Walt Kleezak was an old man and a neighbor of the Dunphy family.
Walt was first seen in "Boys' Night", when neither Phil nor Claire were willing to go to his house to retrieve their baseball, despite the fact that it was their only one. The two seem scared and intimidated by Walt, and Claire claimed that if "Freddy Krueger and Hannibal Lecter had a love child, he would be scared of Walt Kleezak". Phil stated that while he did not have a bad word to say about anyone, he stated "Mr Kleezak is not a nice person". Later in the episode, Walt came over to the Dunphys' house with onions, as a gift, and stated that he would not harm Luke. The family and Walt later became friends, largely through Luke and Walt's relationship.
Later in "The Last Walt", it was revealed that Walt had suffered a heart attack and later died.
Relationships[]
Luke Dunphy[]
Luke Dunphy was friends with Walt. He and Luke had a mutual love of playing video games.
In "Boys' Night", Walt made his first appearance, Claire and Phil told Luke not to play with him as they seemed to find him creepy and thought he was not a nice person. When the Dunphy family were playing sports in their backyard, Claire batted the ball into Walt's backyard and they finished the game as Phil and Claire were afraid of going to his house to ask for it back nonetheless. Luke ignored his parents and curiousity got the better of him, as he went around Walt's house and was the only member of his family to risk getting the ball back, Luke asked questions to Walt, at first Walt was not very keen on Luke and did not trust him. Luke annoyed Walt so much that he gave up and told Luke to get his ball. Later on we noticed Luke come back home and told his parents that he hung out with Mr. Kleezak in his house and Claire seemed disappointed thinking that he was a creepy old man, but Luke told them differently, as he had actually seen his personality and not judged it. Claire then told Luke that he couldn't go back to Walt's house because he was weird. Luke then told his parents that it was unfair and they didn't know him as they were too afraid to talk to him. Claire and Phil then went over to tell him that they were concerned about his friendship with their son, Walt got offended that they thought he was a pervert and he made them leave his house. In the end, Walt stopped by the Dunphy house and gave them Onions from his garden, he then told them that he used to be a fireman and he didn't hurt kids. Feeling bad, Claire and Phil invited him in but he did not come in. Seeing that Luke may have be right and he was a kind, friendly old man and they judged him too quickly, so they accepted him being a family friend.
In "Lifetime Supply", Luke asked Claire if he could invite Walt over, and Claire asked Luke if he thought it was weird to have an 85 year old best friend, because Luke thought it was cool that he was older than him and had been in the war. We later noticed Luke and Walt playing games on the Dunphys' couch, Phil was there with them, but it was only because of the news he thought he was going to receive and not because of supervising. When Luke went on a break for the toilet, Phil bonded with Walt over new friends that he thought was true: he was going to die, although Walt reassured him that the doctors told him he'd been dead 10 years ago and he was still alive.
In "Election Day", Phil gave Walt a ride to pick up his glasses. When Walt's tank started to run out, Phil panicked when he said that he didn't have any more tanks at home and forgot to order them, and when he said that he needed to take his pill, which he did have, he said that he needed it with food. So Phil dropped him off at the polling station where they needed to vote for Claire. Walt got food to take with his pill first so that he would be okay. Walt said that he didn't like to vote for the government as they seemed to screw him over, but since he had such a nice day with Phil, who said that he thought was a nice kid, he decided to vote for Claire, which went against everything he believed in.
In "The Last Walt", in the opening scene, Phil and Claire had an "interview" where they gave the unfortunate news that Walt had died. Phil and Claire then broke the news to Luke, however Luke said that he was OK, and just wanted to get back to his video game. Later on, Phil and Claire see Luke go into Walt's house, and thought it was time to say goodbye to (his house and spirit). Phil and Claire then noticed Luke come out and took Walt's TV with him. A while later, Luke brought Claire to Walt's house and Claire began to get worried when Luke didn't want to say a few words about how he felt about Walt and thought that he wasn't dealing with it in a healthy way. In the same scene, Claire realized that she couldn't tell people that someone had died without smiling, which was a coping mechanism for her, and Luke opened up about how he felt about Walt dying, Claire then comforted him, although Luke still didn't cry.
Trivia[]
- He needed oxygen tanks to breathe.
- He was conservative, using Obama as a scapegoat for losing his driver's license.
- He had fought in a war.
- Although which one it is is unknown. Based on his age, it was most likely the Vietnam War.
- He liked playing video games with Luke.
- In "Boys' Night", he revealed he was once a fireman.
- In "The Cover-Up", Cam mentions that one of his teachers was called "Mr Kleezak"; however this could be completely coincidental as there’s no indication it was Walt. There’s no indication Walt was ever a teacher. He only mentions serving in the war and being a Firefighter as past professions. One would also think if Walt was the Mr Kleezak who taught Cam, they would have likely recognized each other at some point as Cam frequently visited his family living right next door to Walt.
Appearances[]
Season 2[]
Season 3[]
- "Lifetime Supply"
- "Election Day"
- "The Last Walt" (dies in this episode) (mentioned only)