An avuncular television actor best remembered as the befuddled, middle-aged-but-childlike radio station boss Arthur "the Big Guy" Carlson in the television series "WKRP in Cincinnati," Gordon Jump also had success in his golden years as the second actor to portray Maytag advertising icon "Ol' Lonely," the hapless repairman with nothing to do.

The actor unknowingly had prepped for his best-known role as Mr. Carlson in real life. Born in Dayton, Ohio, near Cincinnati, he wanted to be an actor from the time he saw his first B-western movie as a kid. Jump majored in speech at Kansas State