''Brady Bunch'' butcher Allan Melvin dies

(FROM AP) — Allan Melvin, the jolly character actor best known for playing Sam the Butcher on The Brady Bunch, has died at age 84. He succumbed to cancer on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. In a four-decade career, the New York-bred Broadway veteran appeared, usually as a cuddly lug of a sidekick, in a wide range of TV comedies, including All in the Family, Archie Bunker’s Place, The Phil Silvers Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and The Andy Griffith Show. He also voiced the Hanna-Barbera character Magilla Gorilla, and participated in several installments of The Flintstones. Melvin’s lasting impression, however, came from his multiple-episode stint on The Brady Bunch in the early 1970s. As Sam Franklin, he was the bowling-loving butcher boyfriend of housekeeper Alice (Ann B. Davis), as well as the family’s unofficial 10th member. Melvin stayed busy as a voice actor and occasional guest star, primarily on children’s programs, well into the 1990s. (AP via Yahoo!)