{"id":114114,"date":"2026-02-14T18:05:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:05:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/114114\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T18:05:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:05:25","slug":"its-always-sunny-actor-was-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/114114\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It’s Always Sunny’ Actor Was 90"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShelly Desai<\/a>, a character actor whose work spanned generations of television and film, died Feb. 10 in Los Angeles. He was 90.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis family announced the death but did not disclose a cause.<\/p>\n

\n\tDesai built a decades-long career appearing in dozens of shows and movies, earning recognition for recurring roles on FX\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia\u201d and TNT\u2019s \u201cMen of a Certain Age.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBorn Dec. 3, 1935, in Bombay, Desai arrived in the United States during the 1960s intending to pursue graduate studies in engineering. That plan shifted when he found his way to acting. He performed on Chicago stages before moving to New York and eventually settling in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\n\tBy the early 1970s, Desai had broken into professional theater, working both Off Broadway and on Broadway. He appeared in \u201cGandhi,\u201d a 1970 Broadway production directed by Jos\u00e9 Quintero that became infamous for closing after a single performance. He returned to Broadway in 1981 for \u201cA Talent for Murder,\u201d performing alongside Claudette Colbert and Nancy Addison.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis screen career began with a small part in Brian De Palma\u2019s 1974 rock musical \u201cPhantom of the Paradise.\u201d From there, Desai became a fixture on television, racking up guest appearances on shows across multiple eras including \u201cSt. Elsewhere,\u201d \u201cHill Street Blues,\u201d \u201cThe A-Team,\u201d \u201cMoonlighting,\u201d \u201cthirtysomething,\u201d \u201cER,\u201d \u201cFriends,\u201d \u201cNYPD Blue,\u201d \u201cUgly Betty,\u201d \u201cBaskets\u201d and \u201cHistory of the World: Part II.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe lent his voice to the animated series \u201cWhere on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?\u201d and appeared in several episodes of \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm.\u201d Science-fiction enthusiasts might recall his role on \u201cStar Trek: The Next Generation,\u201d where he played V\u2019Sal, a blue-skinned Bolian barber, in a 1991 episode titled \u201cData\u2019s Day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDesai gained wider visibility playing Carlos in 14 episodes of \u201cMen of a Certain Age\u201d from 2009 to 2011. He also became known for portraying Hwang, the tough landlord on \u201cIt\u2019s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,\u201d frequently sparring with characters played by Charlie Day and Danny DeVito.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis film work included parts in \u201cThelma & Louise,\u201d \u201cToys,\u201d \u201cClifford,\u201d \u201cA Midnight Clear\u201d and \u201cPaul Blart: Mall Cop 2.\u201d Desai remained active in his later years, filming commercials shortly before his death.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe is survived by his wife, Phyllis; stepdaughters April and Dawn; and grandchildren Sean, Sofia and Dylan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shelly Desai, a character actor whose work spanned generations of television and film, died Feb. 10 in Los…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,54278],"class_list":["post-114114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-shelly-desai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}