R.I.P.: Orson Bean, Actor, TV Game Show Panelist

91-year-old Orson Bean, the witty actor and comedian, was hit and killed by a car Friday night in Los Angeles, authorities said.

Orson Bean

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office confirmed Bean's Friday night death, saying it was being investigated as a "traffic-related" fatality. The coroner's office provided the location where Bean was found, which matched reports from CBS Los Angeles.

A man was walking in the Venice neighborhood when he was clipped by a vehicle and fell, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Brian Wendling initially told local stations. A second driver then struck him in what police say was the fatal collision. Both drivers remained on the scene. Police were investigating and didn't identify the pedestrian to local outlets, which named Bean based on eyewitness accounts.

Bean enlivened such TV game shows as "To Tell the Truth" and played a crotchety merchant on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."

He appeared in a number of films - notably, "Anatomy of a Murder" and "Being John Malkovich" - and starred in several top Broadway productions, receiving a Tony nod for the 1962 Comden-Green musical "Subways Are for Sleeping." But fans remembered him most for his many TV appearances from the 1950s onward.

Born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1928 as Dallas Frederick Burrows,  he never lost the Yankee accent that proved a perfect complement to the dry, laconic storytelling that established him as popular humorist. He had picked the stage name Orson Bean "because it sounded funny."

Bean's quick wit and warm personality made him a favorite panelist for six years on "To Tell the Truth." The game required the panelists to quiz three contestants to figure out which one was a real notable and which two were impostors. The dramatic outcome inspired a national catchphrase as the host turned to the three and said: "Will the real (notable's name) please stand up?"