Sorrell Booke

Sorrell Booke (January 4, 1930 – February 11, 1994) was an American actor. He appeared in over 130 film, television, and stage productions, and was best known for his role as "Boss" Hogg, the principal antagonist of the television series The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985).

Early life and education Booke was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Sol Booke, a Jewish physician. As a child, he entertained patients in his father's waiting room,

Booke enrolled in Columbia University at 16, and performed in Shakespearean plays in Columbia's drama club. He graduated from Columbia at 19 in 1949, and received a Master of Fine Arts at the Yale School of Drama. He once starred in a stage production of Beethoven with Paul Newman while at Yale. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War for two years as a counterintelligence officer.

Booke received an Emmy nomination for his appearance in Dr. Kildare in the episode "What's God to Julius?". He appeared in an episode of Mission: Impossible from the first season in 1966. Booke appeared in two early episodes of M*A*S*H, as General Barker in "Requiem for a Lightweight" and "Chief Surgeon Who?"; the latter marked the debut of the character Corporal Klinger, with whom Booke's character had previously dealt. He also had a recurring role in All in the Family as Mr. Sanders, personnel manager at Archie Bunker's workplace, Prendergast Tool and Die Company. (He had previously appeared on All in the Family as Lyle Bennett, the manager of a local television station.) Booke was featured on an episode of Good Times, and had a recurring role as the Jewish mob boss "Lefkowitz" on Soap. He also appeared in two episodes of Columbo, "Swan Song" in Season 3 (featuring Johnny Cash) and "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case" in Season 6. In 1976 he played a record producer in Rich Man, Poor Man Book II.

The Dukes of Hazzard Booke's most notable role was in The Dukes of Hazzard as Boss Hogg, the humorously wicked antagonist to Bo and Luke Duke. The series ran on CBS for seven seasons, from 1979 to 1985. It spawned an animated series, The Dukes (1983), two reunion TV specials (by which time Booke had died, and the character of Boss Hogg was also said to be deceased), a feature film (2005) and The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (a 2007 TV movie).

Regarding his performance, Booke was tall, weighed at the time of his Boss Hogg role, and wore padding to seem fatter. He copied the Hogg character's American South drawl from U.S. senators Sam Ervin and Strom Thurmond.

Voice acting By the late 1980s, Booke had stopped appearing physically in acting roles, but he continued to perform voice work on several television shows and movies, occasionally as narrator, and sometimes as a cartoon character's voice, in such movies as Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987 television movie), Gravedale High (1990 television series), and Rock-a-Doodle (1991).

Other work Booke also was a guest conductor at the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Personal life Booke was a polyglot, fluent in English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and Italian. He said that he also “fussed" with a half-dozen other languages such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Dutch, Persian, Polish, and Swedish.

One of his hobbies was moving into and restoring rundown houses. In 1981, he lived in a "modest home on a modest street in Los Angeles", where he did his own gardening and carpentry.

Booke married Miranda Knickerbocker, then a senior at Barnard College, in 1958. She was the daughter of journalist Hubert Renfro Knickerbocker. They had two children before divorcing in 1973.

Death On February 11, 1994, Sorrell Booke died of colorectal cancer in Sherman Oaks, California. He is interred at Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California.

Partial filmography

Gone Are the Days! (1963) as Ol' Cap', Stonewall Jackson Cotchipee Black Like Me (1964) as Dr. Jackson Les Félins (1964) as Harry Fail Safe (1964) as Congressman Raskob A Fine Madness (1966) as Leonard Tupperman Up the Down Staircase (1967) as Dr. Bester Matchless (1967) as Colonel Coolpepper The Borgia Stick (1967) as Alton Bye Bye Braverman (1968) as Holly Levine What's Up, Doc? (1972) as Harry Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) as Lionel Merble The Iceman Cometh (1973) as Hugo Kalmar The Take (1974) as Oscar Devil Times Five (1974) as Harvey Beckman Bank Shot (1974) as Al G. Karp The Manchu Eagle Murder Caper Mystery (1975) as Dr. Melon Mastermind (1976) as Max Engstrom Special Delivery (1976) as Hubert Zane Freaky Friday (1976) as Mr. Dilk The Other Side of Midnight (1977) as Lanchon Record City (1978) as Coznowski The Cat from Outer Space (1978) as Presiding Judge (uncredited) Rock-a-Doodle (1991) as Pinky, the Manager (voice)

Television work

The Guiding Light (1952) Brenner (1959) The Iceman Cometh (1960) The Million Dollar Incident (1961) Car 54, Where Are You?, as Police Commissioner Harper in "How High Is Up?" (1962) Route 66, as Sam Frazier in "Voice at the End of the Line" (1962) Naked City Beyond This Place There Be Dragons (9 episodes, 1960–1963) The Patty Duke Show, as Gilbert Tugwell in "Block That Statue" (1964) 12 O'Clock High, as Sgt. Aronson in "Faith, Hope, and Sgt. Aronson" (1965) Slattery's People as Max Rice in "Question: What's a Swan Song for a Sparrow?" (1965) New York Television Theatre (1965) T.H.E. Cat – Episode 1 (1966) Mission: Impossible (1967) The Borgia Stick (1967) Ironside Shell Game (1968) The Wild Wild West, as Heisel in "The Night of the Egyptian Queen" (1968) Hawaii Five-O - "The Double Wall" (1970) Room 222 (one episode 1971) as Mr Bomberg All in the Family (1972–1977) as Joseph Sanders (4 episodes) / Mr. Bennett Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (1971) M*A*S*H (2 episodes, 1972) as Gen. Wilson Spaulding Barker The Manhunter (1972) Gunshot (1972) Gunsmoke, in "Milligan" (1972) as Gerald Pandy Alias Smith and Jones (1972) Adventures of Nick Carter (1972) Dr. Max (1974) as Dr. Scott Herndon The Last Angry Man (1974) as Dr. Max Vogel The New Dick Van Dyke Show (1974) as Herbie Vincent / Otto Cannon (1974) Columbo: Swan Song (1974) as J.J. Stringer Kolchak: The Night Stalker (1974) as Mr. Eddy Kung Fu, in "A Dream Within a Dream" (1974) as Sheriff Hodges Adventures of the Queen (1975) as Robert Dwight The Streets of San Francisco (1975) as Quincy Lloyd Rich Man, Poor Man Book II (1976) 5 episodes, as Phil Greenberg Brenda Starr (1976) as A.J. Livwright The Bob Newhart Show (1976) as Mr. Perlmutter Hunter, episode "The Lovejoy Files" (1977) as Mervyn Black Sheep Squadron Episode "Poor Little Lambs" (1977) as Father Phillipe Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977) as Rabbi Weintraub The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened (1977) as Samuelson The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977) as Fiorello LaGuardia Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case (1977) as Bertie Hastings Greatest Heroes of the Bible (1978) Soap (1978) as Charles Lefkowitz Good Times (1978) as Mr. Galbraith Little House on the Prairie (1978) as Mr. Watson What's Happening!! (1978) as Mr. Finley The Rockford Files "The Jersey Bounce" (1978) as Wade G. Ward Bigfoot and Wildboy (1979) The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–1985) as Boss Hogg / Jefferson Davis Hogg The Love Boat (1980) as Lucius Kergo The Dukes (1983) as Jefferson Davis 'Boss' Hogg (voice) Alice (1983) as Jefferson Davis 'Boss' Hogg The Pound Puppies (1985) as Mayor Fist aka The Mayor (voice) Newhart (1985) as Sheik Fraser Crazy Like a Fox (1986) as Bernard 'Bernie' Sinclair You Again? (1986) as Roger Davidson Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987) as Sheriff Rufus Buzby / T.J. Buzby (voice) Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears (1988) as Mountain Bear (voice) Full House Episode "Our Very First Christmas Show" (1988) as Lionel / Santa Claus The Smurfs (1988) (voice) Fantastic Max (1988) (voice) Don Coyote & Sancho Panda (1990) (voice) Tom and Jerry Kids Show (1990) as Announcer (voice) Gravedale High (1990) (voice) Civil Wars (1991) as Charles Previn Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation (1992) as Big Daddy Boo (voice) Capitol Critters (1992) (voice) Bonkers (1993) as Boss Hoss (voice) The New Adventures of Captain Planet (1993) as Sheriff Hebbs (voice) Droopy, Master Detective (voice) (1993)

Stage appearances

The Sleeping Prince (1956) Nature's Way (1957) Heartbreak House (1959) Fiorello! (1959–61) (replacement) Finian's Rainbow (1960) Caligula (1960) Purlie Victorious (1961–62) The White House (1964) Jonah (1966) The Iceman Cometh (1966) Come Live with Me (1967) Morning, Noon and Night (1968)