Hal Stone died February 21, 2007, was a radio actor best known for his performance as Jughead

Jughead Jones

Jughead Jones is a fictional character in Archie Comics who first appeared in the comic in December 1941. He is the son of Forsythe II; although in one of the early Archie newspaper comic strips, he himself is identified as Forsythe Van Jones II...

 on the Archie Andrews

Archie Andrews (comics)

Archie Andrews, created in 1941 by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, as well as the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip, The Archie Show, and Archie's Weird Mysteries.-Character and...

radio series.

Radio

Stone was a three-year-old child model who began acting on Broadway at age eight and then was heard as an actor on numerous network radio programs for 15 years. Archie Andrews began on the NBC Blue Network May 31, 1943, switched to Mutual in 1944, and then continued on NBC from 1945 until September 05, 1953. Hal Stone, then known as Harlan Stone, portrayed Archie's pal, Jughead, and was known for the catchphrase, "Aw... relax, Archie, re-laxxx!" Jughead was also played by Cameron Andrews. Alice Yourman and Arthur Kohl, among others.

Television

After his radio career, Stone made appearances in early live television productions. Discharged from the Air Force after the Korean War, he obtained a degree in speech and drama from Hofstra University

Hofstra University

Hofstra University is a private, nonsectarian institution of higher learning located in the Village of Hempstead, New York, United States, about east of New York City: less than an hour away by train or car...

 and studied television production at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He spent 25 years as a television producer-director and also served as board chairman of Centrex Productions, Inc., a New York TV and videotape production company. He retired from television production in 1980.

Books

Stone's autobiography, Aw... Relax, Archie! Re-laxx! was published in 2003. An accomplished artist, Stone illustrated children's books written by his second wife, Dorothy Dobson-Stone.

Legacy

Four grizzly bears at the Bronx zoo were named Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica. In a curious coincidence, the bear named Jughead died March 2, 2007, nine days after Stone's death. Stone associate Frank Cernese recalled, "In another strange coincidence, Ferd Manning, who was Hal Stone's lighting director for many years, died on the same day. He passed just minutes before Hal, and all of Hal's ex-employees, including me, like to think that Ferd was lighting the way."

External links

• Memorial obituaries