Allan Melvin, a character actor best known for playing Sam the Butcher on "The Brady Bunch," has died. He was 84.

Melvin died of cancer Thursday at his home

said Amalia Melvin, his wife of 64 years.

Melvin spent decades playing a series of sidekicks

including Archie Bunker's friend Barney Hefner on "All in the Family," and Sgt. Bilko's right-hand man Cpl. Henshaw on the "Phil Silvers Show."

But his place in pop culture will be fixed as butcher and bowler Sam Franklin, the love interest of Brady family maid Alice Nelson, who was played by Ann B. Davis. Melvin played the role from 1970 to 1973.

He was appearing on Broadway in "Stalag 17" when he began his decades-long television career with "The Phil Silvers Show," playing a role his wife said was always his favorite.

a voice actor from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, most famously providing the voice of "Magilla Gorilla"