Sid Melton

Actor Sid Melton was best known for playing hapless carpenter Alf Monroe on the bucolic sitcom "Green Acres." From the show's premiere in 1965, Alf delighted audiences, endlessly arguing with his curiously named sister, Ralph (Mary Grace Canfield), who was also his partner in the carpentry trade. Born in Brooklyn, Melton made his first on-screen appearances in the early 1940s, often in bit roles where he served as comic relief. Into the 1950s, Melton increasingly found work on TV, appearing on shows like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Dragnet," and "The Andy Griffith Show." In 1959, he nabbed a continuing role as Charley Halper on "Make Room For Daddy," which was later re-titled "The Danny Thomas Show." Melton's character was the owner of the Copa Club, where Thomas' crooner character often sang. After Melton left "Green Acres" in 1969, he re-joined Danny Thomas in 1970's short-lived "Make Room For Granddaddy." He continued to work on sitcoms throughout the 1980s, and in 1990, the actor returned to the town of Hooterville for the TV movie "Return to Green Acres." Melton's brother is screenwriter Lewis Meltzer ("The Man with the Golden Arm"). Melton died in 2011 at his home in Burbank, California, at the age of 94.