Career
In addition to his role on The Love Boat, Kopell also made memorable appearances as KAOS agent Siegfried in Get Smart, Alan-a-Dale in When Things Were Rotten, Jerry Bauman in That Girl and Louie Pallucci in The Doris Day Show.
Kopell also played several characters on the sitcom Bewitched including the witches' Apothecary, and the warlock Alonzo in episode # 239, "The Warlock in the Gray Flannel Suit." He played a director in an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ("Good-Bye George," original air date December 13, 1963). About this same time, he guest starred on Phil Silvers's unsuccessful sitcom The New Phil Silvers Show on CBS. He had a cameo as a patient in the Scrubs episode, "My Friend the Doctor", as well as an episode of the Disney Channel Original Series, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. He also portrayed a plastic surgeon who gave Ed Brown a facelift on Chico and the Man.He also appeared on an episode of "Charmed" entitled "Which Prue is it Anyway" as a coroner.
Kopell's role as Doc on The Love Boat was parodied in a humorous cameo appearance on Late Show with David Letterman in 1995. Two entries in that night's Top Ten List poked fun at The Love Boat, and at the Doc character specifically. The camera cut to Kopell, who was sitting in the audience, and he stormed out of the theater. A few moments later, he was shown having been reseated in the mezzanine when the second parody was made at his expense, and again stood up, raised his fists and stormed out, obviously playing along with the host.
In a dream sequence of Fresh Prince of Bel Air Kopell made a parody cameo of himself as an actor who played a ship's doctor so many times he offers to perform an operation for real, while in a 1994 episode of Saturday Night Live he appeared as "Doc" during a Love Boat-themed spoof of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
In the 1995 Fox Network Get Smart series Max's son (played by Andy Dick) meets Siegfried's daughter. When the young Smart tells how his dad always told him that he was a greeting card salesman, Siegfried's daughter replied "My dad always had me believing he was a doctor on a cruise ship."
Kopell made a cameo appearance in the 2008 film adaptation of Get Smart. Recently he has been seen in television advertisements for Nasalcrom, carefully enunciating the product's name and assuring viewers "that's right, it's a spray".
Kopell has also appeared as guest star in the Monk episode "Mr. Monk and the Critic", playing Mr. Gilson, the restroom attendant. Kopell also guest starred in a 2009 episode of My Name is Earl entitled "Pinky."
Kopell has performed in the theater and played the lead role in the off Broadway production of "Viagra Falls" in 2010.
Kopell was born in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Pauline (née Taran) and Al Bernard Kopell.
Read more about this topic: Bernie Kopell
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