Career Highlights: The President's Analyst, A Garfield Christmas Special, Between Two Brothers
First Major Screen Credit: The Lucy Show: Lucy the Disk Jockey (1965)
Biography
The son of legendary vaudevillian Pat Harrington Sr., comic actor Pat Harrington Jr. rose to prominence via his many appearances on The Steve Allen Show and The Jack Paar Program in the late 1950s. However, few viewers recognized him as Pat Harrington Jr.: instead, he passed himself off as Italian golf pro Guido Panzini, a guise so convincing that he was invited to play in several major tournaments. Once the public at large was apprised that Harrington was neither Italian nor a master duffer, demands for his services as an actor increased immeasurably. In 1959, he was cast on The Danny Thomas Show as Danny's new son-in-law Pat Hannigan (Thomas had planned to spin off Harrington and his TV daughter Penney Parker into their own series, but this was not to be). In 1962, he served as host of Stump the Stars, a revamped version of the old Summer replacement perennial Pantomime Quiz. Seven years later, he was seen as sharkish PR man Tony Lawrence on the short-lived TV adaptation of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. In 1975, Harrington landed his signature role as macho, aphorism-spouting handyman Dwayne Schneider on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time; he remained with the series until its cancellation in 1984, earning an Emmy along the way. In films, Pat Harrington Jr. has been seen in a gallery of diverse portrayals, most amusingly as smoothly villainous telephone company spokesman Arlington Haven in The President's Analyst (1967). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Harrington was born Daniel Patrick Harrington, Jr., in New York City, New York. His father was a song and dance man who worked in vaudeville and performed on the Broadway stage. In 1950, Harrington graduated from Fordham University with a B.A. and subsequently received a Masters degree in political philosophy, also from Fordham. During the Korean War, Harrington served as an Intelligence Officer with the United States Air Force, where he achieved the rank of First Lieutenant.
In 1985, after 30 years of marriage, Harrington divorced Marjorie Ann Gortner and later remarried.[1] He has four children and four grandchildren.
Career
Following in his father's footsteps, Harrington pursued a career in entertainment after graduating college and completing military service. He took a job at NBC in New York City. He then began acting on stage and toured North America with a number of plays, eventually performing on Broadway.
However, Harrington is best known to later generations for his role as affable building superintendent "Schneider" on the 1975–1984 television sitcom One Day at a Time. He won both an Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his work on this series.
^The Daniel Bender Family History, pg. 22, entry 58. Copyright 1985 by Bender Book Revision Committee, Grantsville, Maryland 21536. (Library of Congress Catalog Number: 84-072406.)