R.I.P.

"Like Sam the Butcher bringing Alice the meat;
like Fred Flintstone driving around with bald feet"
LOS ANGELES -- Allan Melvin, a character actor with countless credits best known for playing Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch," has died. He was 84.

Melvin died of cancer Thursday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, said his wife of 64 years, Amalia Melvin.

The jowly, jovial Melvin spent decades playing a series of sidekicks, second bananas and lovable lugs, including Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on "All in the Family," and Sgt. Bilko's right-hand man Cpl. Henshaw on the "Phil Silvers Show."

But his place in pop culture will be fixed as butcher and bowler Sam Franklin, the love interest of Brady family maid Alice Nelson, played by Ann B. Davis. Melvin played the role from 1970 to 1973.

He saw steady employment as a voice actor from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, most famously providing the voice of "Magilla Gorilla" for the Hanna Barbera cartoon of the same name.

His other credits include several guest appearances on "The Andy Griffith Show," "Gomer Pyle: USMC," and "The Dick Van Dyke Show."