Kirk Baily, Salute Your Shorts Actor, Dies at 59

Kirk Baily, the actor best known for his role as dim-witted camp counselor Kevin “Ug” Lee on the early Nickelodeon sitcom “Salute Your Shorts,” died Feb. 27 in Los Angeles. His domestic partner, Ranjani Brow, confirmed that he died after battling lung cancer. He was 59.

Baily got his start as a sound coordinator for the 1988 cult classic “Killer Klowns From Outer Space,” before he was cast in “Salute Your Shorts,” which premiered in 1991. Created by Steve Slavkin and based on a book of the same name he wrote with Thomas Hill, “Salute Your Shorts” premiered July 1991 and ran for two seasons. The series starred Danny Cooksey, Erik MacArthur, Blake Soper, Michael Bower, Trevor Eyster, Venus DeMilo Thomas, Heidi Lucas and Megan Berwick as various campers at the fictional Camp Anawanna. Baily’s character, Ug, acted as an antagonist toward the kids, as well as the most frequent victim of their pranks. Although the series was short-lived, it had high ratings during its run, received several Youth in Film Award nominations and kept a cult following. In 2019, the cast had a reunion at the Good Burger pop-up shop in Hollywood.

After “Salute Your Shorts,” Baily appeared in films such as “3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain” and “The Sixth Man.” He also had notable guest spots on various TV shows, such as “Felicity,” “Sisters,” “NYPD Blue,” “Melrose Place,” “7th Heaven” and “Star Trek: Voyager.”

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In addition to his live-action roles, Baily worked consistently as a voice actor in animated films, English anime dubs and video games. Notable projects he lent his voice to include “Cowboy Bebop” and its feature film spin-off, “Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex,” “Frozen,” “Big Hero 6,” the “Despicable Me” franchise and the 2018 “Transformers” film “Bumblebee.” His most recent voice acting credit is last year’s “Night of the Animated Dead,” an animated remake of the classic George A. Romero horror film “Night of the Living Dead.” Baily also worked in automated dialogue replacement looping for films, including “The Tomorrow War,” “Deadpool 2,” “It,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” and “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.”

Baily is survived by Brow and two children.

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