Bob Hastings

Bob Hastings was an actor best known for the role of Lt. Elroy Carpenter on the 1960s TV comedy McHale’s Navy.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Hastings broke into show business at age 11, when he began working on radio dramas. After serving in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he starred as Archie Andrews in a Mutual Broadcasting System radio program based on the Archie comic books.

He made his television debut in 1949 with a part on Captain Video and His Video Rangers. Other early credits included Atom Squad, The United States Steel Hour and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet. In the mid-’50s he had first recurring role, as a lieutenant on The Phil Silvers Show.

McHale’s Navy, which starred Ernest Borgnine the lieutenant commander of a PT boat unit in the South Pacific during World War II, aired from 1962 to 1966. Hastings' chararacter was a notorious yes-man who reported to Captain Binghamton, played by Joe Flynn.

Over the years, Hastings appeared on dozens of other TV programs, including The Untouchables, The Donna Reed Show, Gunsmoke, Dennis the Menace, Car 54, Where Are You?, The Twilight Zone, The Munsters, Batman, I Dream of Jeannie, Green Acres, Emergency!, Adam-12, Love, American Style, Barnaby Jones, Ironside, All in the Family, The Rockford Files, Three's Company and Murder, She Wrote.

He also did voice-over work for cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, Superman and Gotham Girls, and video games, including Mafia II.

Hastings died June 30, 2014, in Burbank, California. He was 89.