Obscure Actors that we rememeber from our childhood

[Sunkist]

Good one. Henry Jones was an oddball character-- seemingly always a little strange, but amusing and whimsical. I probably first noticed him from playing many characters in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series.

Yes, he was talented, for sure!!

 

[TeePee]

Marjorie Main. I loved her and Percy Kilbride as Ma and Pa Kettle.

 

[debodun]

Edward Binns. Character actor in may TV shows and movies. Was Juror #6 in "12 Angry Men" and General Bedell Smith in "Patton".

 

[debodun]

George J. Lewis - perhaps best remembered playing Don Alejandro de la Vega on the 1950s TV series "Zorro".

 

[Mitch86]

I remember the radio commentators: Fulton Lewis, Jr, Gabriel Heater, and many others. Post in this thread the ones you used to hear on the radio on a regular basis.

I also used to listen to "Superman," "Batman," "Inner Sanctum," and "The Lone Ranger."

 

[debodun]

Jan Arvan - character actor with a broad style in which he could play an ethnic type, a suave businessman or a shifty swindler.

 

[debodun]

Michael Pate - character actor that appeared in many TV series and movies.

 

[ChiroDoc]

Tom Ewell (1909-1994)

The guy got a lot of work, but his best known role was the opportunistic suitor of Marilyn Monroe in the infamous comedy The Seven Year Itch (1955).

 

[debodun]

Emmaline Henry



Appeared as a regular character on "I Dream of Jeannie" as Amanda Bellows, Kate Dickens on "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster" and dozens of guest appearances on TV series and a handful of movies.

 

[Paladin1950]

Hayden Roarke and Larry Hagman

 

[Paladin1950]

Howard Near and Wayne Rogers

 

[debodun]

Howard McNear!

 

[Paladin1950]

Howard McNear!

You're right. I guess how an obscure actor spells his last name, is something I forgot.

 

[Time Waits 4 No Man]

Marcy, I'm surprised you aren't familiar with Elisha Cook, Jr. He was in a ton of noir films, starting with The Maltese Falcon, then The Big Sleep.

Cook also did a lot of TV work during the latter period of his career, including one of the Top 5 episodes of original Star Trek:

 

[Time Waits 4 No Man]

The Wild Wild West: "The Night of the Bars of Hell"--- "Jim goes undercover as a prison inspector to investigate a local prison. When Jim's sentenced to die in the electric chair, Arte poses as the executioner to save him."

 

[ChiroDoc]

Cook also did a lot of TV work during the latter period of his career, including one of the Top 5 episodes of original Star Trek:

​

Yeah, the man worked a lot! I particularly enjoyed him in all of his noir and neo-noir roles, but like you say, he did a lot of other stuff toward the latter part of his career.

What I thought was interesting about him is that he was an avid outdoorsman. He had a cabin up in the Sierras where he spent a lot of his time between pictures as a trout fisherman. Reportedly if someone wanted him for a movie role they'd send a messenger up to his cabin. He'd come down, do the picture, then go back up to the wilderness.

Surprisingly, he was close friends with actor Lawrence Tierney, who in real life was a badass with a short fuse. Wouldn't have put those two together as buds.

 

[OneEyedDiva]

The Wild Wild West: "The Night of the Bars of Hell"--- "Jim goes undercover as a prison inspector to investigate a local prison. When Jim's sentenced to die in the electric chair, Arte poses as the executioner to save him."

I remember him. He was in a lot of stuff.

 

[Paladin1950]

I remember him. He was in a lot of stuff.

 

[Time Waits 4 No Man]

View attachment 496299

It didn't end well for actor Elisha Cook Jr. when he came up against actor Jack Palance in Shane. (4 minute video)

 

[ChiroDoc]

Shane was a great western. I recall how shocked I was as an 8 year old in 1953 seeing that picture.

Jack Palance was one of the best sneering bad guys in films ever. He could really seem evil.
He was absolutely chilling in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), playing both Jekyll and Hyde in a TV movie. The best Hyde ever.

 

[DailyArtsyCrafter]

I had to research who this interesting, sultry-looking, blonde-headed guy with the light eyes was. I first noticed him in one of my fav Columbo episodes, Publish Or Perish. He had such a unique look, at least to me. He is John Davis Chandler January 28, 1935 – February 16, 2010

He had a long acting history. In 1961, he portrayed the gangster Vincent Coll in Mad Dog Coll, and a kind of mad-dog teen killer in The Young Savages later the same year. He appeared in several of Sam Peckinpah's Western films, and on television between the 1960s and 1990s in The Rifleman; Route 66; Straightaway; The Virginian; Adam-12; Gunsmoke; Walker, Texas Ranger; Quincy, M.E.; Columbo; Murder, She Wrote; and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

John Chandler Tribute

 

[debodun]

John McGiver. Appeared in dozens of TV shows and movies, usually playing an imperious, arrogant character.

 

[debodun]

Pinky Lee. Burlesque comic; best known for his children's TV show in the 1950s.