Larry Storch, the actor known for scheming and stumbling as Corporal Randolph Agarn on the satirical 1960s sitcom F Troop, has died at 99. “It was with the heaviest of hearts that we share with you the news our beloved Larry passed away in his sleep overnight,” his official Facebook page announced in a July 8 post. “We are shocked and at a loss for words at the moment. Please remember he loved each and every one of you and wouldn’t want you to cry over his passing. He is reunited with his wife Norma and his beloved F Troop cast and so many friends and family.”
Born in New York City, Laurence Samuel Storch was a natural comedian — per the Associated Press, he once proudly recalled that he developed a reputation as the class clown at the Bronx’s DeWitt Clinton High School and “was invited not to come back.” Storch served in the Navy during World War II, but later gained fame for his association with a different branch of the military: the Army. On F Troop, Storch played Cpl. Agarn, as well as numerous lookalike relatives that came to visit the show’s fictional Army outpost.
During his decades-long career, Storch took on voiceover work for various cartoons, including Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and Looney Tunes’ Cool Cat. He also starred in Broadway revivals of Porgy and Bess and Annie Get Your Gun, as well as dozens of other movies, TV shows, and — toward the end of his life — even TikToks. Yet despite this extensive body of work, he was still probably best known for F Troop’s two-season run on ABC. Storch’s manager, Matt Beckoff, told the AP that the veteran entertainer never regretted that reputation. “He embraced it,” Beckoff said. “He loved being Agarn.”
