When Charles Nelson Reilly was thirteen, he survived the 1944 Hartford circus fire which killed 167 people and injured 700 more. That traumatic experience followed him all his life. Although he later became a Broadway actor, he would not sit in the audience unless he was next to an exit.
Reilly spent most of his early career performing on stage. He was in the original casts of “Bye Bye Birdie” in a supporting role but understudied Dick Van Dyke; “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” as Bud Frump (for which he won a Tony); and in “Hello Dolly” as Cornelius Hackl (nominated for a Tony).
This led to numerous roles on TV, including over 100 appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and two seasons on the sitcom “The Ghost & Mrs. Muir”.
But the venue that Reilly is best remembered is as a celebrity participant in “Match Game” with 1,161 appearances.
Many of the characters Reilly played had an effete manner. In the Match Game, Reilly amped up the double entendres in his Witty yet sarcastic answers that often hinted (shouted?) at his homosexuality - including referring to his alternated persona, the deep voiced Chuck.
But my favorite performance was in the 1996 episode of “The X Files” where he played UFO author Jose Chung. It may the best of the entire series. The character returned a year later in a “Millennium” episode from the same producers.
Charles formally came out to the public in his 2000 one-man show “Save It For the Stage: The Life of Reilly”. His final performance was recorded and edited into a film released after his death in 2007.
In a 2002 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Charles Nelson Reilly said he “never purposely hid being gay from anyone”.
Reilly met Patrick Hughes, a set director, on the game show “Battlestars” in 1980. They lived in Beverly Hills, with their relationship last 27 years until “Chuck’s” death a the age of 76.
