Carl Ballantine

Carl Ballantine, an inveterate quipmeister whose stand-up comedy persona, an incompetent magician known as the Amazing Ballantine or Ballantine the Great, predated and influenced the antic characters of Steve Martin and others, died on Nov. 3 at his home in Hollywood. He was 92.

He died of age-related causes, his daughter Saratoga Ballantine said.

“As my father always said to me about why anybody died, ‘He stopped breathing,’ ” Ms. Ballantine said.

Over the course of a six-decade career, Mr. Ballantine became familiar to audiences as a comic actor, especially after landing the role of the scheming, profiteering seaman Lester Gruber on the television series “McHale’s Navy” in 1962.