LOS ANGELES -- Pat Harrington Jr., who played the gruff, interjecting but always lovable building superintendent Dwayne "Schneider" Schneider on all nine seasons of the hit '70s and '80s CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, has died, his son and daughter said Thursday on their Facebook pages. He was 86.
Harrington, who won an Emmy (1984) and a Golden Globe (1981) for the character, was stricken with Alzheimer's and head been in failing health.
The New York City native followed in his father's footsteps as an entertainer, starting on the stage and eventually gaining fame on Steve Allen's TV comedy show Men on the Street, The Jack Paar Show and the '60s sitcom Make Room for Daddy. He also made numerous guest appearances on TV and film, and did copious voice acting work for cartoons and radio.
But he cemented his place in '70s and '80s pop culture as Schneider, the handyman and only male constant on Norman Lear's female-dominated One Day at a Time, which starred Bonnie Franklin as a divorced, single mother raising two teen daughters, played by Valerie Bertinelli and Mackenzie Phillips.
Schneider starts out as the rough-around-the-edges building superintendent who's always all-too ready to dispense advice -- but was slowly welcomed throughout the show as a member of the family.
All the while, Schneider maintained his salty, wisecracking demeanor, with lines like: "Women don't get heart attacks -- they give 'em."
Harrington reprised the role for a series of auto-parts commercials in the late '80s and continued his television career until 2012, when he appeared as a guest on Hot in Cleveland -- with former One Day at a Time co-star Bertinelli.