Thorwald Boie Has Passed Away

"Welcome to Our Branch Office," Hawaii Five-0. Leonard Freeman Productions / CBS Television, 1974.

Thorwald “Thom” Boie has passed away. A native of Hamburg, Germany, he grew up there and learned the care of lenses in Switzerland before he came to the United States to work as a cinematography technician.

Thom worked on Hawaii Five-0 for three seasons (1974-1976) and appeared in the episode “Welcome to Our Branch Office” (Season 7) as the fake McGarrett. He also appeared as Jack’s stand-in in several episodes. Of his appearance, Thom said,

My experiences working for Hawaii Five-0 for those three seasons were a very positive one. It was always a pleasure taking to Jack Lord, James McArthur, and Kam Fong when they stopped at the camera truck to say "hello". We also had a great camera crew and a wonderful supporting crew to make the show a success. It was in 1974 when the show "Welcome to our Branch Office" was filmed. It was during lunch break, that the casting director, Bob Bush noticed me, indicating, that they could use me as the "fake Mc Garrett". After finishing lunch I landed in the make-up department and was put into one of Jack's suits for photo tests. Everything worked out and the director send me into the production office as the "surprise" Mc Garrett. Bernie Oseranski, our great Production Manager nearly [fell out] of his chair when he saw me. Jack Lord was kidding that we should both go in town dressed in our blue suits. Jack and I were both the same size, even our shoe size was interchangeable! The filming of "Welcome to our Branch Office" went well, except, that they had to use a voice-over because of my German accent. This was not a problem since I only had a few lines. Several times people asked me for an autograph thinking that I was actually Jack Lord. After trying to convince them, that I was not Jack Lord the reply was often, "Now look at this, now Jack Lord even puts on a German accent." (Central Dispatch: The Hawaii Five-0 Fan Club Newsletter. Vol. 5, No. 18, January, 2002. Reprinted in Thorwald: Thorwald Boie. https://www.chess.com/member/thorwald)

Back on the mainland, Thom worked for CBS, where he worked on the Bob Newhart Show and the Loni Anderson Show, among other shows; for MGM, where he met Elvis Presley; and, through CBS, at Universal Studios, where he worked on Smokey and the Bandit II and The Island.

He authored and co-authored several books on health and diet, including Value of Foods, The Protein Controversy, Secrets to Youth & Vitality (with Gypsy Boots), and Raw Food Diet Plan (with Shirley Boie).

He met friends at coffee houses throughout his life, most recently the CDA Coffee Company in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, where he retired.

Thom was an avid chess player and belonged to several chess clubs and organizations. He is known to have juggled up to twenty online games at once.

Thorwald Boie passed away earlier this month (June 2020) at the age of 86. He will be sadly missed by those who knew him, both on screen and off.