| Subject: Actor Dan Resin, longtime Secaucus resident, dies at 79 |
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July 31, 2010
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Date Posted: Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 09:52:35pm
Dan Resin, a stage and screen actor who played Dr. Beeper in the classic film comedy “Caddyshack” and the dapper Ty-D-bol man in television commercials for the toilet bowl cleaner, died Saturday.
Dan Resin also did commercials for the New York State Lottery.
He was 79 and had lived in Secaucus for nearly 50 years.
Mr. Resin died of complications from Parkinson’s disease, said a daughter, Elizabeth Olynick.
Fortunate is the actor who lands a role that cinches his place in popular culture. Mr. Resin had two such roles.
As the erudite Ty-D-bol Man, Mr. Resin wore white pants and a captain’s blazer and talked up the sanitizer before revving away in his motorboat in the brilliant blue of a toilet tank.
“Introducing new improved Ty-D-bol,” he said in a 1971 commercial, available on YouTube. “Now we didn’t dare change Ty-D-bol’s extra strength formula with chlorine. It still helps clean and deodorize your bowl automatically every time you flush. … Introducing Ty-D-bol’s new plastic bottle. It was the only way to improve.”
Mr. Resin was one of at least six actors who portrayed the Ty-D-bol man and the first to wear the character’s trademark nautical duds, according to a 1985 Dallas Morning News article. Mr. Resin told the newspaper that he lost TV commercial work for some food products because of his association with toilets.
“I think he enjoyed the notoriety,” his daughter said, adding that her sister was teased by friends for having the Ty-D-bol man for a father.
In the 1980 golf comedy “Caddyshack,” which the current Sports Illustrated calls “perhaps the funniest sports movie ever made,” Mr. Resin was a snobbish, beeper-carrying physician and country club member opposite characters played by Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield.
“Dr. Beeper was his defining role,” his daughter said. “That was the role people associate him with.”
Mr. Resin had to learn to play golf for the role but did not keep up with the sport after making "Caddyshack," Olynick said.
And in real life, he never carried a beeper.
Mr. Resin was born Daniel Wrzesien in South Bend, Ind. His father ran the dining halls at the University of Notre Dame and his mother was a hairdresser. He studied music and theater at Indiana University in Bloomington, served in the Army at Fort Monmouth, and headed to New York to pursue an acting career.
He had roles on Broadway in “My Fair Lady,” “Once Upon a Mattress,” “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” and “Don’t Drink the Water.” His film credits, aside from “Caddyshack,” included “The Sunshine Boys” (1975) and “Wise Guys” (1986). He was in the cast of the short-lived ’70s TV sitcom, “On Our Own,” and appeared in hundreds of advertising spots, including those for the New York State Lottery in which he portrayed a chicken, a potato and a peanut.
Reflecting on the craft of commercial acting, Mr. Resin once told Backstage magazine: “The essence of commercial work is the time limit. You have a specific amount of time to establish a character. If you have to come on as a pompous businessman, or a nasty person or a nebbish husband, you have to do it immediately. … This is the criteria of successful commercial actors: to be whatever character they are playing before they begin to read or improvise.”
Mr. Resin, a Republican, tried his hand at Secaucus politics, falling short in a 1987 bid to unseat a Democratic councilman in the Second Ward. He conceded during the campaign that his familiar face probably couldn’t hurt his chances. “I can’t help being a little bit more recognizable,” he told The Record. “Neither could President Reagan.”
Mr. Resin, who moved to Wayne four years ago, helped raise money for Parkinson’s disease research through the annual Parkinson’s Unity Walk in New York City.
Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Margaret; daughters Elizabeth Olynick of Park Ridge, Alexandra Carnevale of Yardville and Maryanne Post of Riverdale; one brother, two sisters and five grandchildren.
Visiting is 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Mack Memorial Home, Secaucus. The funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at Immaculate Conception Church, Secaucus.
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