Max Showalter; Much-Traveled Character Actor

Max Showalter, 83, a character actor whose career on stage and screen paired him with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Bo Derek. Born in Caldwell, Kans., Showalter was exposed to movies as a toddler when he accompanied his mother to the local theater, where she played piano for silent films. He lived in Southern California in the 1930s, acting in nearly 100 shows at the Pasadena Playhouse. His Broadway debut came in “Knights of Song,” and he acted for two years in Irving Berlin’s traveling musical “This Is the Army.” While Showalter was under contract at 20th Century Fox in the 1950s, Darryl Zanuck asked him to change his name. So for several years he would show up in movie credits as Casey Adams. His film career included “Niagara” with Monroe. He was also in “10” with Bo Derek and had parts in “The Music Man,” “Racing With the Moon” and “Sixteen Candles.” As a television actor, Showalter was seen on “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Kojak” and “Perry Mason.” Showalter played the role of Ward Cleaver in the pilot episode of “Leave It to Beaver.” He left Hollywood in the mid-1980s, settling in Chester, Conn., a town he fell in love with while filming “It Happened to Jane.” A composer and pianist, Showalter was active in community theater in Connecticut. On Sunday of cancer in Middletown, Conn.