Forrest Compton, 'Gomer Pyle' Actor, Dies of Coronavirus Complications at 94

He also starred for 13 years as D.A. Mike Karr on 'The Edge of Night.'

Forrest Compton, who played Col. Edward Gray on Gomer Pyle: USMC and had a long run on the daytime soap opera The Edge of Night, has died of complications from the coronavirus. He was 94.

Compton died Sunday, according to a report in the Shelter Island Reporter.

As Col. Gray, Compton regularly chewed out Frank Sutton's Sgt. Vince Carter on Gomer Pyle, which aired on CBS from 1964 to '69. This, of course, often came after Sutton had abused his favorite private, Gomer (Jim Nabors).

Compton was the third actor to play former cop and crusading Monticello District Attorney Mike Karr on The Edge of Night, starring on the CBS-ABC serial from 1971 until the show's cancellation in 1984. He later appeared on two other soaps, As the World Turns and All My Children.

Raised in Reading, Pennsylvania, Compton served with the 103rd Infantry Division in France during World War II and studied acting at the Yale Drama School, where one of his classmates was Paul Newman.

He went on to work on such shows as Death Valley Days, Route 66, The Twilight Zone, 77 Sunset Strip, My Three Sons, That Girl, Mannix, The F.B.I. and Ed.