatre on the Air, TheCavalcade of America, Theatre Guild on the Air and the CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

Reid's best-known film role was as private detective Ernie Malone, Jane Russell's love interest, in the 20th Century-Fox classic Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

A member of The Actors Studio from its inception, Reid was a regular in NBC television's That Was the Week That Was (1964-65) and made guest appearances on Murder, She Wrote, The Odd Couple, I Love Lucy, Barney Miller, Small Wonder, Perry Mason and The Munsters. He co-starred as Felix Unger in a road production of The Odd Couple with Dan Dailey as Oscar Madison during the late 1960s. Reid played Professor Shelby Ashton in two Walt Disney movies starring Fred MacMurray: The Absent Minded Professor in 1961, and sequel Son of Flubber in 1963. Reid retired in 1995, aged 75.