Ronnie Schell, the stand-up comedian who starred as the wisecracking Duke Slater, the best friend of Jim Nabors  character, on the 1960s CBS comedy Gomer Pyle: USMC, died on Friday. He was 94.

Schell died of natural causes at UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Schell also was a prolific voice actor who worked on many cartoons, and one of his more noteworthy gigs was as the animated Peter Puck, who explained the rules of hockey to viewers of NHL games on NBC in the 1970s.

A popular opening act in clubs - he toured with the folk/pop group The Kingston Trio for more than two years - the self-deprecating Schell billed himself as  America's Slowest Rising Young Comedian. 

And he played Ann Marie's (Marlo Thomas) agent on two first-season 1966 episodes of ABC's That Girl.

Schell appeared as Pvt. Slater for three seasons of Gomer Pyle starting in 1964, then was written out to star in another CBS comedy, Good Morning, World. When that show was canceled after a season, he returned to Camp Henderson, with Slater having earned a promotion to corporal, for Gomer s fifth and final season.

After Nabors decided to end the series - then No. 2 in the ratings - to host a CBS variety show, Schell followed him and worked on The Jim Nabors Hour for its two seasons. He also landed supporting roles in such Disney films as The Strongest Man in the World (1975), Gus (1976), The Shaggy D.A. (1976) and The Cat From Outer Space (1978) - he voiced the cat - as well as Love at First Bite (1979).

Schell was born on Dec. 23, 1931, in Richmond, California, and went to Richmond Union High School. He played first base for American Legion and semipro teams in the East Bay, started doing comedy while in the U.S. Air Force and graduated from San Francisco State in 1958 with a degree in Liberal Studies.

While he was still a senior, he left a play in college to perform stand-up at The Purple Onion for $85 a week, joining Phyllis Diller and The Kingston Trio on a bill at the famed North Beach club.

George Fenneman, the announcer on the Groucho Marx-hosted You Bet Your Life - and a fellow S

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