Bob Uecker, the actor: From ‘Mr. Belvedere’ to ‘Major League’ to Miller Lite ads
Uecker retired from playing baseball in 1967, but his career was far from over
Updated: 4:45 PM CST Jan 16, 2025
AND AT. I WAS VERY LUCKY AND FORTUNATE. I GUESS, YOU KNOW, BEING IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME, HAVING A GREAT PLAYER. AND THERE WAS A LOT OF GUYS THAT WERE REALLY SUPER PLAYERS THAT ARE OUT OF BASEBALL AND NEVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO, YOU KNOW, GET IN AS FAR AS BROADCASTING GOES. IT’S NOT JUST AN INTERVIEW. IT’S AN INTERVIEW WITH PETER UBER. 12 NEWS SPOKE WITH BOB UECKER BACK IN THE 80S WHEN HE WAS ACTING. IT REALLY TOOK HIS ACTING CAREER TO THE NEXT LEVEL. WHEN HE WAS STARTING THE SITCOM MR. BELVEDERE. THAT SHOW RAN FROM 1985 TO 19 99 OR 1990. I SHOULD SAY ON ABC. UECKER PLAYED GEORGE JONES, OBVIOUSLY THE STAR OF THAT SHOW. AND EARLIER TODAY, 12 NEWS SPOKE WITH EILEEN GRAF UECKER’S TV WIFE, ABOUT THE SHOW. EILEEN, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING ME AND SHARING SOME OF YOUR REFLECTIONS ON ON SOMEONE WHO HAD SUCH AN IMPACT ON SO MANY. JUST WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT YOUR TIME WORKING WITH BOB UECKER? LAUGHING. BOB’S GOAL IN LIFE, I THINK, WAS TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH. AND WHAT A WHAT AN AMAZING PRIVILEGE IT WAS TO GO TO WORK EVERY DAY AND KNOW THAT OUR JOB MEANT LAUGHING. AND HE WAS ABSOLUTELY THE RINGLEADER. HE NEVER DIDN’T HAVE A QUIP OR A ZINGER OR A LINE. HE JUST WAS. HE WAS MIRACULOUS. YEAH. MR. BELVEDERE WAS ON THE AIR FOR ABOUT FIVE SEASONS, 1985 TO 1990. YOU WERE IN MORE THAN 100 EPISODES WITH HIM PLAYING HIS TV WIFE. WHAT WAS THAT LIKE, BEING ABLE TO COME TO WORK EVERY DAY WITH SOMEONE WHO HAD ALREADY MADE SUCH AN IMPACT IN THE WORLD OF BASEBALL? YOU KNOW WHAT WAS INTERESTING ABOUT BOB IS THAT HE NEVER MADE A BIG DEAL ABOUT HIMSELF. I REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE DOING THE PILOT RIGHT AT THE VERY, VERY BEGINNING, AND HE SAID TO CHRISTOPHER HEWITT, WHO PLAYED MR. BELVEDERE AND WAS A STAGE VETERAN OF MANY, MANY YEARS, AND ME, WHO CAME FROM BROADWAY, HE SAID, LOOK, YOU’RE THE PROS. I’M AN AMATEUR AT THIS. JUST TELL ME WHAT TO DO. AND THAT WAS THAT. WE KNEW WE WERE SET ON A RIGHT COURSE, AND I THINK NOT ONLY DID THAT HAVE TO DO WITH HIS CHARACTER, BUT IT ALSO HAD TO DO WITH THE FACT THAT HE WAS A BASEBALL PLAYER AND HE WAS USED TO BEING COACHED AND BOSSED AROUND. SO IT WAS A REALLY GREAT COMBINATION OF HIS WILLINGNESS TO LEARN AND OUR WILLINGNESS TO TELL HIM WHAT TO DO. WERE YOU SURPRISED AT ALL AT THE AT HIS LEVEL OF SKILL AND EXPERTISE IN THE WORLD OF TV? YOU KNOW, YOU COMING FROM BROADWAY AND AND YOU NOW STARRING NEXT TO THIS BASEBALL ICON? NO, I THINK THAT HE WAS JUST THE KIND OF GUY THAT WHATEVER IT WAS, HE WAS GOING TO DO IT, AND HE WAS GOING TO DO IT WELL. AND HE NEVER STRAYED TOO FAR FROM HIS PUBLIC IMAGE. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN? WHICH WAS KIND OF TRUE. BUT HE WAS SO MUCH DEEPER THAN THE DOOFUS THAT HE LIKED TO PLAY ON CARSON, WHERE HE WAS BRILLIANTLY FUNNY, OR ON OUR SHOW OR HIS COMMERCIALS OR HIS MOVIES. HE WAS SO WELL READ. HE READ. I DON’T KNOW HOW MANY NEWSPAPERS EVERY MORNING. HE KNEW EVERYTHING THAT WAS GOING ON IN THE WORLD. HE WAS POLITICALLY SAVVY. SO YOU COULD HAVE, LIKE, REAL, I HATE TO USE THE WORD INTELLECTUAL, BUT I CAN’T THINK OF ANOTHER WORD RIGHT NOW. CONVERSATIONS WITH HIM THAT KIND OF HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHARACTER HE PLAYED. SO HE WAS VERY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT HE PLAYED AND WHO HE WAS. DO YOU REMEMBER THE LAST TIME THAT YOU SAW OR THE LAST CONVERSATION THAT YOU HAD WITH HIM? I HAVEN’T SEEN HIM IN A LONG TIME, IN A REALLY LONG TIME. BUT SADLY, MY LAST CONVERSATION WITH HIM WAS WHEN MY REAL HUSBAND DIED 11 MONTHS TO THE DAY THAT BOB DIED. SO MY HUSBAND HAS GONE 11 MONTHS AND BOB DIED TODAY, AND HE AND JUDY CALLED HIS WIFE, JUDY CALLED, AND WE HAD LONG CONVERSATION, AND HE WAS SO COMFORTING AND SO STRONG AND SO LOVING. I TREASURED THAT CALL. JUST AMAZING WORDS FROM EILEEN. AND OBVIOUSLY, BESIDES PLAYING MR. BELVEDERE, HIS MOST ICONIC ROLE IN THE CINEMATIC UNIVERSE WAS HARRY DOYLE IN THE MOVIE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, WHICH WAS FILMED PRETTY MUCH RIGHT HERE, WHERE OLD COUNTY STADIUM USED TO BE, AND GAVE US SOME OF THE BEST MOVIE QUOTES OF ALL TIME. AS YOU KNOW, MONTE VAUGHN’S BEEN WORKING ON A COUPLE OF NEW PITCHES, THE ELIMINATOR AND THE HUMILIATOR, TO COMPLEMENT HIS FASTBALL. THE TERMINATOR. I HEARD THAT DYNAMITE DROPPED I
Bob Uecker, the actor: From ‘Mr. Belvedere’ to ‘Major League’ to Miller Lite ads
Uecker retired from playing baseball in 1967, but his career was far from over
Updated: 4:45 PM CST Jan 16, 2025
When Bob Uecker stopped playing baseball in 1967, his lifelong career was really just beginning. “I was very lucky, and fortunate, I guess being in the right place at the right time. I wasn’t a great player. There are a lot of guys who were really super players that are out of baseball and never had the opportunity as far as broadcasting,” Uecker told WISN 12 News in 1985.Uecker joined the ABC series “Mr. Belvedere” and played George Owens, the father of a suburban family in Pittsburgh. He was a sportswriter who eventually became a sportscaster. “I just saw Bob and Judy three weeks ago at their home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. I knew he was sick, which made the visit even more important to me. Even with a walker and on pain meds, he was cracking jokes and making me laugh. I’ll always treasure the memories from ‘Mr. Belvedere’ —there were so many. Bob was the glue that held us together and kept us grounded. He never took anything too seriously, and his #1 goal was always to make us laugh,” said Tracy (Wells) Tofte, who appeared alongside Uecker on “Mr. Belvedere.” The series ran until 1990. In 1989, Uecker went from television to the big screen. “Major League” was released in April of that year with Uecker playing fictionalized Cleveland Indians broadcaster Harry Doyle.Some of the places where filming took place included County Stadium, the Third Ward and 4th Base Restaurant in West Milwaukee.People may have also spotted him in a series of Miller Lite commercials over the years. Fans left cans of Miller Lite at the Bob Uecker statue at American Family Field. According to MLB.com, in 1986, Uecker had a cameo in “Who’s the Boss?” which starred Tony Danza as a former ballplayer and single dad who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for a divorced advertising executive. The scene in which Uecker talks with Danza’s daughter, played by Alyssa Milano, is a reference to Uecker’s “front row” Miller Lite ad.
MILWAUKEE —When Bob Uecker stopped playing baseball in 1967, his lifelong career was really just beginning.
“I was very lucky, and fortunate, I guess being in the right place at the right time. I wasn’t a great player. There are a lot of guys who were really super players that are out of baseball and never had the opportunity as far as broadcasting,” Uecker told WISN 12 News in 1985.
Uecker joined the ABC series “Mr. Belvedere” and played George Owens, the father of a suburban family in Pittsburgh. He was a sportswriter who eventually became a sportscaster.
“I just saw Bob and Judy three weeks ago at their home in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. I knew he was sick, which made the visit even more important to me. Even with a walker and on pain meds, he was cracking jokes and making me laugh. I’ll always treasure the memories from ‘Mr. Belvedere’ —there were so many. Bob was the glue that held us together and kept us grounded. He never took anything too seriously, and his #1 goal was always to make us laugh,” said Tracy (Wells) Tofte, who appeared alongside Uecker on “Mr. Belvedere.”
The series ran until 1990.
In 1989, Uecker went from television to the big screen.
“Major League” was released in April of that year with Uecker playing fictionalized Cleveland Indians broadcaster Harry Doyle.
Some of the places where filming took place included County Stadium, the Third Ward and 4th Base Restaurant in West Milwaukee.
People may have also spotted him in a series of Miller Lite commercials over the years. Fans left cans of Miller Lite at the Bob Uecker statue at American Family Field.
According to MLB.com, in 1986, Uecker had a cameo in “Who’s the Boss?” which starred Tony Danza as a former ballplayer and single dad who takes a job as a live-in housekeeper for a divorced advertising executive. The scene in which Uecker talks with Danza’s daughter, played by Alyssa Milano, is a reference to Uecker’s “front row” Miller Lite ad.
