Room 222 Actors You May Not Know Passed Away

Created by James L. Brooks, whose list of credits includes some of the most rewatchable sitcoms of all time, like "The Simpsons" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," ABC's "Room 222" ran for 5 seasons between 1969 and 1974. A comedy-drama about the lives of students and faculty at California's fictitious Walt Whitman High School, it netted multiple Emmy nominations, as well as wins for outstanding new series and two of its stars, Michael Constantine and Karen Valentine, in 1970.

Though not as celebrated today as shows like "All in the Family" and other shows produced by Norman Lear that followed in its footsteps, "Room 222" was among the first television series to feature a fully integrated cast and tackle a wide array of topics, from politics to race to religion. Many "Room 222" alums, including Brooks, Allan Burns, and Gene Reynolds, would go on to work on similarly topical shows like "Mary Tyler Moore" and "Lou Grant."

The cast of "Room 222" continued to work in films and on television for the next half-century. Valentine has been a well-loved TV performer for more than fifty years, while Denise Nicholas co-starred on "In the Heat of the Night" and penned several critically acclaimed books. Given that the show first aired in the late '60s, it's no surprise that some of its cast members are no longer with us. Here is a list of the "Room 222" actors who you might not know had passed on.

A charismatic presence in features and on television, Lloyd Haynes was top-billed on "Room 222" as progressive and compassionate history teacher Pete Dixon. A rare Black lead on network television in the 1960s and early '70s, Haynes earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his performance and continued to work on episodic television until his untimely death at the age of 52.

Haynes was a U.S. Marine and public relations officer with the Naval Reserve prior to his screen acting career, which began with a 1966 episode of "The F.B.I." Haynes was then cast as Communications Officer Alden on "Star Trek: The Original Series" in the second pilot and Season 1 episode, "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (the source for that enduring line from the show's opening monologue). Guest roles on "Batman" and in films like "Ice Station Zebra" preceded his breakout on "Room 222," which dominated his on-air performances for the next five years. In addition to his starring role, Haynes also contributed the story for the Season 4 episode "Lift, Thrust and Drag," in which Pete sought to launch a flight school for underperforming students — a subject close to Haynes' own heart as a pilot who trained people of color about aviation.

After "Room 222," Haynes enjoyed recurring roles on "Dynasty" and guest appearances on shows like "Simon & Simon." He was co-starring on the daytime soap opera "General Hospital" when he died of lung cancer at the age of 52 on December 31, 1986.

Michael Constantine won an Emmy for playing Seymour Kaufman, the wry principal of Walt Whitman High School on "Room 222." A veteran of features and episodic TV for a decade prior to the show's debut, "Room 222" marked a brief period of stardom for the character actor. He later enjoyed an even wider audience as Gus Portakalos in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and its sequel.

Born Gus Efstratiou in Reading, Pennsylvania, on May 22, 1927, Constantine began his career on the stage. He appeared in, among other productions, the 1957 Broadway run of "Compulsion," based on the real-life Leopold and Loeb murder case. Roles in films like "The Hustler" and shows like "The Fugitive" soon followed, as did his first series regular work on the short-lived "Hey, Landlord," produced by Garry Marshall in 1967. Two years later, he was cast as Principal Kaufman on "Room 222."

When the series left the air in 1974, Constantine briefly enjoyed his own sitcom, "Sirota's Court," in 1976. He later logged time on numerous TV shows, made-for-TV movies, and features before writer and star Nia Vardalos tapped him to play her gruff, Windex-toting father, Gus, in 2002's "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." A surprise hit, it netted Constantine a shared Screen Actors Guild nomination with the cast and roles in the 2016 sequel and subsequent spin-off series, "My Big Fat Greek Life." Constantine died at the age of 94 on August 31, 2021.

Though dozens of performers enjoyed guest roles on "Room 222," from Kurt Russell to Aretha Franklin, none appeared on the series as many times as Ivor Francis. The Canadian actor played English teacher Kenneth Dragen in 18 episodes between 1969 and 1974. Though typically written as bookish and persnickety, Dragen was occasionally allowed a vulnerable moment, most notably in Season 2's "Now About That Cherry Tree," where he admitted to dreams of becoming a poet as a young man.

Born October 26, 1918, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Francis started his career in radio before heading for Broadway in the 1950s. His roles on television and in films also began around this time, and after relocating to Los Angeles, Francis worked extensively in episodic television throughout the 1970s and 1980s, often playing folksy or blustery Dragen types on multiple episodes of "The Waltons," "Barney Miller," and "Quincy, M.E." He also taught drama in Los Angeles to, among others, his daughter, daytime soap opera legend Genie Francis. His final screen appearance came on the short-lived legal drama "The Mississippi" in 1984; he died at the age of 67 on October 22, 1986.

There is precious little information on actor Pendrant Netherly, who played student Al Cowley on 12 episodes of "Room 222." Netherly, who was also billed as Pandrant Netherly, doesn't appear to have amassed any screen credits beyond the school-based series and an appearance on "The Bill Cosby Show" in 1970. There isn't also much in the way of biographical information for him beyond the basics; Netherly was born in Texas on January 16, 1951, and died on December 10, 1988, in California.

A 1967 newspaper article cited Pendrant among the participants at a family showcase for a workshop troupe from the Imperial Youth Theater, an arts program based in South Central Los Angeles. But that's it for biographical information. No photos or additional video clips of Netherly appear to exist online, so he remains a mystery. His turns as Al Cowley, however minor, seem to be the only widely available document of his career.

As good-natured administrative assistant Miss Hogarth, character actor Patsy Garrett supported Michael Constantine's Principal Kaufman in Seasons 4 and 5 of "Room 222." Audiences may not have been familiar with Garrett's name, but many knew her face and voice from numerous features, TV series, and radio programs. She was a widely recognizable commercial actor in the 1960s and 1970s, playing the "chow-chow-chow" lady in spots for Purina Cat Chow, which used controlled forward film motion and reversal to depict Garrett dancing with a cat.

Born to stage performers on May 4, 1921, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Garrett began her show business career on radio at the age of 7 and later sang on big band leader Fred Waring's radio show during World War II. Garrett began acting in the early 1960s, playing matronly types on series like "My Three Sons" and in features like "The Trouble with Girls" opposite Elvis Presley. Garrett also lent her voice to animated projects like "Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor." From 1970 to 1971, she was nosy neighbor Mrs. Fowler on 12 episodes of "Nanny and the Professor."

Busy throughout the 1970s with "Room 222," the Purina commercials, and supporting roles in films like "Benji" and "The Parallax View," Garrett's output slowed in the 1980s and '90s, though she did play Mrs. Wilson in a 1987 TV-movie take on "Dennis the Menace." Garrett died at the age of 93 on January 8, 2015.

Busy character actor Robert Casper appeared as two very similar teachers — the anxious Mr. Wisegarten and the fastidious Mr. Girard — in approximately 10 episodes of Seasons 1, 3, and 4 of "Room 222" (IMDB lists the characters in more episodes, but neither Casper nor the characters appear in them). TV audiences saw a lot of Casper during this period; when not on "Room 222," he could be seen on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Mannix," and "Shaft." His adaptability allowed him to maintain steady work on TV and in films for more than four decades.

Born October 7, 1924, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Casper began acting as a young man and pursued it as a career following his service in World War II. Stage roles in New York preceded his first small-screen roles in live TV dramas like "Playhouse 90" in the 1950s, and, by the early '60s, he had settled into steady work on television series like "Batman" and "Bewitched."

After his tenure on "Room 222," Casper continued to appear on series like "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and enjoyed recurring stints on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" as well as curmudgeonly polymath Sherwood Montague on "Little House on the Prairie." Busy into the 1980s and '90s with roles on shows like "Highway to Heaven" and "Murder, She Wrote," Casper — who was also known as Robert Casper Lilley — died at the age of 95 on March 7, 2020.