Was Don Rickles more or less doing his act was was he acting?

[EmpressDR]

Actually, I've always wanted to ask a question about one episode, where the fellow who played Lt Whipple, I think. It was Jonathan Daly. He was briefly in It's a Wonderful Life as the guy who got another guy to open up the gym floor beneath Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart so they fell in the swimming pool. In Sharkey he had a beard, and one episode, where they had a new commanding officer who ordered facial hair to be shaved. He didn't want to do it --but he did, and when he came up to the new Captain, he was saying things like he was cleanly shaved or something, but the Cap was paying scant attention. Finally Cap looked up, and said, "Oh, hello Whipple. Did you ever think about growing a beard? You have a weak chin."
HUGE laughs from the audience --but the actor ( Daly ) had fire in his eyes. His facial reaction told me that he wasn't expecting that line --and he took it personally. I bet he didn't want to shave exactly because of that receding chin, and the show thought it would play funny if they just surprised him. But he looked mad and that was disrespectful to him.
I'm still not 100% that was his name, I think it was Daly.



Theme song link
http://www.sitcomsonline.com/sounds/cposharkey.wav