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A famous used-car salesman.

The very notion seems absurd, and yet many who never met the man are mourning the death of car dealer Cal Worthington, who died Sunday at 92. Of course, for most of us, Worthington was not a car salesman.

He was a TV star.

Worthington became a familiar face and name to Southern Californians via decades of TV commercials for his various car lots.

Today, it seems impossible that such a person could become famous, but in the 1970s and ’80s, Worthington was simply the best known of dozens of local business people who earned some measure of fame for their awkward TV spots and grating earworm jingles.

Pete Ellis Dodge has been out of business for more than 20 years, but hundreds of thousands of local folks can still tell you how to get there: “Long Beach Freeway, Firestone exit, Southgate.”

Worthington did not even invent the role of homegrown-commercial star.

Years before Worthington walked “his dog Spot” onto our TV screens,