WILL THE REAL KOJAK PLEASE STAND UP

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Will the real Kojak please stand up?

No, it’s not “To Tell the Truth.” Simply the case of the well-known actor, Telly Savalas, meeting his look-alike, John T. Ervin of Valdosta, Georgia.

For years people have been barraging Ervin with pleas for his autograph; believing him to be the highly visible character actor. It’s gotten so that he sometimes signs the name for the ones who are belligerently disbelieving of his look-alike story just to get away.

All this time he has been hoping he could meet the man whom he so closely resembles. The end of it is that it actually came true when Ervin who is stationed in Germany and serves as an Army vet got to meet and talk with Savalas who is on location for a new movie.

Ervin was born in Dasher, Georgia, and his hometown is Valdosta where his mother and step-father also reside. He has seven brothers and sisters.

The resemblance between the two men is striking. They have similar facial characteristics, both have bald heads, and they weigh within three pounds of one another.

It wasn’t until recently, however, when Savalas began getting more choice parts in movies and television that Ervin has reaped some of the rewards of the actor’s acclaim.

While Ervin was in high school at Valdosta, from which he graduated in 1950, he was just one of the crowd.

Even when he came back from his first four year stint in the Navy, and studied at the University of Georgia and worked with Dr. Loyce Turner here until he went back into the military in 1964, Ervin still retained his anonymity.

But now people from all over the world, from Hong Kong to Las Vegas to Berlin, mistake him for Telly Savalas.

The similarity between the two is so real that once in Berlin, while Ervin was waiting in the hotel to meet Savalas, that the latter’s business managers walked up to him and began “talking shop;” according to the story Ervin told his family in Valdosta.

One woman who ran into Ervin on the subway told him that he should be traveling in a limo like a star, instead of traveling on a public transit system.

Most people are very good natured when they find he isn’t the real Telly Savalas, he said. But some people feel like he’s a snob when he claims he isn’t the star.

Once, he thought he was going to be tossed into the water by an irate mother who wanted Savalas’ autograph for her daughter, he reported.

Especially since “Kojak,” Savalas cops and robbers program has been so popular around the world, Ervin has been dodging autograph hounds.

But it all paid off in their final meeting when Ervin got an autographed photo from Savalas for his step-father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. H.B and Lena Barwick, of Rt. 2, Valdosta. Savalas inscribed the photo “To Mom and Dad. From your other son, Telly Savalas.”

Ervin told his family that he had been nervous about meeting the star. But as soon as the men met, they apparently “hit it off.” Of course, they had a lot to talk about just comparing vital statistics. Telly made John feel right at home, the Valdostan said.

“He was friendly and gracious. I felt welcome. As soon as he smiled, and put out his hand, I forgot all about being nervous, and the photographers, and everything else,” Ervin said.

“If I am going to look like an actor, I can’t think of any actor I would rather look alike. He could have posed for a quick picture, but he didn’t. He made me feel real good. I’ll remember this weekend for the rest of my life,” Ervin was quoted after he left the hotel in Berlin.

Savalas was in Berlin shooting a movie about an Army major. Coincidentally, Ervin is also a major in the Army.

Ervin has about five years left in service before he retires. His family hopes he will return to Valdosta.

By Becky Vail

The Valdosta Times Newspaper

(John T. Ervin was my mother’s 1^st cousin)

 by Bill McDonald, PhD