# Who's left from early TV? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2014, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218 "2014-02-13T03:45:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/181 "2014-02-28T03:53:19Z")
**Joseph Campanella** is still around. His first TV credit was in 1952. He has done an extensive amount of television and voice-over work since then. Many people will remember him as Ann Romano’s ex-husband on _ **One Day at A Time** _ and also from his voice work on the Jacques Cousteau series of television specials. His last credit is from 2009. Mike “Touch” Connors is still kicking. He is best known for his eponymous television series _ **Mannix** _ in the 1970s. His first television credit was in 1954 and his latest was in 2007 courting Holland Taylor, the mother on the execrable _ **Two and Half Men** _ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/182 "2014-02-28T04:34:10Z")
Orson Bean, who wrapped up a good-sized run on _Desperate Housewives_ in 2012, has been appearing on television since '52 (when he was acting on _Goodyear Playhouse_ and _Broadway Television Theatre_ and _Studio One In Hollywood_). And he was great on _How I Met Your Mother_, when Ted hangs out with his ex-girlfriend and her older-man boyfriend: our unreliable-narrator hero gleefully spends the episode picturing the guy as maybe eighty – and cue Bean explaining that his parents should chillax; snowboarding is a totes legit career, so you oughta be stoked that I’ve found my bliss. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2014, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/183 "2014-03-01T23:46:03Z")
Rod Taylor was a fine leading-man movie star in the '60s, but pre-'58 he was still getting there on _General Electric Theater_ and _Lux Video Theatre_ and everything else from _Cheyenne_ to _Suspicion_; he was most recently back on the big screen for a bit of stunt casting as Winston Churchill in _Inglorious Basterds_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/184 "2014-03-02T04:26:43Z")
Morgan Woodward got work on _Zane Grey Theater_ and _Walt Disney’s Wonderful World Of Color_ in '56 – and on _Tales of Wells Fargo_ and _Gunsmoke_ in '57 – before spending '58 to '61 as “Shotgun” Gibbs on _The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/185 "2014-03-02T13:08:36Z")
**Beverly Washburn** – one of a dozen _Star Trek_ alums currently working on the _Unbelievable!!!_ film – was acting on _Father Knows Best_ and _Wagon Train_ in '57, and _The 20th Century-Fox Hour_ and _Fury_ in '56, and _Studio 57_ and _Professional Father_ in '55, and _Dragnet_ and _The Ray Milland Show_ in '54, and _Omnibus_ and _Schlitz Playhouse_ in '53, and _The Jack Benny Program_ and _Ford Television Theatre_ in '52, and so on. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/186 "2014-03-02T15:58:44Z")
**Anne Jackson** , wife of the oldest living male Tony Award winner, Eli Wallach is still very much alive. She started in television in 1949 and had numerous roles throughout the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/187 "2014-03-02T16:03:52Z")
Four pages and no mention yet of Desi Arnaz Jr? He even graced the first cover of _TV Guide_, in April 1953. EDIT: Hmm. Maybe he doesn’t count. He himself appeared on the cover with his mother, Lucille Ball, but other babies and children portrayed him on the shows. He doesn’t seem to have appeared on TV until 1962 now that I check on it. But when Lucy was pregnant, that was him inside as a fetus. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/188 "2014-03-02T17:16:06Z")
This thread has made be realize two things: 1. I thought a lot of people were dead who are actually still alive. E.g., Joseph Campanella and Michael Constantine. It’s the Abe Vigoda syndrome. 2. Trying to spot candidates while watching current TV shows and movies is hard. The overwhelming majority of “old people” on TV aren’t actually old enough to qualify or, if they are, they didn’t start getting roles until the 60s. E.g., I saw [Alex “Moe Greene” Rocco](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0733678/) on _Episodes_ last week. (He played Matt LeBlanc’s dad.) Born in 1936 but first credit 1965 (Russ Meyer’s _Motorpsycho!_!) Almost all the early TV stars still with us haven’t been active in years and are hard to recall. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/189 "2014-03-02T17:35:45Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Four pages and no mention yet of Desi Arnaz Jr? He even graced the first cover of _TV Guide_, in April 1953. > > EDIT: Hmm. Maybe he doesn’t count. He himself appeared on the cover with his mother, Lucille Ball, but other babies and children portrayed him on the shows. He doesn’t seem to have appeared on TV until 1962 now that I check on it. But when Lucy was pregnant, that was him inside as a fetus. Heh. He was born on the same day as my older brother. And his sister was born two years to the day before my wife. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/190 "2014-03-02T19:11:53Z")
WWII veteran Harry Dean Stanton is still working sixty years after his television debut as Andrew on _Inner Sanctum_ way back in 1954 – before appearing on _Suspicion_ and _The Walter Winchell File_ pre-'58 – after which he spent the rest of the '50s bouncing around from TV Western to TV Western: from _Gunsmoke_ to _Rawhide_ to _Laramie_ to _Bat Masterson_ to _The Rifleman_ to _US Marshal_ to _Have Gun Will Travel_. And how great was he in _The Avengers_, giving advice to a naked Bruce Banner? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/191 "2014-03-02T19:51:50Z")
For the blonde/brunette/redhead trifecta, Lizabeth Scott and Marsha Hunt and Cara Williams each started acting on television in the '40s – and all kept getting TV work in the '50s before the OP’s cut-off date – sure as they continued to do so in the '60s. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/192 "2014-03-02T20:37:49Z")
**Burt Reynolds** has four 1950s television credits, the first starting in 1958. He’ll be in four films which will be released in 2014 and 2015. The great **Ruby Dee** (widow of film legend Ossie Davis) had her first television credit in 1946 and she had several roles during the 1950s. Noreen Corcoran, best known for her co-starring role in the 1950s series _ **Bachelor Father** _ w/ the late John Forsythe is still alive. Janet Waldo, who is primarily known as a voice actress (Penelope Pitstop from the cartoon **The Wacky Racers** , for one) is both still alive and she has credits from the 1950s, including _ **I Love Lucy** _ and _ **The Phil Silvers Show.** _ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/193 "2014-03-02T20:55:22Z")
Before displaying her swimsuited figure in glorious 3D for _The Creature From The Black Lagoon_, Julie Adams was picking up TV credits as far back as 1949; in 1955 she was acting on _The Colgate Comedy Hour_; in 1956, _Studio One in Hollywood_; in 1957, _Lux Video Theatre_; and et cetera. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/194 "2014-03-03T17:57:38Z")
Martha Hyer spent the '60s on the big screen with guys like Redford and Mitchum and Brando and everyone else from John Wayne to Roger Moore after getting an Oscar nomination in the late '50s, but before that she busily racked up acting credits on television – starting with _The Lone Ranger_ in 1950, and on through to her fifth role on _Lux Video Theatre_ in '56, while popping in on ten other TV shows in between. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/195 "2014-03-03T19:07:20Z")
> [@installLSC](#): > > Who else from early TV (say pre-1958) is still with us? Isn’t that a bit of a late date? Broadcast TV started in the US in 1928 - a whole generation earlier than your cut-off date. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/196 "2014-03-03T20:27:52Z")
1928 is pre-1958. there was low resolution electromechanical and low resolution electronic set owned by a couple thousand rich people. NTSC became a standard in 1941 (USA). civilian electronics slowed down or stopped totally during the war. most of what existed was all in New York. after the war was when there was practical mass market tv. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/197 "2014-03-03T22:37:52Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Isn’t that a bit of a late date? Broadcast TV started in the US in 1928 - a whole generation earlier than your cut-off date. TV really didn’t start to become a national phenomenon until 1948, so taking the decade from 1948-1957 seems quite reasonable. This was the first decade of TV where stars were made. E.g., Milton Berle started his run in 1948 and he was the first major star of early TV. Setting the cutoff date significantly lower would miss just about all early TV stars, living or dead. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/198 "2014-03-04T01:30:04Z")
Plus, consider, say, Kaye Ballard (who’s still working as we speak, with a short film in pre-production for later this year): in '51 she’s working on television with Art Carney and Mel Tormé; by '57 she’s the evil stepsister to Julie Andrews as TV’s Cinderella and appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show as, well, herself; and in between, she and Jonathan Winters picked up _‘comedian’_ credits on **The NBC Comedy Hour** when she wasn’t busy on **The Colgate Comedy Hour** with Martin and Lewis; and she even appeared on **Nothing But The Best** with Anne Jeffreys… …since Anne Jeffreys, of course, starred in **Topper** on TV from '53 to '55, after racking up TV credits as far back as the '40s: she acted on **The Milton Berle Show** , and performed on **All Star Revue** with Keenan Wynn, and tried to stump Bennett Cerf as the mystery guest on **What’s My Line** , and appeared on TV with Jack Benny and Liberace, and with Eddie Cantor and with Nat King Cole – all in '57 or earlier, sure as she’s still active, with her most recent acting credit coming back in December… …but the point is, they could tell about how it was back when; you don’t need to wonder what it was like to work on **The Red Skelton Hour** , you can just ask 'em. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2014, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/199 "2014-03-04T15:22:14Z")
Back before Dorothy Malone was a TV fixture on _Peyton Place_ – and before she won that Oscar for her '56 role on the big screen opposite Rock Hudson – she made more than a dozen Golden Age Of Television appearances, most notably with Henry Fonda in a Ronald-Reagan-hosted episode of _General Electric Theater_. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/200 "2014-03-05T17:58:32Z")
**Dame Joan Plowright** , the Baroness Olivier, got her first recurring role on TV way back in '51, after which you could see her on _The BBC Sunday-Night Theatre_ in '54 sure as she picked up a healthy amount of other television work before '58. For example, she did a TV movie in '55 with the great **Christopher Lee** , who is of course still working at present – after all, there’s another _Hobbit_ movie comig out later this year – and, man, that guy’s been picking up television credits since the '40s: pre-'58, he was showing up for episode after episode after episode after episode of _The Errol Flynn Theatre_ and episode after episode after episode after episode of _Tales Of Hans Anderson_, and so on, before embarking on his long career of getting killed by James Bond and Captain America and young Skywalker and et cetera. Plowright also appeared on _Sword of Freedom_ in '57 with **Adrienne Corri** – best known as That Woman Who Gets Raped In _A Clockwork Orange_, but who was acting on _Robert Montgomery Presents_ back in '52 before racking up a dozen other pre-'58 TV credits (including _The New Adventures of Charlie Chan_, with the aforementioned James Hong as Number One Son Barry Chan). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=9) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=11)