Film & TV / Comedy
Wally Cox
1924–1973 · actor, comedian
Star of early TV's Mister Peepers and voice of Underdog, born in Detroit and a graduate of the city's Denby High School.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Bel Air, Los Angeles, California
aged 48- Birth name
- Wallace Maynard Cox
- Also known as
- Mister Peepers · Voice of Underdog
- Detroit years
- 1924–1934, late 1930s–1940s
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Wally Cox was born in Detroit in 1924. When he was ten his family moved to Evanston, Illinois, where he became a close friend of a neighbor boy, Marlon Brando, a friendship that lasted the rest of his life. After more moves, including a spell in New York City, the family returned to Detroit, and Cox graduated from Denby High School on the city's east side. He went on to City College of New York and New York University, supporting his family by making and selling jewelry in a small shop while performing comic monologues at parties. That low-key, bookish humor made him a television star as the mild science teacher in Mister Peepers (1952–1955). He later became a regular panelist on Hollywood Squares and gave his voice to the cartoon superhero Underdog. He died in 1973 at 48; his ashes were later scattered together with Brando's.
Highlights
- Title role in the live NBC sitcom Mister Peepers (1952–1955)
- Voice of Underdog in the animated series (1964–1973)
- Regular panelist on Hollywood Squares
- More than 20 films as a character actor
- Lifelong friend of Marlon Brando
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · early 1940s
Denby High School
East-side Detroit public high school from which Cox graduated after his family returned to the city.