Jack Riley and Bob Newhart
Along with playing the neurotic Elliot Carlin on Bob Newhart and appearing in Brooks films including High Anxiety and History of the World, Part I, Riley voiced Stu Pickles on Nickelodeon's hit classic Nicktoon Rugrats and its follow-up series, All Grown Up!.
Stu Pickles with son Tommy on Nickelodeon's Rugrats
A Cleveland native, Riley began his career as a regular on the 1962-63 ABC sitcom Occasional Wife, which was narrated by Vin Scully. The actor went on to guest on dozens of popular TV series ranging from I Dream of Jeannie and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In to The Partridge Family and Hogan’s Heroes before landing what would become his signature role.
The Bob Newhart Show premiered in September 1972 and became a hit for CBS. Starring Newhart as a Chicago psychologist, the smart, quirky sitcom was among the top 20 programs in primetime for its first three seasons. Riley's neuroses-laden Elliot appeared in nearly 50 episodes as a patient of Bob's who had a persecution complex and constantly put himself down. He appeared in all six seasons of the show, which also starred Suzanne Pleshette and Marcia Wallace.
Riley continued to work in elsewhere in TV during Bob Newhart's run, guesting on such classic comedies as M*A*S*H, Mary Tyler Moore and Happy Days along with dramas including Cannon, Columbo and Police Woman. In 1976, he played a Hollywood executive in Silent Movie, Brooks' follow-up to Young Frankenstein, and Riley would go on to appear in the filmmaker's High Anxiety (1978), History of the World, Part I (1981) - playing a Roman soldier under the effect of "Roman Red" - and Spaceballs (1987).
Riley continued to work throughout the 80s and 90s and through the 2000s, with credits too numerous to name. His later-career highlight was voicing Stu Pickles, the father of Tommy and Dil on Rugrats. Riley appeared on more than 140 episodes of the '90s Nicktoon, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last week, reprising the role in the 1998-2003 film trilogy and several episodes of follow-up series All Grown Up!. Riley's character spawned the popular "Stu Making Chocolate Pudding" meme:
Among other TV shows on which Riley guest starred in many shows, including episodes of The Secret Life of Alex Mack, Seinfeld, Married with Children, Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, Harry and the Hendersons, Charles in Charge, Punky Brewster, ALF, Baywatch, That '70s Show, and made appearances in multiple episodes of series, such as The Red Skelton Show, Barney Miller, Diff'rent Strokes, Night Court, Son of the Beach.
Additional sources: I, II, Rugrats Wiki, IMDb.