Stuffy Singer | |
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![]() Singer in 2013 | |
Born | Simon Singer November 24, 1941 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Known for | United States and world champion American handball player; teenage radio and television actor |
Television | Beulah , Blondie and Dagwood , Leave it to Beaver , My Three Sons , My Little Margie , The Life of Riley , and Annie Oakley . |
Simon "Stuffy" Singer (born November 24, 1941) is an American former United States and world singles champion American handball player. [1] [2] He has been inducted into the United States Handball Association Hall of Fame. He was also a teenage radio and television actor, starring on the television show Blondie and Dagwood in the 1950s. [3] [4]
Singer was born in Los Angeles, California, is Jewish, and attended Bancroft Junior High School and Fairfax High School (class of 1957). [5] [6] He lived in Hollywood, California. [7] [6] In addition to American handball, in his youth Singer also competed in table tennis, tennis, football, and baseball. [8]
Singer was a teenage radio and television actor. [9] In radio, he appeared in a number of shows, between 1944 and 1955. [3] He played on the TV situation comedy Beulah for two seasons, starting in 1952, playing the role of Donnie Henderson. [10] He starred on the television show Blondie and Dagwood in the 1950s. [9] [10] He played Alexander Bumstead, the son of Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead. [10] He also acted in the television sitcoms Leave it to Beaver , My Three Sons , My Little Margie , and The Life of Riley , and the TV series Annie Oakley . [10]
Singer won his first handball national and world singles championships in 1965, and his last in 1988. [11] [12] He won 16 United States, Canadian, and world titles in singles (including the 1967 Open Singles World Championship, and the 1968 USHA four-wall men's singles championship) and doubles (including the 1978 and 1979 men's doubles championships). [13] [14] [15]
In 1971, on behalf of the United States government, Singer toured Germany and England with handballer Jimmy Jacobs, giving clinics and exhibitions to Air Force personnel. [11] When he retired from competition in 1988, Singer was ranked the #5 all-time professional tournament winner. [11]
Singer was inducted into the Southern California Handball Association Hall of Fame in 1984, and into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1991. [11] [16] He was also inducted into the United States Handball Association Hall of Fame in 1994. [17] [18]
Singer is a tax consultant in Southern California. [19] He and his ex-wife Sunny have two children together.
Blondie is an American comic strip created by cartoonist Chic Young. The comic strip is distributed by King Features Syndicate, and has been published in newspapers since September 8, 1930. The success of the strip, which features the eponymous blonde and her sandwich-loving husband, led to the long-running Blondie film series (1938–1950) and the popular Blondie radio program (1939–1950).
Dagwood Bumstead is a main character in cartoonist Chic Young's long-running comic strip Blondie. He debuted in the first strip on September 8, 1930.
Arthur Lake was an American actor known best for bringing Dagwood Bumstead, the bumbling husband of Blondie, to life in film, radio, and television.
Brian David Teacher is an American former professional tennis player. He reached career-high rankings of world No. 7 in singles and world No. 5 in doubles, both in 1981. Teacher is best remembered for being a major singles champion, triumphing at the 1980 Australian Open. He won eight career singles titles and 16 doubles titles.
Robert Falkenburg was an American amateur tennis player and entrepreneur. He is best known for winning the Men's Singles at the 1948 Wimbledon Championships and introducing soft ice cream and American fast food to Brazil in 1952. He founded the Brazilian fast food chain Bob's.
Glenn L. Cowan was an American table tennis player.
Allen E. Fox is an American former tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s who went on to be a college coach and author. He was ranked as high as U.S. No. 4 in 1962, and was in the top ten in the U.S. five times between 1961 and 1968.
Eliot Teltscher is a retired professional American tennis player. He won the 1983 French Open Mixed Doubles. His highest ranking in singles was No. 6 in the world and in doubles was No. 38 in the world.
Joseph (Joe) Durso is a former professional American handball player. At age 47 he made the semi-finals of the 2002 Open Singles National One-Wall Championships. He was most famous for his unique style of play, and his antagonistic attitude towards his opponents as well as spectators. While he certainly had the skills and power to end points early, he would often favor moving his opponents around the court, often "toying" with them, in an attempt to humiliate them and exhibit his superiority.
Hanley Stafford, was an actor principally on radio.
Samuel Match was an American tennis player. He was born in Los Angeles, California.
Herbert Flam was an American tennis player who, in 1957 was ranked by Lance Tingay as the World No. 4 amateur.
Myron Jay "Mike" Franks is an American former world class tennis player. He was the #1 seeded junior player in 1954 in the US Nationals at Kalamazoo, Michigan. He played #1 singles for UCLA from 1956 to 1958, and was one of 8 All Americans in college tennis. UCLA won its 5th NCAA Tennis Team Championship in 1956, but was placed on two years probation for football recruiting violations in 1957 and 1958. Franks was ranked # 3 in doubles in the United States in 1956, 1957, and 1959, and was ranked # 7 in singles in 1958. He won a gold medal in doubles at the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel with Dick Savitt.
Paul Haber (1937–2003) was an American one, three, and four wall National Handball champion. Haber is credited with being the first player to use the ceiling offensively and did so very effectively. He was inducted into the United States Handball Association Hall of Fame in 1983. Paul Haber was born of Polish Jewish ancestry in the Bronx in 1937. He won countless American and Canadian handball titles. Haber took an overlooked sport and turned it into a publicized one. Haber appeared on the front page of the Wall Street Journal in 1970. Numerous magazines featured him including Sports Illustrated, Ace, and Argosy. It was not just Haber's ability on the court that caught national media attention. Haber would clobber the straight arrow handball players and then wind up in jail or a hospital after days of being on a bender with various females. He supported himself giving handball and golf lessons, playing cards, pool, board games, and betting on his handball matches. Haber lived day-to-day forgetting each night's escapades and capers in anticipation of the next one. He lived a lifestyle that would have ruined most professional athletes.
Ladislav Hecht was a Jewish Czechoslovak-American professional tennis player. He won the gold medal in singles at the 1932 Maccabiah Games in Mandatory Palestine, and won the 1934 Hungarian International Tennis Singles Championship. In 1937 he reached the semifinals of the doubles at Wimbledon with Roderich Menzel, and the following year he reached the 1938 Wimbledon quarterfinals in singles. Despite being Jewish, he was invited to the Germany Davis Cup team in 1938 by an aide to Adolf Hitler who was not aware that he was Jewish, but chose not to accept the invitation. He represented Czechoslovakia in the Davis Cup during the 1930s, was captain of the team, and had a record of 18-19. In the 1930s, he was ranked world #6 in singles.
James Leslie Jacobs was an American handball player, boxing manager, and comic book and fight film collector.
Fred Lewis is an American former handball player.
Erwin Klein was a male table tennis player from the United States, who four times US Open Table Tennis Singles Champion. His nickname was Chubby. He won a gold medal in the Mixed Doubles event at the World Table Tennis Championships in 1956.
Julius Heldman attended Hollywood High School in Los Angeles and entered UCLA at age 15, became the National Junior Tennis Champion in 1936 and was the Tennis Team Captain at UCLA. He received a Doctorate from Stanford University in physical chemistry and became a Shell Oil executive and worked on the Manhattan Project. He was born in Los Angeles, California and died in Albuquerque, New Mexico at age 87. He was taught tennis by legendary tennis teacher, Dick Skeen.
Jerry Conine is an American former wrestler, American footballer and American handball player. Conine competed in the men's freestyle light heavyweight at the 1964 Summer Olympics, and played American football for Washington State Cougars and the Tacoma Tyees.