Kay E. Kuter

Who was Kay E. Kuter?

Kay Edwin Emmert Kuter was an American actor who starred on television and in film. The Los Angeles, California-born actor performed mostly as a serious actor or "heavy" in many 1960s series, often in a beard, before taking a recurring role on two CBS sitcoms. He is mostly recognized for his roles on Green Acres and Petticoat Junction.

He appeared in many films, including The Last Starfighter as Enduran, Warlock and Gross Anatomy. His last film role was in the 2004 film Forbidden Warrior. He also provided voice work for kids films, including providing the voice of Santa Claus in Annabelle's Wish and the voice of Grimsby in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea replacing Ben Wright who died in 1989. In recent years, he did extensive voice acting in video games, including playing the bartender Griswold Goodsoup in The Curse of Monkey Island and Dockmaster Velasco in Grim Fandango, both well-known LucasArts Adventure games of the 1990s. He was probably best known to video game fans as Werner Huber in The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery. He was the voice of "Hershey's Kisses" commercials for 14 years.

He made guest appearances on many television series, including Bonanza, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, Star Trek: The Next Generation as a Cytherian in the season four episode "The Nth Degree", and in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the Bajoran Sirah in the first season episode "The Storyteller". He also appeared on ER, the Charmed episode "Happily Ever After", the Outer Limits episode "The Premonition" as a "Limbo Being" caught in time, Seinfeld as the Latvian Orthodox priest, The X-Files episode "The Calusari" as the head Calusari, and Frasier as a vagrant who wants a kiss from Martin Crane.