After his children were educated, his daughter said, he figured it was his time. A friend in the advertising business had told him he had a "great face" for commercials. Mr. Picker contacted him and signed on for an antismoking ad that won an award, his daughter said.
Mr. Picker attended acting classes at the Hedgerow Theatre in Media and in New York City and pursued a second career as a model in print ads and as an actor for TV commercials and shows and in films.
He could portray a coal miner or a banker, his daughter said. With a fake mustache and bow tie, he did an ad for a deli in Brooklyn, and he was photographed as Uncle Sam for the cover of a legal magazine.
In 1972, he got a job portraying Ben Franklin in an ad for the old Ben Franklin Hotel in Philadelphia.
Mr. Picker told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1992: "I felt I looked pretty good, so I kept the costume. Word gets around and you get jobs."
Mr. Picker portrayed Franklin for the Pennsylvania Lottery and for the launch of US Airways' direct flights to Munich, as well as in a 1990 episode of the TV show thirtysomething.
In 2005, he was still doing Franklin for bar mitzvahs and weddings, even though by then he was four years older than Franklin was when he died. He also did appearances that Ralph Archbold, who portrayed Ben Franklin full time, was too busy to do.
Mr. Picker told The Inquirer he continued to do Franklin because "I have great admiration for the man. And also because people are so receptive, especially the women."
In addition to playing Franklin, he had small roles portraying a variety of characters and was an extra on television programs and movies. Often he commuted to New York for work, and he and his wife traveled to Los Angeles for Screen Actors Guild meetings and when he had roles on the West Coast.
