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Character actor and comedian Charlie Sanford Brill was born in Brooklyn, New York. His older brother was the piano prodigy and nightclub entertainer Marty Brill. Charlie made his screen debut in 1958. He met his future wife, the actress Mitzi McCall, the following year at a Paramount comedy workshop. They married in 1960. Together, they went touring the U.S. in a comic act. On television, they had a regular segment as a feuding couple on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967) and appeared as celebrity contestants on the game show Tattletales (1974). In addition to many TV guest spots and voice-over work in animation (including several Hanna-Barbera productions), Charlie also enjoyed a lengthy stint as Captain Harry Lipschitz in the CBS crime drama Silk Stalkings (1991), his wife Frannie being played by his real life spouse. However, Charlie will most likely be best remembered for playing the devious Arne Darvin (he got the audition for the part courtesy of Leonard Nimoy), a Klingon saboteur masquerading as a human in the classic Star Trek (1966) episode The Trouble with Tribbles. He reprised the Darvin character three decades later for the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993) homage episode Trials and Tribble-ations.
Happily retired since 2015, he declared in a recent interview "I smoke cigars, I drink coffee and I hang out with a bunch of guys who drink coffee and smoke cigars."- Actor
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Best known as Scotty in Star Trek he was educated at High School in Sarnia, Ontario, where he acted in school productions.
When WWII began he joined the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery eventually obtaining the rank of Captain. He was wounded on D-Day, suffering severe damage to his right middle finger which was removed ahead of first knuckle, then became a flying observer for the rest of the war. His daring aerial maneuvers flying in an observation plane got him known as the craziest pilot in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Once the war ended, he found himself on many other adventures although none of them would come anywhere close to what he experienced before.
He would become a popular voice actor who participated in thousands of CBC programs spread across both radio and television.
Later on, during the mid-1960's, he would develop into the Star Trek great we now know as Montgomery Scott, "Scotty".
In 1946 he won a 2 year scholarship to the Neighbourhood Playhouse in New York City and from there went to teach for three years.
In 1953 he returned to Canada and lived in Toronto for 8 years acting on radio, television and some films before moving to Hollywood where he also appeared in a number of popular television series such as the Canadian version of The Howdy Doody Show, Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans, R.C.M.P., Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Hazel, The Gallant Men, Bonanza, The Richard Boone Show, The Outer Limits, Ben Casey, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Fugitive, Laredo, Bewitched, The Virginian, The Man from Uncle, The F.B.I., Peyton Place, Daniel Boone, Marcus Welby M.D., Fantasy Island, Magnum P.I., Danger Bay and The Bold and The Beautiful, while in between he made a return to the stage for various plays.
James Doohan departed the scene at the age of 85 on 20 July 2005.
Many current-day engineers credit Scotty with being their childhood inspiration and in honour of his memory a portion of Doohan's ashes were sprinkled in space by the rocket SpaceLoft XL.- Actor
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Eddie Paskey was born on 20 August 1939 in Felton, Delaware, USA. He was an actor, known for Star Trek (1966), Star Trek Phase II (2004) and Ben Casey (1961). He was married to Judy Paskey. He died on 17 August 2021 in the USA.- Actor
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George Takei was born Hosato Takei in Los Angeles, California. His mother was born in Sacramento to Japanese parents & his father was born in Japan. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he & his family were relocated from Los Angeles to the Rohwer Relocation Center in Arkansas. Later, they were moved to a camp at Tule Lake in Northern California. His first-hand knowledge of the unjust internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II, poignantly chronicled in his autobiography, created a lifelong interest in politics & community affairs.
After graduating from Los Angeles High School in 1956, he studied architecture at UC Berkeley. An ad in a Japanese community paper led to a summer job on the MGM lot where he dubbed 8 characters from Japanese into English for Rodan (1956). Bitten by the acting bug, he transferred to UCLA as a theater arts major. Contacting an agent he had met at MGM led to his appearance as an embittered soldier in postwar Japan in the Playhouse 90 (1956) production. Being spotted in a UCLA theater production by a Warner Bros. casting director led to his feature film debut in Ice Palace (1960), various roles in Hawaiian Eye (1959) &other feature work. In June 1960, he completed his degree at UCLA and studied at the Shakespeare Institute at Stratford-Upon-Avon in England that summer.
After starting a master's degree program at UCLA, he was cast in the socially relevant stage musical production Fly Blackbird! but was replaced when the show moved to New York. He took odd jobs until returning to his role at the end of the run. Getting little work in Manhattan, he returned to Los Angeles to continue his studies, once again appearing in TV & films. He earned his master's in 1964. Wanting a multi-racial crew, Gene Roddenberry cast him in Where No Man Has Gone Before, the second Star Trek (1966) pilot. Mr. Sulu remained a regular character when the series went into production. In the hiatus after the end of shooting the first season, he worked on The Green Berets (1968), playing a South Vietnamese Special Forces officer.
After Star Trek (1966) was canceled, he did guest stints in several TV shows, voiced Sulu for the animated Star Trek series & regularly appeared at Star Trek conventions. He also produced & hosted a public affairs show Expression East/West, which aired in Los Angeles from 1971-1973. That year, he ran for the L.A. City Council. Although he lost by a small margin, Mayor Tom Bradley appointed him to the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District, where he served until 1984 & contributed to plans for the subway. During this period, he co-wrote a sci-fi novel Mirror Friend, Mirror Foe. He campaigned to get more respect for his character in the Star Trek features, resulting in Sulu finally obtaining the rank of captain in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991), a role reprised in the Star Trek: Voyager (1995) episode Flashback.
He has run several marathons and was in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Torch Relay. He received a star on Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame in 1986. He also left his signature & hand print in cement at the Chinese Theater in 1991. His 1994 autobiography, To the Stars, was well-received. He remains active as a stage, TV & film actor as well as as an advocate for the interests of Japanese Americans.- Actor
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Walter Koenig began his acting career in 1962 as an uncredited Sentry in the TV series Combat! (1962), and in the following few years had bit roles in several television shows, until he landed the role that would catapult his career in ways he could never have imagined, as Ensign Pavel Chekov in Star Trek's Original Series (Star Trek (1966)). He went on to reprise that role in all 7 of the original Star Trek movies (The 7th movie, Star Trek: Generations (1994) was mostly ST: The Next Generation, but had the original series section at the beginning, and Kirk at the end), as well as voicing the same character in several of the video games. He has continued to reprise that character in several different Star Trek video's, and TV series, rising in rank to Lieutenant, Commander, Captain and Admiral through the years (his most recent being Admiral Chekov in the pilot of Star Trek: Renegades (2015), which never launched, but that evolved to Renegades (2017), a 2 part, crowd-funded, fan-made mini series that also stars fellow Original Series star Nichelle Nichols (as a character NOT named 'Uhura'). Since it was Fan-Made (and to avoid violating studio rights) they couldn't use the Star Trek Character's names, like Uhura or Chekov, so they simply called him 'The Admiral'. (however the uniforms and technology are remarkably Star Trek like.)
He also had a recurring role of the quintessential scoundrel Bester on the television series Babylon 5 (1993). He has been the "Special Guest Star" in twelve episodes and, at the end of the third season, the production company applied for an Emmy nomination on his behalf. He once again played Bester in the spin-off series Crusade (1999).
In between filming the 4th and 5th Star Trek films he took his first leading role in the video feature, Moontrap (1988). In an interactive state-of-the-art video game from Digital Pictures called Maximum Surge (1996), Koenig played as Drexel, another scoundrel.
Walter worked in the low budget feature film Drawing Down the Moon (1997) from Chaos Productions, and has star billing as a German psychologist in the martial arts picture, Sworn to Justice (1996). A one character piece that Koenig wrote and performed entitled "You're Never Alone when You're a Schizophrenic" was a finalist in the 1996 New York Film Festival awards. Koenig filmed a guest appearance as himself on the CBS situation comedy Almost Perfect (1995), did sketch comedy on the Comedy Central series "Viva Variety" (1996) and performed on an ESPN sports commercial that aired in the spring of 1998. Walter also hosted a cult movie marathon for Comedy Central. It played once a week for the course of a month.
Koenig's autobiography, "Warped Factors - A Neurotic's Guide to the Universe" was released through Taylor Publishing on April 1, 1998. The audio tape reading of the book by the author has been released through Dove Video in January 1999. Koenig performed as the Shadow Guy in an episode of Diagnosis Murder (1993) and went to New York to perform in a new radio broadcast version of "War of the Worlds" in tribute to both H.G. Wells and Orson Welles. From "The Girls of Summer" to "The Boys in Autumn", Koenig's stage career spans thirty years and includes stops in New York with "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Quince) and "Six Characters in Search of an Author" (Oldest Son). In Chicago, he guested in "Make a Million" (Johnny) opposite Jackie Coogan and on the road -- from Arizona to Philadelphia -- Mark Lenard (Sarek: Spock's father) and he performed in the short plays "Box and Cox" (Box) and "Actors" (Dave). They also toured in a two character play, "The Boys in Autumn", the comedy-drama about the reunion of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn forty years later.
By himself, Koenig also starred as Larry the Liquidator in "Other People's Money" in Reno, Nevada. His Los Angeles productions include "Steambath" (God), "The White House Murder Case" (Captain Weems), "Night Must Fall" (Danny), "La Ronde" (Gentleman), "The Typist and the Tiger" (Paul), and "The Deputy" (Jacobson) among almost two dozen others ("Blood Wedding", "The Collection", et al.). Directorial credits include "Hotel Paradiso" for Company of Angles, "Beckett" for Theatre 40, "America Hurrah!" at the Oxford Theater, "Twelve Angry Men" at the Rita Hayworth Theatre, "Matrix" at the Gascon Theatre Institute, and "Three by Ten" at Actor's Alley. Walter has performed in the television movies Antony and Cleopatra (1984) (Pompey) opposite Timothy Dalton and Lynn Redgrave as well as the MOW's Goodbye, Raggedy Ann (1971) and The Questor Tapes (1974).
Walter has written for the television series The Powers of Matthew Star (1982), What Really Happened to the Class of '65? (1977), Family (1976), Land of the Lost (1974), and the animated Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973) series. This actor-writer has seen publication with the non-fiction "Chekov's Enterprise" and the satiric fantasy novel "Buck Alice and the Actor-Robot". He also created the three issues of the comic book story "Raver" published by Malibu Comics. Koenig has taught classes in acting and directing privately at UCLA, The Sherwood Oaks Experimental Film College and at the California School of Professional Psychology. Most recently, he has been an instructor at the Actor's Alley Repertory Company in Los Angeles, California.- Actor
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Ted Cassidy was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and raised in Philippi, West Virginia. He was a well respected actor who portrayed many different characters during his film and television career. His most notable role was Lurch, the faithful butler on the television series The Addams Family (1964). His most memorable dialogue as Lurch would be, "You rang?", whenever someone summoned him. Due to his large size, (6ft. 9in.) he portrayed larger than life characters. His deep voice, was used for narrations and for dubbing certain character's voices. His acting career spanned three decades. Ted Cassidy died in 1979 from complications following open-heart surgery. His live-in girlfriend had his remains cremated, then buried in the backyard of their Woodland Hills home.- Roger C. Carmel, who was born September 27, 1932, was named after his grandfather, Roger Charles, who carved the horses for the carousel in New York's Central Park. He became an actor and won television immortality by appearing as Harry Mudd in two classic Star Trek (1966) episodes, "I, Mudd" and "Mudd's Women" (Carmel was one of the few guest actors on Star Trek (1966) to appear in more than one episode as the same character).
After appearing on stage, Carmel began working steadily on television in the early 1960s as a character actor, appearing on both dramas ("Route 66") and situation-comedies (The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961). In 1967, he was cast as the husband of Kaye Ballard's character on NBC's Desi Arnaz Productions' sitcom The Mothers-In-Law (1967), Desi Arnazs first production since I Love Lucy (1951). NBC was disappointed by the mediocre ratings of The Mothers-In-Law (1967), and almost canceled it. It picked the show up for a second season after rival network ABC expressed interest in the show, but NBC informed Arnaz that they would not give any additional money for the show. Traditionally, salaries are increased when a TV show is picked up for a new season, and all the actors' contracts specifically called for raises in the event of renewal. Arnaz, who was also producer, director, and writer, called together the cast and crew and told them that although the series had been renewed, there was no money for salary increases.
According to Carmel's own recollection, Arnaz was already drawing down multiple salaries on the program, and would shortly cast himself as a supporting character in the series, thus drawing another salary, although Carmel didn't know that at the time. Arnaz elicited a promise from the creative people, the crew and the actors to forgo salary increases to keep the show on the air. All the actors agreed but one. Carmel told Arnaz he would quit unless he received a raise, as per his contract. In a contemporaneous account of the incident, Carmel said, "Desi called me and put it on a personal basis. I didn't feel it should be done that way - it was very unfair of him. Then Desi and the Morris Agency threatened I would be replaced. Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden also called me and asked me to go along, but I wouldn't."
Arnaz's response to Carmel's ultimatum was dismissive. "Where else is he going to make two thousand dollars a week?", the producer asked rhetorically. If Arnaz's Desilu production company gave in to Carmel, it would be faced with giving all the cast members a raise, which was financially unviable with the money on offer from NBC. Arnaz was forced to terminate Carmel, who was replaced by Richard Deacon for the second season. The show had poor ratings and was canceled following its second season.
After leaving "The Mothers-in-Law", Carmel's acting career suffered. Other than his Harry Mudd appearances, Carmel's most memorable gig on TV was as the very campy guest villain Colonel Gumm on Batman (1966) in 1967. He made regular appearances on the syndicated quiz TV show "Stump The Stars" from 1968-70. Carmel even reprised his most famous role, that of Harry Mudd, in an episode of the animated version of "Star Trek" (1973-75), an indicator of the direction of his future career. However, during the 1970s, he could not secure another regular role as an ongoing character on a TV series, though he continued to appear regularly on sitcoms, mostly in ethnic roles, including appearances on "All In The Family", "Chico and The Man", and "Three's Company". He also appeared in B-movie bombs, including the Jerry Lewis flop "Hardly Working" (1981).
At the dawn of the new decade of the 1980s, Carmel finally got another opportunity for the first time in a dozen years, when he was cast as a regular on the network program Fitz and Bones (1981). An hour-long drama starring the TV comedy-musical duo The Smothers Brothers as investigative reporters, the show was a ratings failure, lasting only one month. After this monumental flop ("Fitz and Bones" was the lowest-rated series for the entire 1981-82 season), character parts dried up and Carmel was reduced to doing voice-over work for children's cartoons, including "The Transformers".
Carmel's last triumph as an actor was in commercials. He was a huge hit in advertising playing Senor Naugles, a faux-Mexican Colonel Sanders clone, for the West Coast region Mexican fast food chain Naugles. The commercials were a success and the chain began expanding rapidly. However, both the renewed success of Carmel and the fresh success of the chain were, sadly, to prove short-lived.
According to acquaintances, Carmel suffered chest pains on the night he died and called a cab to take him to the hospital. When the cab showed up at his Hollywood high-rise but Carmel did not come down to get it, the doorman sent the cab away, never inquiring why he failed to appear. Carmel was found dead on the floor of his apartment the next morning, November 11, 1986. While there were rumors that he committed suicide (he was rumored to be a recreational drug user), the official cause of death was listed as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle in which the organ becomes enlarged. The condition leads to congestive heart failure. Carmel was only 54 years old. He was interred in Glendale, New York.
After Carmel's death, Naugles failed to come up with another successful ad campaign, and eventually, its financial fortunes changed. It was eventually acquired by rival, Del Taco. - Actor
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From his acting debut at age two on "The Andy Griffith Show" to his first lead role in the TV series "Gentle Ben," including roles throughout so many blockbuster films, art-house films, ever-popular cult horror films, and valued comedies, with a rare voice adding life to multiple characters of Disney, Clint Howard is an iconic Hollywood Legend who is ever solid, energetic, and always readily prepared to contribute his talents.
He is one of very few if any who has had a unique five-generation Star Trek run, including episodes in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds", "Star Trek: Discovery," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "Star Trek: Enterprise," all the way to "Star Trek: The Original Series."
Clint has played a variety of characters over the years in several classic films including "Frost/Nixon," "Apollo 13," the Austin Powers trilogy, "The Waterboy," "The Rocketeer," "Tango and Cash," and Disney's "The Jungle Book," along with hundreds of other titles through his 60 years of acting.
Clint Howard has played such a variety of roles ready to take on any acting challenge. He is the ultimate chameleon of television and film. He has consistently worked well alongside Hollywood's fellow top actors throughout the decades, and has fully committed himself to every character in parts large and small. He has carried unique roles echoing through the generations in some of Hollywood's most memorable roles, still driving forth full steam ahead, ready to take on his next acting persona.- Actor
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Cherubic, wispy-haired looks made his typecasting as impish or eccentric characters somehow inevitable. The pint-sized Michael J. Pollard was born the son of a bar manager of Polish ancestry in Passaic (New Jersey). He studied drama at the Actor's Studio (with a young Marilyn Monroe in the same class) and made his theatrical debut in November 1958 on Broadway in "Comes the Day," with George C. Scott and Judith Anderson. He received excellent critical notices the following year for his performance in William Inge's play "A Loss of Roses" and thereby came to the attention of Hollywood. On the small screen, Pollard enjoyed a measure of early success in anthology television. He then had a brief stint as Bob Denver's cousin Jerome Krebs in a couple of episodes of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959). His chief contribution to cult sci-fi consisted of appearances in Lost in Space (1965) and Star Trek (1966), his baby-faced appearance enabling him to essay characters who were considerably younger than his actual age. True to form, he also portrayed the bowler-hat wearing, leprechaun-like trickster Mister Mxyzptlk in Superboy (1988), based on the DC comic strips. Pollard had his fair share of exposure to mainstream TV dramas as well, popping up in series like Gunsmoke (1955), The Virginian (1962), and I Spy (1965). For the most part, his screen personae were simple country folk, sometimes evil, often mischievous, nervous or downright weird.
Pollard's big break (and his critically most acclaimed role) was as the loyal, but inarticulate and child-like garage mechanic turned get-away driver C.W. Moss in Arthur Penn's gangster epic Bonnie and Clyde (1967). On the heels of his Oscar-nomination for Best Supporting Actor came offers for other high-profile off-beat character roles, though he was never truly regarded as star material. He gave a good account of himself as Packy, leader of a group of partisans joining Hannibal Brooks (1969) and his POWs in their escape from the Nazis across the Alps to Switzerland. Perhaps best of all post-Bonnie and Clyde impersonations was his powerful portrayal of the outlaw Henry McCarty (aka William H. Bonney) as a demented, twitching psychopath in Dirty Little Billy (1972) (a rare starring role which also marked the screen debut of actor Nick Nolte). By the 1980s, Pollard had recovered from a period of alcohol and drug abuse, but by then his name had slipped down the list of credits and he was now reduced to minor support in films like Roxanne (1987), American Gothic (1987), Dick Tracy (1990), and Rob Zombie's debut cult-horror House of 1000 Corpses (2003).
Pollard died of cardiac arrest on November 20, 2019 in Los Angeles at the age of 80.- Actor
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Melvin Belli was born on 29 July 1907 in Sonora, California, USA. He was an actor and producer, known for Tokyo File 212 (1951), Star Trek (1966) and Ground Zero (1973). He was married to Nancy Ho, Lia Triff, Pat Montandon, Betty Ballantine, Toni Nichols and Joy Turney. He died on 9 July 1996 in San Francisco, California, USA.- Actor
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Whit Bissell came to Hollywood in the 1940s, and by the time he retired he had appeared in more than 200 movies and scores of TV series. He is best known for playing the evil scientist who turned Michael Landon into a half beast in the 1957 cult classic film I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957). Bissell specialized in playing doctors, military officers and other authority figures. On television he was a regular on Bachelor Father (1957) and The Time Tunnel (1966). He also served on the Screen Actors Guild board of directors for 18 years and represented the actors branch in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors.- Actor
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Paul Fix, the well-known movie and TV character actor who played "Marshal Micah Torrance" on the TV series The Rifleman (1958), was born Peter Paul Fix on March 13, 1901 in Dobbs Ferry, New York to brew-master Wilhelm Fix and his wife, the former Louise C. Walz. His mother and father were German immigrants who had left their Black Forest home and arrived in New York City in the 1870s. (The name "Fix" is of Latin/Germanic origin, and is derived from St. Vitus and means "animated" or "vital").
Besides Peter Paul, the Fix family consisted of two girls and three boys, the youngest of whom was six years older than the future actor. Peter Paul's childhood was a happy one. He and his family lived on the 200-acre property on which the Manilla Anchor Brewery, where his father was brew-master, was situated. Such was the importance of the senior Fix to the brewery that when he died at the age of 62 on the eve of America's entry into the First World War (two years after his 54-year old wife had died), the brewery closed.
The orphaned Peter Paul, who kept to himself a lot and had a vivid imagination, was sent to live with his married sisters, first one who lived nearby in Yonkers, and then to another in Zanesville, Ohio. The just-turned-17-year-old Peter Paul Fix joined the U.S. Navy on March 12, 1918, and spent his state-side service time during World War I in Newport, Rhode Island and Charleston, South Carolina. He first tread the boards as an actor while a sailor stationed in Newport, when the baby-faced salt (who looked much younger than his age) was one of six gobs chosen to play female roles in the Navy Relief Show "HMS Pinafore". The Navy staging of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta was a big hit and chalked up a run of several weeks in Providence and Boston.
Fix was assigned as an able-bodied seaman to the troopship U.S.S. Mount Vernon, which was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of France but did not sink as it was run aground. The rest of Fix's naval career was less exciting, and he was demobilized on September 5, 1919. After his discharge, Fix went back to his girlfriend Frances (Taddy) Harvey, whom he had left behind in Zanesville. He and Taddy were married in 1922 and they moved to California as Fix had always wanted to live in a warm climate.
Fix and his bride settled in Hollywood, not so much because he had set ideas about becoming an actor but because he didn't know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He liked writing and acting in local plays, and soon became friends with the fellow tyro actor Clark Gable, who was his own age. Fix and Gable were discovered by the stage actress Pauline Frederick, who hired them to be members of her touring troupe that traveled by train the length of the West Coast putting on plays. In all, Fix - who had informally renamed himself Paul Peter - appeared in 20 plays with Gable.
Paul Fix had one of his earliest acting roles on celluloid in the mid-1920s, appearing in a silent Western starring William S. Hart. The Western genre eventually would become the one he was most identified with. He played uncredited bit parts and small roles in silents before getting his first credited role in an early talkie (which was part-silent and part-talking), The First Kiss (1928), which starred future Hollywood superstar Gary Cooper and the dame that drove King Kong ape, Fay Wray. In all, Fix appeared in 300-400 films. The Western programmers of the silent and early talkie days could be shot in less than a week.
In 1925, Taddy gave birth to their daughter Marilyn Carey, who eventually would marry Harry Carey Jr., the son of one of the first great Western superstars. They would have three more children and become part of the extended family gathered around the director John Ford. In his career, Paul Fix would appear with another Western legend, John Wayne, in 26 films, starting in 1931 with Three Girls Lost (1931). Urged on by Loretta Young, Fix became an acting coach for the young actor, and Wayne later paid him back when he became a star by having Fix appear in his movies. (The Duke also was a part of the close-knit group that collected around John Ford). With the Duke's patronage, the kinds of roles that Fix played changed. He had been typed as villains in the 1930s but, in the 40s, he began assaying a better class of character.
Paul Fix was also a screenwriter, and is credited as the writer on three films: Tall in the Saddle (1944), Ring of Fear (1954) and The Notorious Mr. Monks (1958). His favorites parts included playing the stricken passenger in the John Wayne picture The High and the Mighty (1954), Elizabeth Taylor's father in George Stevens' classic Giant (1956), the grandfather of the eponymous The Bad Seed (1956) and the judge in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). His last screen appearance was in the Brooke Shields movie Wanda Nevada (1979), but he is most famous for appearing in the recurring role of "Marshal Micah Torrance" in the popular Western TV series The Rifleman (1958). As of 1981, the 80-year old Fix was still getting mail from all over the world from "Rifleman" fans.
Paul Fix died October 14, 1983 of kidney failure. He was survived by his daughter Marilyn Carey and son-in-law Harry "Dobe" Carey, three grandchildren and several great-grandchildren.- Kenneth Washington was born on 19 October 1946. He is an actor, known for Westworld (1973), Police Story (1973) and Hogan's Heroes (1965).
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This popular, baggy-eyed, bald-domed, big lug of a character actor had few peers when called upon to display that special "slow burn" style of comedy few others perfected. But perfect he did -- on stage, film and TV. In fact, he pretty much cornered the market during the 50s and 60s as the dour, ill-tempered guy you loved to hate.
Born Frederick Leonard Clark on March 19 1914, the son of Frederick Clark, a county agriculture commissioner, and Stella (née Bruce) Clark, in Lincoln, California, Fred's initial interest was in medicine and he pursued his pre-med studies at Stanford University. A chance role in the college play "Yellow Jack" change the coarse of his destiny. Earning a scholarship to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, he paid his dues performing in local community theater and summer stock. By May of 1938, at age 24, he was making his Broadway debut with the short-lived comedy play "Schoolhouse on the Lot". He then returned to Broadway a few months later to appear in the melodrama "Ringside Seat", which also closed early.
Fred's nascent career was interrupted when America entered World War II. He served as a Navy pilot in 1942 but later joined the Army and spent nearly two years with the Third Army in Europe. Clark returned to acting and in during the post-war years broke into films via Hungarian film director Michael Curtiz who cast him in the noir classic The Unsuspected (1947). Able to provide cold-hearted villainy in crime drama as well as dyspeptic humor to slapstick comedy, film work came to Fred in no short order. Ride the Pink Horse (1947), Cry of the City (1948), Flamingo Road (1949), White Heat (1949), Alias Nick Beal (1949), Sunset Boulevard (1950), The Jackpot (1950), The Lemon Drop Kid (1951) and Meet Me After the Show (1951) all made the most of Fred's sour skills. Around this time (1952) he married actress Benay Venuta, whom he met while both were performing on stage in "Light Up the Sky" (1950). The popular couple continued to work together from time to time, which included a 1956 stage production of "Bus Stop" at the La Jolla Playhouse.
Well-established on film by this point, Fred set his sights on TV and earned raves providing weekly bombastic support to George Burns and Gracie Allen on their popular sitcom The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1950). Joining the cast into its second season (his role had already been played by two other actors), Fred made the role of neighbor/realtor Harry Morton his own, becoming the first definitive Harry on the show. Investing his character with an amusing, child-like grumpiness, he was ideally paired with comedienne Bea Benaderet (as wife Blanche). Together they provided perfect foursome chemistry with Burns and Allen, much in the same way Vivian Vance and William Frawley did for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz on I Love Lucy (1951). Clark, however, would leave the show in the fall of 1953 following a salary dispute, and was replaced by a fourth Harry Morton, Larry Keating, who managed to keep the role until the end in 1958. Fred would find steady but lesser success on TV after this.
With his trademark cigar, scowl, shiny baldness and pencil-thin mustache, Fred continued to be high in demand in film, usually playing some high-ranking military officer, gang boss, shifty politician or executive skinflint. The Martin & Lewis comedy The Caddy (1953), Marilyn Monroe's How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), The Solid Gold Cadillac (1956), Don't Go Near the Water (1957), The Mating Game (1959), Auntie Mame (1958), Bells Are Ringing (1960), Visit to a Small Planet (1960), Boys' Night Out (1962) and Move Over, Darling (1963), all displayed Clark at his blustery best. And on TV he contributed to such comedy shows as The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), I Dream of Jeannie (1965) and The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961). He also received some attention pushing potato chips in commercials.
Fred made a successful stage debut in London with 1963's "Never Too Late" co-starring Joan Bennett and Samantha Eggar, as a cranky middle-aged father-to-be. He would also return infrequently to Broadway with prime roles in "Romanoff and Juliet" (1957), Viva Madison Avenue! (1960) and "Absence of a Cello" (1964). On a sad note, many of Fred's final years were spent in inferior film. Movies such as Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), I Sailed to Tahiti with an All Girl Crew (1969) and the notorious bomb Skidoo (1968), which was directed by Otto Preminger and starred Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing, were undeserving of his talents.
Divorced from Ms. Venuta in August of 1962, Fred subsequently married a model, Gloria Glaser, in 1966. Fred's sudden death of liver disease two years later on December 5, 1968, at the untimely age of 54, had Hollywood mourning one of its finest comic heavies -- gone way before his time.- Actor
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J. Pat had a warm smile, twinkling eyes, and an Irish name. He was born in Burnley, England, and began his acting career in British musical halls. J. Pat came to the USA at the outbreak of World War II. He also worked on the Broadway stage during the 1940s and 1950s. J. Pat was a very familiar face on TV sitcoms and dramas for 3 decades, where he played mostly uncle and grandfather types. He made over 100 TV guest appearances, and was in groundbreaking series such as the The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Untouchables (1959). J. Pat performed a lot in radio with his versatile voice work, and he later used his talent in animated cartoons, providing many vocal characterizations. And the children always loved J. Pat the most. Many baby boomers have fond childhood memories of his portrayals in the TV series The Adventures of Spin and Marty (1955) and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957) and of course he played Mr. Harry Burns in My Favorite Martian (1963). J. Pat was a kind and gentle man, who made this world a better place for having been here, and he left his legacy on film.- Actor
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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A tall, sinewy, austere-looking character actor with silver hair, rugged features and a distinctive voice, John Robert Anderson appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes. Immensely versatile, he was at his best submerging himself in the role of historical figures (he impersonated Abraham Lincoln three times and twice baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, men whom he strongly resembled). He was a familiar presence in westerns and science-fiction serials, usually as upstanding, dignified and generally benign citizens (a rare exception was his Ebonite interrogator in The Outer Limits (1963) episode "Nightmare"). He had a high opinion of Rod Serling and was proud to be featured in four episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), most memorably as the tuxedo-clad angel Gabriel in "A Passage for Trumpet" (doing for Jack Klugman what Henry Travers did for James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life (1946)).
Known to other youths as 'J.R.', Anderson had a happy childhood, growing up first on a small farm near Clayton, Illinois, and then in the mid-sized town of Quincy where his mother operated a cigar stand. A rangy, outdoorsy type, he excelled at various sports, was a drum major, a member of the track team and the Boy Scouts. During World War II, he served in the Coast Guard, mainly involved in helping protect convoys from U-boat attacks. In 1946, he commenced studies at the University of Iowa, eventually graduating with a Master's degree in Drama. His acting career began on the riverboat 'Goldenrod' (now the oldest surviving Mississippi River Basin showboat in America) and proceeded from there to the Cleveland Playhouse for a year, then the New York stage and summer stock with parts in prestigious plays like "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "Home of the Brave". He also occasionally doubled up as a singer on Broadway ("Paint Your Wagon" (1951), "The Emperor's Clothes" (1953)).
Anderson began as a regular television actor during that medium's formative years. In the course of the next four decades, his appearance barely changing, he was consistently excellent wherever he popped up, be it as western lawmen (including a recurring role as Virgil Earp in The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955)), as cops, governors, judges and army officers; hard-nosed oil executive Herbert Styles in Dallas (1978), or as kindly patriarch of the Hazard clan in North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985). Though less traveled on the big screen, Anderson was particularly impressive as the furtive second-hand car dealer, 'California Charlie', in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), the ruthless leader of the renegades, Addis, in Day of the Evil Gun (1968) and, reprising his role as Lincoln, in The Lincoln Conspiracy (1977). One of the best all-rounders in the business, Anderson died of a heart attack at his home in Sherman Oaks in August 1992, aged 69.- Barney Phillips was an American actor of German descent. He was born in 1913 in St. Louis, Missouri, under the name "Bernard Philip Ofner". His father was Harry Nathan Ofner, a salesman employed in the leather industry. His mother was Leona "Lonnie" Frank, a German emigrant who became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
In 1935, Phillips moved to Los Angeles, California, in hopes of working in the film industry. His film debut was the Western film "Black Aces" (1937), a B-movie produced by Universal Pictures. He had no other credited role in films for several years, though he had several theatrical credits.
In 1941, Phillips enlisted in the United States Army. He served in the signal corps during World War II. Following the war, he returned to the film industry, working mostly as an extra.
The first notable role of his career was the recurring character Sergeant Ed Jacob in the police procedural television series "Dragnet" (1951-1959). He voiced the recurring character of police sergeant Hamilton J. Finger in the radio series "Rocky Fortune" (1953-1954). The main character of the series was amateur sleuth Rocco "Rocky Fortune" Fortunato (played by Frank Sinatra).
Phillips was a prolific character on film and television for the following decades, though he was often typecast as a police officer in these roles. In the early 1960s, Phillips appeared in several episodes of the anthology television series "The Twilight Zone": "The Purple Testament" (1960), "A Thing about Machines" (1960) , "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" (1961), and "Miniature" (1963). He is most remembered for the "Real Martian" episode, where he played the cook Haley. In the episode, Haley helps thwart an invasion of Earth from Martians. But reveals that he is an agent from planet Venus, and that he is preparing the Earth for colonization by his own planet.
Phillips was cast in the war-themed series" Twelve O'Clock High" (1964-1967) as one of the main characters, Doc Kaiser. The series featured the missions of the fictional 918th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) in World War II.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Phillips often worked as a voice actor for animated series. He voiced the powerful genie Shazzan in "Shazzan" (1967-1969), he voiced the strongman Porthos in the "The Three Musketeers" (1968-1969), and provided additional voices in "The Funky Phantom" (1971-1972).
In the late 1970s, Phillips was part of the main cast in the short-lived sitcom "The Betty White Show" (1978-1979). He played the character Fletcher Huff, a struggling actor co-starring in a police-procedural show-within-a-show, Phillips also played the recurring character of Judge Buford Potts in the action comedy "The Dukes of Hazzard" (1979-1985).
Phillips died in 1982, due to cancer, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. A few years following his death, Phillips received his final film credit, as the character Dr. Batt in the psychological drama "Beyond Reason". The film had been produced in 1977, but was not released until 1985. The film was mainly notable as a rare directing credit for actor Telly Savalas (1922-1994). - George Mitchell was born on 21 February 1905 in Larchmont, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for The Andromeda Strain (1971), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Dark Shadows (1966). He was married to Katherine Squire and Mary Alice Shroyer. He died on 18 January 1972 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.
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Seasoned London-born character actor, who had a lengthy career in American films and on television. The son of an Anglo-Italian music professor, Cyril also had a secondary career in Hollywood as a respected drama coach, engaged by Douglas Fairbanks, James Craig, and others. He appears to have divided the remainder of his time between films and the stage. For some time, around 1936, he was director in charge of production at the Little Theatre in Houston, Texas. Most of his movie roles, beginning in 1931, were uncredited bits. He appeared primarily in serials and 'B-horrors', for which dignified English gentlemen were continuously in demand as undertakers, coroners or townsfolk. Television offered him better opportunities in the early 1950's. Skeletal of build, with a heavily-lined face and a shock of white hair, Cyril always appeared rather older than his years. Something of a specialist in Cockney impersonations, his nonplussed features were also regularly glimpsed as assorted shopkeepers, accountants, butlers or academic types. He popped up to particularly good effect in four episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), displaying deft comedic abilities as day-dreaming bank employee, Mr. Smithers, in "A Penny for Your Thoughts" (1961). However, Cyril's best on-screen moment came courtesy of The Night of the Iguana (1964), as Deborah Kerr's elderly grandfather Nonno - 'the oldest working poet in the world' - for which he received a Golden Globe Award nomination.- Jon Lormer was born on 7 May 1906 in Canton, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Creepshow (1982), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Getting Straight (1970). He died on 19 March 1986 in Burbank, California, USA.
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Bill Erwin was born on 2 December 1914 in Honey Grove, Texas, USA. He was an actor, known for Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Somewhere in Time (1980) and Home Alone (1990). He was married to Lucy Frances MacLachlan. He died on 29 December 2010 in Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Lew Brown was born on 18 March 1925 in Goltry, Oklahoma, USA. He was an actor, known for Airport (1970), Topaz (1969) and Days of Our Lives (1965). He was married to Toby Adler. He died on 27 July 2014 in La Jolla, San Diego, California, USA.
- S. John Launer was born on 5 November 1919 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. He was an actor, known for Marnie (1964), I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) and Mommie Dearest (1981). He was married to Estelle Schwartz. He died on 8 September 2006 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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Albert Salmi was born on March 11, 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish parents. After serving in the Army during WWII, he used the GI Bill to study at the Dramatic Workshop of the American Theater Wing and the prestigious Actors Studio. He became a stage actor, very soon landing on Broadway, where his role as Bo Decker in "Bus Stop" was his biggest stage success. A compromise between the stage and screen was live TV drama, in which he was cast regularly. His portrayal of Bruce Pearson in the The United States Steel Hour (1953)'s live 1956 broadcast of "Bang the Drum Slowly" was heart-tuggingly poignant. Salmi's very first film appearance was a choice role in The Brothers Karamazov (1958), for which he turned down an Oscar nomination. The National Board of Review succeeded in presenting him with its award for the same picture, however. Salmi came to enjoy film work and actively sought out parts in westerns. He became a very familiar presence, especially on the TV screen, where he guest starred in many of the westerns and other series of the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1967 he was presented with the Western Heritage (Wrangler) Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame for his role in the Gunsmoke (1955) episode entitled "Death Watch". This bronze cowboy on horseback became his most cherished award. Salmi demonstrated his versatility, however, as years went on. Tall, brawny and sometimes quite intimidating, he was often cast as the bad guy or the authority figure. He was equally convincing, though, as a wronged or misunderstood good guy or a good-natured sidekick. A method actor, Salmi had the ability to make you love or hate his character.
He was, in real life, quite different from most of the characters he played. A quiet-natured family man, he was an oddity by glitzy Hollywood standards. Many of his friends and co-stars have commented on his sense of humor and his lack of pretense. In semi-retirement, he shared his knowledge of theatre by teaching drama classes in Spokane, Washington, where he and his wife settled.- Actor
- Animation Department
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He had one of Hollywood's most distinctive faces and a stentorian baritone voice to match. Character actor John Dehner, was born John Forkum in Staten Island, New York, the son of a globe-trotting artist. He attended school in France and Norway, in the process learning to speak four languages fluently. Back in the U.S., he graduated from high school in New York and proceeded to study for a diploma in art at the University of California. Any plans he might have had of following in his father's footsteps were derailed, however, when the acting bug suddenly took hold. In short order, the cash-strapped Dehner relocated to sunny California in search of a job. He worked for a while as a professional pianist and band leader but was then able to finagle a position as an assistant animator with Disney Studios for a salary of $18 a week. Dehner had a hand in several classic feature sequences, including Fantasia (1940) and Bambi (1942), as well as a few Donald Duck and Pluto cartoons. He returned to Disney in later years as a narrator and also played the part of Viceroy Don Esteban in an episode of the TV series Zorro (1957).
After leaving the Disney art department, Dehner did a stint as a public relations officer in the army during World War II and then returned to California as a radio announcer and news editor for stations KMBC and KFWB. In the course of many years, Dehner amassed a remarkable series of radio acting credits, most notably starring as Paladin in "Have Gun - Will Travel" and in similarly popular action programs like "Gunsmoke" and "Fort Laramie" (this, in spite of turning down several offers to play Marshall Matt Dillon on TV because he did not want to be typecast in westerns!). In films from the mid-40s, Dehner served a lengthy apprenticeship in assorted bit parts before graduating as one of Hollywood's most reliable villains, be they suave gamblers, crooked bankers, grifters or gunslingers. Just as often, his authoritarian demeanor proved perfect casting for stern fathers, military brass or cops. In The Left Handed Gun (1958), Dehner received second billing as Pat Garrett, co-starring opposite Paul Newman's Billy the Kid. On the small screen, he invariably made an impact as guest star in myriad classic TV shows, including Yancy Derringer (1958), Tales of Wells Fargo (1957), The Roaring 20's (1960), Maverick (1957), Bronco (1958), 77 Sunset Strip (1958), Rawhide (1959) and The Doris Day Show (1968) (a regular part during seasons four and five, as Doris's editor Cy Bennett). Dehner appeared in three episodes of The Twilight Zone (1959), reserving one of his best performances (displaying a wonderfully dry comic talent) as the titular huckster in late 1800s Arizona, in the episode "Mr. Garrity and the Graves" (1963).
One of Hollywood's most hard-working character actors, John Dehner died in Santa Barbara, California, on February 4 at the age of 76.- Instantly recognizable American character actor with bulbous nose and heavily lined face, who could convey integrity or menace to equal effect. He first came to prominence on radio as (Captain) Starr of Space (1953), using ray guns to combat Martians and alien queens. Beginning in 1953, Larch accumulated an impressive resume of TV series credits, spanning almost the entire spectrum of the best western, crime and science-fiction shows the 1950's and 60's had to offer. His authoritarian personality and demeanor generally typecast him as police officers, military men, attorneys and politicians. Quite a few of these turned out to be either corrupt or outright villains. Point in case, his performance as a tough hood in The Phenix City Story (1955), described by Bosley Crowther as "stinging" in "hard malevolence" (New York Times, September 3, 1955).
At his best, Larch was the nervous Mr. Fremont, father to the eminently dangerous Anthony (Bill Mumy) in the classic entry into The Twilight Zone (1959), 'It's a Good Life'. In The Invaders (1967) episode 'Genesis', he was again excellent as police officer Greg Lucather, at first skeptical, but subsequently swayed by irrefutable evidence to help in David Vincent's quest. On the big screen, he is perhaps best remembered as Harry Callahan's Chief of Police in the original Dirty Harry (1971). - Paul Comi was born on 11 February 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for Howard the Duck (1986), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He was married to Eva Mae Stiles. He died on 26 August 2016 in Pasadena, California, USA.
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Michael Fox first "trod the boards" in grade school plays in his hometown of Yonkers, New York. After toying with the idea of becoming a history teacher, Fox did "something as foreign to my nature as one could think of", becoming a "boomer" (a migratory railroad worker) and taking jobs as a brakeman with various lines. His interest in acting was rekindled in the mid-'40s and he appeared in several "little theater" plays in Los Angeles. An acting-directing stint in a Players Ring production of "Home of the Brave" caught the eye of Harry Sauber, an associate of exploitation mogul "Jungle Sam" Sam Katzman, and Fox landed his first film role (A Yank in Indo-China (1952)). He appeared in dozens of movies (and innumerable TV episodes) in the decades since; one of his regular TV roles was as the coroner in the courtroom drama Perry Mason (1957).- Actor
- Producer
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Along with his most impressive list of television/film credits, Bill is also a very talented well-known musician, songwriter, recording artist, as well as writer. He plays guitar, bass, keyboards, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, percussion and sings. He has released three solo CDs, 1997's "Dying To Be Heard", 1999's "In The Current" and the 2000 release of his third solo album, "Pandora's Box". All three released on Renaissance Records. In 1978, Bill and his partner, Robert Haimer, officially formed the infamous "quirky-rock duo" Barnes and Barnes. They are known worldwide, and have recorded 9 albums on Rhino and CBS Record labels. They also released a feature length home video titled "Zabagabee" featuring a Collaboration of Barnes and Barnes short films. Their infamous "Fish Heads" song placed #57 in Rolling Stones Top 100 Videos of All Time. In 2000, Ogio Records released the 24 song "Yeah: The Essential Barnes & Barnes" CD. Bill was nominated for an Emmy in 1991/1992 for his original song composition for Adventures in Wonderland for Disney which he wrote 105 songs for 100 episodes. He also scored three episodes of the award winning PBS series The Universe and I and contributed songs and themes to Santa Barbara, TV Guide Looks At, Hard to Hold (1984), Plain Clothes (1988), Archie, Sunshine (1975), Bless the Beasts & Children (1971), The Simpsons (1989), and many other film and television projects. Bill and Miguel Ferrer are in a rock and roll band called the Jenerators. Their first CD and cassette titled the "Jenerators" was released in 1994 on Asil Records. Their second CD produced by Frank Wolf titled "Hitting The Silk" was released in November of 1998 on Wildcat Records. They perform in the Los Angeles area when possible. If that is not enough, Bill has also worked on various children albums as well. "The Yogi Bear Environmental Album: This Land Is Our Land" a 1993 release on Rhino Records/Hanna Barbera, "The Dinosaur Album" also a 1993 release on Rhino Records, and his album "Kiss My Boo Boo" which has been released on the Infinite Visions label.
In addition to his many other talents, Bill co-created the popular children television series, Space Cases (1996) with Peter David which he also co-wrote, produced, composed music for, and guest starred in as well. It was nominated for the 1996 Ace Award for "Outstanding Children's Series." The series has run globally in over sixty countries. Peter and Bill have written the screenplay to the feature film, "Overload" which Bill is also starring in. Bill has written as well as co-created many comic books, stories, and television series. He has written for Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics and Pocket Books. The stories he co-wrote include well-known titles as "Spider-Man", "The Hulk", and "Clive Barker's Hellraiser." He co-wrote a Star Trek trilogy "Return of the Worthy", and was a creative consultant and writer to the Lost In Space Innovation monthly comic. He also has written for DC comics, "Aquaman", "The Spectre" and "Star Trek". His writing projects include the feature film, _Overload_ and a fantasy novel co-written with Angela Cartwright, "Realms Of Majik: The Pocket in Reality". His short stories, "The Black '59" and "The Undeadliest Game" appeared in Pocket Books "Shock Rock" Volumes 1 and 2. Both have been printed globally in many languages. He has also written for animation, most recently an episode of the sci fi series, "Roswell Conspiracies". He has also written episodics for NBC's series, "Sunshine", USA network's Swamp Thing, as well as scripting an unfilmed episode of Babylon 5 (1993). He co-created and wrote the Marvel Comics series' "The Comet Man", "The Dreamwalker" graphic novel, and Dark Horse Comics' "Trypto, The Acid Dog" with Miguel Ferrer.
Included in his various multi-talent accomplishments, he is also a prolific voice over actor and can be heard narrating several of the prestigious "A&E: Biographies" as well as many other documentaries and specials. Some of his commercial work in that arena includes McDonalds, Mattel, Bud Ice, Amtrak, Blockbuster, Ford, KFC, Wal Mart, and Nickelodeon - just to name a few. He is presently doing all the television and radio spots for Farmers Insurance. His voice over work in animation includes The Ren & Stimpy Show (1991), Batman: The Animated Series (1992), Animaniacs (1993), Little Wizard Adventures, and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000).- Wallace Rooney was born on 29 December 1910 in Plattsburgh, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for The Exorcist (1973), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Defenders (1961). He died on 10 October 1996 in Englewood, New Jersey, USA.
- Heavyweight Hungarian-born character actor Oscar Beregi Jr.'s best performances were on the small screen, usually as Eastern European or Russian heavies. His stock-in-trade villainy was of a cultured or psychological, rather than physical nature, urbane and intellectual, yet inevitably sinister. His father, matinee idol Oscar Beregi Sr., had appeared on the Hungarian and German stage in Shakespearean roles, as well as acting in films, since 1919. Both Beregis left Hungary in 1939, the father settling in the United States, while the son ran a restaurant in Chile. It took several years for the younger Beregi to be granted a visa to enter the U.S., and then only through the intervention of then-U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson.
When Beregi finally arrived in America, he spoke little English and worked as a salesman for several years, learning the language, before re-entering the acting profession well into middle age. On the big screen, he was largely restricted to small supporting roles. However, Beregi made the most of the meatier roles offered him in television, such as mob boss Joe Kulak (a character possibly based on real-life mobster Jake Guzik) in eight episodes of The Untouchables (1959). He was also impressively commanding as the scientific criminal mastermind Farwell in Rod Serling's The Rip Van Winkle Caper (1961) and, in the same series, as former SS concentration camp commandant Guenther Lutze, driven to insanity by the ghosts of his former victims in Deaths-Head Revisited (1961). He was also effective in Middle Eastern intrigue (The Third Man (1959)) and in parodying his evil personae in I'm Only Human (1966), Tequila Mockingbird (1969), and Young Frankenstein (1974).
In his spare time, he was a successful breeder of Komondors, a breed of large, white Hungarian sheep dog, considered a living treasure in their native country. - Actor
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Ben Wright was born May 5, 1915, to an English mother and an American father in London, England, UK. At 16, he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts where classmates included such future stars as Ida Lupino. Upon graduating, he acted in several West End stage productions. When WWII broke out, he enlisted and served in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. He came to America in 1946 to attend a cousin's wedding and settled in Hollywood. He began his American acting career in radio, establishing himself as a master of dialects with such roles as Hey Boy, the Chinese servant, on "Have Gun, Will Travel" with John Dehner. His talent for dialects also kept him busy in the many WWII-related films and TV shows of the 1950s and '60s wherein he played countless Germans and Frenchmen as well as a variety of Englishmen for which he ensured the dialects were accurate depending on which part of England they were from. After years of radio, TV, stage and film work, he entered semi-retirement in the late 1970s, accepting occasional voice work and small guest appearances on TV. On June 16, 1989, after completing his last role, providing the voice of Grimsby in Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989), he entered St. Joseph's Hospital in Burbank for quadruple bypass surgery from which he never recovered. He died of heart failure July 2, 1989.- Actor
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Familiar character actor of Russian heritage who played in scores of films, mostly in the U.S. He studied at the University of Moscow but left there to attend the Moscow Academy of Dramatic Art. He joined the world- renowned Moscow Art Theatre, where he worked for the next decade as an actor and assistant director, eventually directing plays himself. In 1923, he emigrated to Berlin and spent most of the next decade acting in films there and in Austria. With the coming of the Nazis, he relocated first to Paris, in 1932, and then to the United States in 1937. He immediately found himself very busy with dozens of roles in many popular American films, ranging from Russian to Chinese, Mexican, and Italian characters. Although his specialty was gentle, beatific characters, he could and did on occasion play less noble types. Among his most memorable characterizations were Anselmo, the gentle rebel in For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), and the wise peasant in The Magnificent Seven (1960). He died in West Hollywood, California in 1962.- Stafford Repp was born on 26 April 1918 in San Francisco, California, USA. He was an actor, known for Batman: The Movie (1966), Batman (1966) and Playhouse 90 (1956). He was married to Theresa Valenti Moriarty, Sharon Diane Currier and Berta J. Slack. He died on 5 November 1974 in Inglewood, California, USA.
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Paul Mazursky was born on 25 April 1930 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for An Unmarried Woman (1978), Harry and Tonto (1974) and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969). He was married to Betsy Mazursky. He died on 30 June 2014 in Beverly Grove, Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
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Russ Bender was born on 1 January 1910 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for War of the Colossal Beast (1958), The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and The Twilight Zone (1959). He died on 16 August 1969 in Hollywood, California, USA.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Don Keefer was born on 18 August 1916 in Highspire, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Twilight Zone (1959) and Death of a Salesman (1951). He was married to Catherine McLeod. He died on 7 September 2014 in Sherman Oaks, California, USA.- Producer
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Lew graduated from Ithaca College in 1951 and was a member of Delta Kappa fraternity. He attended graduate school at Columbia University from 1954-1955. He received Ithaca College's Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 2001. He founded the golf tournament for the Entertainment Industry Foundation and served as a member of the foundation's board. Lew began golf tournaments for St. John of God Care Center and Villa Scallabrini Retirement Home. In 1998 he was named man of the year by the Los Angeles Italian American Golf Association.- Hugh Sanders was born on 13 March 1911 in East Saint Louis, Illinois, USA. He was an actor, known for That's My Boy (1951), The Outer Limits (1963) and Storm Warning (1950). He was married to Janet Bernice Putnam and Dorothy F Allsup. He died on 9 January 1966 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
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He's known for his appearance as the navigator "Magellan" on The Twilight Zone season two episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33," which was the only story Rod Serling's brother, Robert J., worked on. He also appeared in several episodes of Knots Landing's 1984/85 season as the pastor/host of the fictional TV program "A Brighter Day" in which he was replaced by Alec Baldwin's character, Joshua Rush.- Actor
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Thin, fidgety James Millholin made a career out of playing dyspeptic bureaucrats, nervous hotel clerks and other officious authority types. Somewhat reminiscent of Edward Everett Horton or Franklin Pangborn, Millhollin's pinched face, somewhat pop eyes and flighty mannerisms fit those roles like a glove, one of the best examples being the army psychiatrist driven to distraction trying to give Andy Griffith a psychological examination in No Time for Sergeants (1958) (a role he also played on Broadway). Born in Peoria, IL, Millhollin had a career on the Broadway stage and did much television in the early 1950s before breaking into films. After retiring from the industry he moved to Mississippi, where he died in 1993.- Often confused with the British-born comic actor J. Pat O'Malley, who is the better remembered, silent dramatic film star Pat O'Malley had an enduring career that stands on its own. He was of solid Irish-American stock, born in Forest City, Pennsylvania, in 1890. A one-time railroad switchman, he also had circus experience by the time he discovered an interest in movie making. He began with the Kalem Studio in 1913 and appeared in a few Irish films before signing on with Thomas Edison's company in 1914. The following year, he married actress Lillian Wilkes, and three of their children, Eileen, Mary Katherine, and Sheila, would become actors as well. His brother Charles O'Malley was a sometime actor, appearing in westerns on occasion. His first identifiable film is The Alien (1913). He began freelancing in 1916 and from then on, appeared in scores of silents as both a rugged and romantic lead, some classic films being The Heart of Humanity (1918), My Wild Irish Rose (1922), and The Virginian (1923). He did not age well come sound pictures, and he was quickly relegated to supporting parts. He appeared in hundreds upon hundreds of bits (mostly unbilled) until 1956, when he retired. He died a decade later.
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Arch Johnson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1922. A stage actor as well as a prolific television character actor, he was in the original production of "West Side Story" on Broadway and the revival of that show in the 1980s on Broadway as well. He was the only actor from the original stage version who returned for the revival and he toured Europe with the show. He was in the original version of "Other People's Money" on Broadway and originated the Role of "Jorge" that Gregory Peck played in the film version (Other People's Money (1991)). His first love was theatre, where he started, and he came back to it at the end of his career before retiring in the late 1990s. He passed away in October of 1997 from cancer. He was survived by five children (Jennifer, Jessica, Joseph, Archie Jr. and LouAnn) and seven grandchildren (Nicholas, Dominic, Brian, Bradley, Sharon, Nancy and Christi). He also had six great-grandchildren.- Hank Patterson was born in Springville, Alabama to Green and Mary Newton Patterson. Hank's great-grandfather, James Pearson, was an original settler of St. Clair County, AL as was his mother's great-grandfather, Thomas Newton. Between 1894 & 1897, the family left AL to live in Taylor, Texas, where Hank attempted to work as a serious musician, only to settle for playing piano in traveling vaudeville shows. He worked his way out to California in the 1920s and here began his film career followed by long runs on two television series Gunsmoke (1955) and Green Acres (1965).
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Character actor Jason Wingreen was born on October 9, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York City. The son of a Jewish tailor father, Wingreen grew up in the Howard Beach neighborhood of Queens. Jason attended John Adams High School and majored in English and Speech at Brooklyn College (he initially planned on being a sportswriter and wrote about high school sporting events for the daily newspaper the Brooklyn Eagle during his high school years). While at Brooklyn College Wingreen caught the acting bug after taking a mandatory speech course and joined the undergraduate theater group the Masquers, which he became president of in his senior year at college. Following graduation from Brooklyn College in June, 1941, Jason got his first show business job with a marionette company.
Wingreen went on to serve in the armed forces during World War II as a member of the 81st Fighter Squadron, 50th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force. In the wake of his tour of duty, Jason returned to Howard Beach and went to the New School on the G.I. Bill. Wingreen helped to found the famed Circle in the Square Theatre company in Greenwich Village in the early 1950's and in 1954 acted for the first time on Broadway in the plays "Fragile Fox" and "The Girl on the Via Flaminia." Jason acted on his first TV show in 1955 and acted in his first movie shortly thereafter. In addition, Wingreen was a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since the early 1960's. Jason died at age 95 at his home in Los Angeles, California on December 25, 2015. He's survived by his son Ned, two grandchildren, and his sister Harriett Wingreen, who was the orchestra pianist for the New York Philharmonic for several decades.- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
John McLiam was born on 24 January 1918 in Hayter, Alberta, Canada. He was an actor and writer, known for First Blood (1982), In Cold Blood (1967) and Sleeper (1973). He was married to Roberta Claire Robinson. He died on 16 April 1994 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Joseph V. Perry was born on 13 February 1931 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993), The Karate Kid Part III (1989) and The Domino Principle (1977). He died on 23 February 2000 in Burbank, California, USA.
- Milton Parsons was born on 19 May 1904 in Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA. He was an actor, known for The Hidden Hand (1942), The Twilight Zone (1959) and The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947). He died on 15 May 1980 in Los Angeles County, California, USA.
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
William Shatner has notched up an impressive 70-plus years in front of the camera, displaying heady comedic talent and being instantly recognizable to several generations of cult television fans as the square-jawed Captain James T. Kirk, commander of the starship U.S.S. Enterprise.
Shatner was born in Côte Saint-Luc, Montréal, Québec, Canada, to Anne (Garmaise) and Joseph Shatner, a clothing manufacturer. His father was a Jewish emigrant from Bukovina in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while his maternal grandparents were Lithuanian Jews. After graduating from university, he joined a local Summer theatre group as an assistant manager. He then performed with the National Repertory Theatre of Ottawa and at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival as an understudy working with such as Alec Guinness, James Mason, and Anthony Quayle. He came to the attention of New York critics and was soon playing important roles in major shows on live television.
Shatner spent many years honing his craft before debuting alongside Yul Brynner in The Brothers Karamazov (1958). He was kept busy during the 1960s in films such as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and The Intruder (1962) and on television guest-starring in dozens of series such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955), The Defenders (1961), The Outer Limits (1963) and The Twilight Zone (1959). In 1966, Shatner boarded the USS Enterprise for three seasons of Star Trek (1966), co-starring alongside Leonard Nimoy, with the series eventually becoming a bona-fide cult classic with a worldwide legion of fans known variously as "Trekkies" or "Trekkers".
After "Star Trek" folded, Shatner spent the rest of the decade and the 1970s making the rounds, guest-starring on many prime-time television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Ironside (1967). He has also appeared in several feature films, but they were mainly B-grade (or lower) fare, such as the embarrassingly bad Euro western White Comanche (1968) and the campy Kingdom of the Spiders (1977). However, the 1980s saw a major resurgence in Shatner's career with the renewed interest in the original Star Trek (1966) series culminating in a series of big-budget "Star Trek" feature films, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). In addition, he starred in the lightweight police series T.J. Hooker (1982) from 1982 to 1986, alongside spunky Heather Locklear, and surprised many fans with his droll comedic talents in Airplane II: The Sequel (1982), Loaded Weapon 1 (1993) and Miss Congeniality (2000).
He has most recently been starring in the David E. Kelley television series The Practice (1997) and its spin-off Boston Legal (2004).
Outside of work, he jogs and follows other athletic pursuits. His interest in health and nutrition led to him becoming spokesman for the American Health Institute's 'Know Your Body' program to promote nutritional and physical health.