Hyman J. Averback, known as Hy Averback (October 21, 1920 – October 14, 1997) was an American radio, television, and film actor who eventually became a producer and director.
Radio
Averback was an announcer in Hollywood before World War II. During the War, as part of the Armed Forces Radio Service, he entertained troops in the Pacific with his program of comedy and music, where he created the character of Tokyo Mose, a lampoon of Japan's Tokyo Rose. In the post-War years, he became the announcer for Bob Hope and Jack Paar on NBC and also announced for other NBC radio shows, The Sealtest Village Store and Let's Talk Hollywood.
Television
Doing comedy on early television, he appeared on The Saturday Night Revue (1953–54), Tonight (1955) and NBC Comedy Hour (1956). He was a series regular as Mr. Romero on the Eve Arden sitcom Our Miss Brooks and also appeared in CBS's I Love Lucy and other 1950s comedies, having moving into directing at the end of that decade. He directed The Real McCoys, the Walter Brennan sitcom which was created and produced by Irving Pincus and aired on ABC and CBS from 1957 to 1963. Later, Averback shared directing duties with Richard Crenna on The Real McCoys. Crenna had also been a cast member with Averback on Our Miss Brooks.
Averback also directed for The Dick Powell Show (1961–63), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–68), The Flying Nun (1967–70), Columbo (1971), McCloud (1971), M*A*S*H (1972),Quark (1978), Matt Houston (1982–83), The Four Seasons (1984) and the miniseries Pearl (1978). For CBS, he produced Mrs. G. Goes to College (aka The Gertrude Berg Show) in the 1961-1962 season.
He co-produced the popular 1960s sitcom F Troop and supplied the voice over the loudspeaker heard on the television series M*A*S*H. His actual recording from a Bob Hope show was used in M*A*S*H episode 63, Bombed, from season 3 where he announces himself as Hope's announcer.
An often quoted live radio blooper in the early days was that a tongue-tied announcer tried to introduce him on a show sponsored by Eversharp razor blades. What came out was, "And here's Hy Aversharp for Everback! -- er, I mean, here's Hy Averback for Eversharp!" [Possibly urban legend, but often taken as a true event.]
Films
Film credits include directing Chamber of Horrors (1966), Where Were You When the Lights Went Out? (1968), I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968), The Great Bank Robbery(1969), and Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came (1969) as well as the reunion TV-movie The New Maverick (1978) with James Garner and Jack Kelly.
Averback died on October 14, 1997 in Los Angeles after cardiac surgery.
Source: Wikipedia