Roscoe Karns (1891-1970) William Frawley, Touchdown, Army, 1937.        In 152 screen roles during 1915-1964, Karns was one of those fast-talking, wise-cracking, rib-tickling New Yorkers, who actually originated from California. He passed this role to I Love Lucy’s caustic neighbour Fred Mertz. Copyright © 2023 Crawley's Casting Calls. All Rights Reserved. Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU General Public License.