When Lear wrote Lionel out of the series for its fifth season, someone had to step up and absorb some of George’s invective. That person was Jay Hammer, who played Allan Willis, the son of, as George often called them, “zebras” Tom and Helen Willis. If you primarily watched the series in syndication, the Allan episodes always elicited a “why wasn’t that guy on more often” response, which is a credit to Hammer’s effective (if brief) time on the show.
Hammer went on to appear in only two more television shows. One of those was the long-running CBS daytime soap opera “Guiding Light,” on which he played journalist Fletcher Reade between 1984 and 1998. Some people might treat soaps as silly diversions, but if your character catches on with a series’ viewership you will work for a very long time. Hammer turned 79 last year, and has no IMDb credits post-“Guiding Light,” so hopefully he’s enjoying a well-deserved retirement!
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