Many folks only know "Chuck" form MG. But there's a lot more than that to his resume.
In the 1950's, Charles began an extensive and rewarding career on Broadway, appearing in hits like Hello, Dolly! and How to Suceed in Busines Without Really Trying. In fact, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his work in the latter. While working on Bye Bye Birdie, as fate would have it, he first met the man he'd be inextricably tied with. The man to whom Reilly was understudy - Dick Van Dyke - left the show and was replaced by...Gene Rayburn.
When Broadway wasn't calling, Charles nosed his way into television. His first regular TV job was as a regular on Steve Lawrence's variety show. Three years later, he began a two-year stint as Claymore, the nephew of the departed Captain Gregg, on The Ghost and Mrs. Muir.
After that series ended, Charles stayed in TV, appearing on The
Golddiggers (a summer replacement for The Dean Martin Show)
and a sitcom called Arnie, as well as a memorable two-year run on
Saturday mornings in Sid & Marty Krofft's Lidsville. In 1973,
Charles became a regular
panelist on two game shows. One, It Pays to be Ignorant. lasted
about a season in syndication. The other was MG.
As the show evolved and grew in popularity, Charles became more and more outrageous, bringing the house down with his put-downs of the other panelists (who never worked in legitimate theatre or had a governess) - especially Brett Somers, who hit it off with Reilly alomst immediately, forming perhaps the pre-eminent comedy duo of the 1970's.
During Chuck's nine-year run with MG, he moonlighted as the host of another saturday-morning kids' show, Uncle Croc's Block, and become a frequent visitor to other game and variety shows, as well as continuing to be a presence on Broadway, well past the 1982 demise of MG. He was probably best-known, at least television-wise, during this period as "the Bic Banana," sporting a nifty banana costume while selling the many fine writing tools of the Bic Company in commercials that ran throughout the '70s and early '80s.
Chuck returned to the Ross Shaffer version of MG in 1990 as the
sole regular (although Ronn Lucas was added later) and was,
unquestionably, the bright spot on that show's panel. (And during the
weeks that Brett stopped by, it was hard to tell whether this was a
revival or not!) Later, he hosted a game show called
Sweethearts, which was described as "The Dating Game
meets To Tell the Truth."
Charles, who turns 70 in January 2001, is still as manic
and outrageous
as his ever was (and possibly even more so since the '90 show). You can find him directing on Broadway, and making memorable guest appearances in shows such as "The X-Files," "Millenium" and "The Drew Carey Show."