Eddie Bracken

Eddie Bracken, a character actor whose portrayals of bewildered and long-suffering comic heroes crowned a stage, screen and television career of more than 70 years, died Thursday in Montclair, N.J. He was 87 and lived in Glen Ridge, N.J.

Mr. Bracken made his first major screen splash in 1940s comedies by Preston Sturges, and he remained active until recently. Besides appearances in various television series, he was seen most widely as Mr. Wally, the proprietor of the amusement park Wally World in " National Lampoon ' s Vacation " (1983) and as E.F. Duncan, the proprietor of a large Manhattan toy store in " Home Alone 2: Lost in New York " (1992).

Mr. Bracken, who grew up in Astoria, Queens, began as a child actor in the 1920s, but he did not really come into his own until the early 1940s when he made several light comedies in Hollywood, including " Caught in the Draft " with Bob Hope in 1941 and " Sweater Girl " with June Preisser that same year. Years later, John Corry, writing in The New York Times, called him " the embodiment of the warm, vulnerable young American. "

Perhaps his strongest roles in that era were in two standout Sturges films of 1944, " The Miracle of Morgan ' s Creek " with Betty Hutton and " Hail the Conquering Hero. " In " Hero, " Sturges cast him as a young man rejected by the Marines because of his hay fever, but who, through confusion and misunderstanding, is welcomed back to his hometown as a war hero. It was the kind of situation that had been exploited so effectively in the silent film era by Harold Lloyd, a comedian Mr. Bracken greatly admired.

In the decades ahead, Mr. Bracken continued acting onstage and in the movies and also moved into television, appearing in several shows, most notably " Masquerade Party " on NBC in the 1950s. He also headed his own production company and invested in an electronics company in Chicago and in Downey ' s, long a popular steak house in Manhattan ' s theater district. Not all of his investments panned out. In the early 1970s he tried to create a circuit of winter and summer stock theaters, but the plan foundered.

Mr. Bracken was married for 63 years to Connie Nickerson, an actress he met when they were in the same road company. She died in August. He is survived by their children, Judy, Carolyn, Michael, Susan and David; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.