'Maytag man' called

National | MAN KNOWS NOT HIS TIME: Farewell to "Ol' Lonely," the underutilized repairman of TV ads—and to other notables who passed away | The Editors

Gordon Jump was a hard-working actor who hustled his way to Hollywood in the 1960s by first paying his dues in various jobs at radio and television stations in the Midwest. Perhaps it was this real-life work ethic that made him so believable as "Ol' Lonely," the Maytag repairman of TV commercials, who seemed genuinely downcast because the brand's legendary reliability left him with no productive work to do.

He portrayed the commercial character from 1989 until last July, when the illness from which he died last week at 71 pushed him into retirement. He also starred as radio station manager Arthur Carlson in the late 1970s-early '80s CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. Television paid the bills for the actor, but his family said that enabled him financially to pursue the calling he loved most, theater.