Hayes, Peter Lind (1915–1998)

US radio and television comedian and actor. In 1951 he had his own television show, The Star of the Family, and he and his wife, actor Mary Healey, then became the permanent guest-hosts on the Arthur Godfrey Show (1953–58), a contractual arrangement that limited them to doing only radio shows, but where he could at least employ his own brand of wry, satiric humor. He then went on to produce and host the Peter Lind Hayes Show (1958–66) for ABC-TV, thereafter making only occasional television appearances, as in When Television Was Live (1975).

Hayes was born in San Francisco, California. Abandoned by his father, he occasionally joined his mother (whose maiden name he adopted) in vaudeville skits at the age of nine and appeared with her at New York's Palace Theater in 1932. From 1932–42 he performed his comedy routines at his mother's nightclub in the San Fernando Valley, California, and he made several movies. In the US Army Air Corps in World War II (1942–45), he performed in hundreds of service shows. He made his nightclub debut in New York City in 1946 and was instantly acclaimed for his character impersonations. He then toured with his wife, Mary Healey, in a singing-comedy act. He wrote songs when a young man, and he published two poetry collections, Peter's Poems and Hayseed, in 1982.