Cold Turkey (film) - Actors

Actors

• Veteran actor Edward Everett Horton, whose career began in 1906, plays tobacco company president Hiram C. "Mr. Tobacco' Grayson in a wheelchair and without dialogue. He is shown later in a limousine as Grayson farts, possibly the first time that is depicted in a U.S. movie. This was Horton's final role, and he died before the film was released.
• Director Norman Lear has a three-second cameo approximately 2/3 of the way into the film. He is shown as one of the townspeople sitting down and crying because he is unable to get a cigarette fix.
• Maureen McCormick, best known for her role as Marcia Brady on television's The Brady Bunch, provides the voice of a talking doll in the film, which says "I love you! - smoking gives you cancer!"
• The characters played by Bob and Ray are parodies of real-life news and broadcasting personalities: "Walter Chronic" (Walter Cronkite), "Hugh Upson" (Hugh Downs), "David Chetley" (Chet Huntley/David Brinkley), "Arthur Lordly" (Arthur Godfrey), "Paul Hardly" (Paul Harvey), and "Sandy Van Andy" (Sander Vanocur). The film's promotional trailer features different newscasters, "Hardly Reasonable" (Harry Reasoner) and "Mike Walrus" (Mike Wallace), one of whom is played by Paul Dooley (who does not appear in the final film).
• A number of actors appearing in the film -- Jean Stapleton, Vincent Gardenia, Paul Benedict and Barnard Hughes -- would go on to work with Lear in the coming years on his various television projects.