# 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:** 11
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/201 "2014-03-05T18:32:05Z")
Apologies if he’s been mentioned, but Mike Connors (born in 1925) had his first TV role in 1952. He’s best known for the series Mannix. His most recent (and I assume will be the last) credit was as one of Evelyn Harper’s boyfriends on Two and a Half Men in 2007. He looked good and he would have been 82 at the time. ---
**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 6, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/202 "2014-03-06T02:55:44Z")
Coming back around to the OP, Nancy Olson performed on _Your Show of Shows_ in '52 soon after her Oscar nomination for Supporting Actress, and she followed up with a good deal of small-screen acting roles: a made-for-TV production of _The Women_ with Mary Astor and Shelley Winters; plus _The Best Of Broadway_, with Fredric March and Claudette Colbert; and _Ford Star Jubilee_, with Hans Conried and Bing Crosby; and et cetera and et cetera, all before '57. In '57, she appeared on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ alongside Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly; after '57, her latest acting credit is – well, this year, in a movie with Carl Reiner. ---
**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 6, 2014, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/203 "2014-03-06T11:53:56Z")
After performing on Broadway in the 1940s, Lee Grant made her television debut on _Actor’s Studio_ in 1950 – and after acting on _Studio One In Hollywood_ and _Danger_, she spent a year on the _Search For Tomorrow_ soap opera, after which she bounced around from _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ with Jack Warden and Eli Wallach to _The Alcoa Hour_ with Boris Karloff and Jason Robards to _Playwrights '56_ with Patrick Macnee and E. G. Marshall, and so on for _Ponds Theater_ and _The Plymouth Playhouse_ and et cetera. And after '56, she became Emmy winner Lee Grant, and Oscar winner Lee Grant, and writer/director/producer Lee Grant; next year she’s set to be 90-year-old Lee Grant. ---
**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 7, 2014, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/204 "2014-03-07T11:55:11Z")
Barbara Barrie was WAC Corporal Edna Martin on _The Phil Silvers Show_ in '55 and '56 and '57 – and '58 and '59, but that’s irrelevant to the OP; of relevance to the OP are all the other TV roles she picked up before the cut-off date, alongside everyone from a pre-_Bewitched_ Alice Ghostley to a young Warren Beatty. She even appeared on _Robert Montgomery Presents_ with Diana Douglas, who (a) has TV credits going back to the '40s, and (b) acted on _General Electric Theater_ with Charlton Heston, and _Medallion Theatre_ with Henry Fonda, and so on. ---
**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 8, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/205 "2014-03-08T00:10:07Z")
Claire Bloom, who was Queen Mary on the big screen in _The King’s Speech_, was a small-screen Queen Victoria in _Robert Montgomery Presents_ back in '57. (And that was after she’d been a small-screen Roxane to José Ferrer’s Cyrano, as well as a small-screen Juliet to John Neville’s Romeo, and even a small-screen Cleopatra to Cedric Hardwicke’s Caesar, and et cetera for her other early-television credits dating back to a TV movie she did in '52.) ---
**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 8, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/206 "2014-03-08T14:15:01Z")
Back before Marisa Pavan did Oscar-nominated movie work with Burt Lancaster in '55, she acted on _Fireside Theatre_ and _Studio One In Hollywood_ and _Front Row Center_; in '56 and '57, you could see her on _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_ and _What’s My Line?_ and _Climax!_ – not to mention starring as Antigone in a made-for-television version of, well, _Antigone_, with Claude Rains as Creon. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2014, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/207 "2014-03-08T16:14:34Z")
Mickey Mouse is still chasing Minnie. ---
**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 8, 2014, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/208 "2014-03-08T16:31:07Z")
Speaking of longevity, how about Hal Holbrook? Sure, the guy was a castmember on _The Brighter Day_ from '54 to '59 – but note that he also found time to pop in for an episode of _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in '56 as Mark Twain, because, hey, (a) no matter that he keeps acting in movies; and (b) regardless of whether he eventually wins that fifth Emmy, we all know his life’s work is playing Sam Clemens while clad in a suit as white as his signature facial hair. ---
**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 9, 2014, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/209 "2014-03-09T13:39:39Z")
**George Gaynes** is instantly recognizable as that grandfatherly sixtysomething from the '80s – be it as _Punky Brewster_’s foster dad, or as Commandant Lassard from the _Police Academy_ movies, or even as the aging soap-opera actor making life difficult for Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey as Dorothy Michaels as Emily Kimberly. But before that, he was a thirtyish Broadway performer working with Wally Cox and Robert Culp on _NBC Television Opera Theatre_, and on _West Point_ with a pre-_Rifleman_ Chuck Connors, and even on a _One Touch Of Venus_ TV movie, all before '57. (In his twenties, of course, he was busy serving in the military during WWII.) ---
**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 10, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/210 "2014-03-10T01:25:43Z")
Pat Carroll actually won an Emmy for her pre-'58 TV work with Sid Caesar, after a year as a performer on _The Red Buttons Show_ after acting on _Goodyear Playhouse_ with Ernest Borgnine. And she appeared on episodes of _The Jimmy Durante Show_ in 1955 – the same year she acted on _Kraft Theatre_ and _Producers’ Showcase_ – a year after appearing on _The Saturday Night Revue_ with Paul Lynde, and doing a TV movie with Bob Cummings, and acting on _The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse_ with Patrick O’Neal. And she’s been working in the decades since voicing Ursula in _The Little Mermaid_: a recurring role on _ER_, a small part in _Bridesmaids_ – heck, she was most recently seen acting in a movie that just came out last month, in her eighties but still doing what she did in her twenties alongside Henny Youngman. ---
**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 10, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/211 "2014-03-10T23:42:13Z")
A good decade before **Henry Silva** was exchanging karate chops with Frank Sinatra in _The Manchurian Candidate_, you could see him acting on television: making his screen debut in 1950 with _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ before appearing in _Lights Out_ and doing a made-for-TV version of _Darkness at Noon_ with Lee J. Cobb. And you could see him on _Suspicion_, opposite a young Michael Landon; and on _Climax!_ and on _West Point_ and et cetera, all before the OP’s cut-off date. He also did a 1956 episode of _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_ with **Kathleen Hughes** , who’d acted on TV with a pre-_Batman_ Stafford Repp and was back for more _Hitchcock_ in '57 with a pre-_Bewitched_ Dick York and a pre-_Gilligan’s Island_ Russell Johnson; she’d have more pre-'58 TV credits, but she was busy making movies – y’know, with Jim Backus, and with Natalie Schafer, and with Alan Hale Jr (and, at that, with Russell Johnson, since _IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE_ wouldn’t have been the same without 'em). (And before you dock her points for, say, Bob Denver, or Dawn Wells – well, look, they weren’t _ **in** _ movies back then, so she instead made a movie with a pre-_Fugitive_ David Janssen, and one with a pre-_Make Room For Daddy_ Danny Thomas, and one with a pre-_Andy Griffith Show_ Frances Bavier, 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 11, 2014, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/212 "2014-03-11T00:34:57Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The youngest celebrity in age still around from early TV has to be [Ron Howard](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Howard#Early_acting_roles_and_The_Andy_Griffith_Show), even if The Andy Griffith show started in 1960. Actually, **Ron Howard** has a number of 1959 television credits. It’s surprising how much work he did prior to _ **The Andy Griffith Show** _ or _ **Happy Days** _. The man literally has never had a job besides entertainment. **Karen Sharpe** , the widow of film director Stanley Kramer is still alive. She was a regular on the 1950s Western, _ **Johnny Ringo** _. **Mark Goddard** , most famous in his role on _ **Lost in Space** _, has a 1959 television credit. **Gloria DeHaven** , a longtime Hollywood actress has multiple 1950s television credits.Her last credit was a 2000 episode of _ **Touched by an Angel** _ ---
**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 11, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/213 "2014-03-11T00:55:08Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Actually, **Ron Howard** has a number of 1959 television credits. Unfortunately, the OP specified pre-'58 credits. So someone like, say, Van Dyke Parks qualifies on the strength of his child-actor work on _Bonino_ in '53 – and on _Goodyear Playhouse_ and _Ponds Theater_ and _Campbell Summer Soundstage_ in '54, and _Windows_ and _The Elgin Hour_ and _Studio One In Hollywood_ in '55, and _Kraft Theatre_ and _Star Tonight_ and _General Electric Theater_ in '56, and so on – and, as it happens, he was still acting on-screen in the '80s and '90s, and as per IMDB has been steadily racking up ‘composer’ credits on TV and in the movies since the turn of the century. ---
**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 11, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/214 "2014-03-11T15:56:08Z")
**Georgann Johnson** has some pretty varied Golden-Age-Of-Television credits: before all those _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_ episodes in '56 and '57, she (a) played Princess Arura on _Captain Video And His Video Rangers_ on a break from her recurring role with Wally Cox on the _Mister Peepers_ sitcom; (b) did a small-screen dramatic production of _Bang The Drum Slowly_ with Paul Newman; © did a TV movie musical with Jayne Mansfield; (d) appeared on the _Down You Go_ game show, and (e) acted with James Dean on _Campbell Summer Soundstage_. Which ain’t bad, considering how much time she spent performing on Broadway with Jack Lemmon or making a movie with Jimmy Cagney. Plus, she also did all those pre-'58 episodes of _Studio One In Hollywood_, and all those episodes of _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ and all those episodes of _Danger_ and et cetera; be it _Ellery Queen_ or _The Larry Storch Show_ or _Tales Of Tomorrow_, she was just about always on call. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/215 "2014-03-11T17:38:18Z")
**Abby Dalton** , most famous from her numerous 1970s game show appearances and her role on the 1980’s nighttime soap opera _ **Falcon Crest** _ is still very much alive. She first appeared on TV Westerns in 1957 and 1958, including _ **Maverick** _ and _ **The Rifleman** _. Not sure if anyone has mentioned her but **Elinor Donahue** is still very much alive. While she is best for her role on _ **The Andy Griffith Show** _, there are many who remember her as “Kitten” on the Robert Young classic “_ **Father Knows Best** _.” **Elena Verdugo** is also alive. While best known as Dr. Marcus Welby’s assistant, Consuelo, she all had many television roles throughout the 1950s, including \*\*\*The Red Skelton Show \*\*\*and her own sitcom, _ **Make Room for Millie** _ ---
**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 12, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/216 "2014-03-12T00:04:40Z")
**Richard Beymer** racked up pre-'58 TV credits – on _26 Men_, _Zane Grey Theater_, _Cavalcade of America_, _The Gray Ghost_, and so on from _Make Room For Daddy_ back through to the _Sandy Dreams_ television series in '49 – before he pulled off the acting coup of his career with _West Side Story_. (Not his performance; convincing the filmmakers to pick him over Warren Beatty as a budding movie star who can display believable chemistry with Natalie Wood.) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/217 "2014-03-12T05:01:58Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > Not sure if anyone has mentioned her but **Elinor Donahue** is still very much alive. While she is best for her role on _ **The Andy Griffith Show** _, there are many who remember her as “Kitten” on the Robert Young classic "_ **Father Knows Best** _. No, she was Betty aka “Princess”. Lauren Chapin played Kathy aka “Kitten”. ---
**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 12, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/218 "2014-03-12T05:17:08Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > No, she was Betty aka “Princess”. Lauren Chapin played Kathy aka “Kitten”. Indeed. Plus I would say she’s better known for _Father Knows Best_ than for _The Andy Griffith Show_. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2014, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/219 "2014-03-12T06:19:46Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Oscar winner [Cloris Leachman](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001458) started in the late 1940s, was working TV shows regularly in the early 1950s and is still appearing as a regular on a prime time network show. Was nominated for a 2011 Emmy. She was even a contestant on _Dancing With The Stars_ in 2005! Cloris is tied with Ruby Dee for appearing on TV in 1946, when she helped demonstrate this [headset intercom whatchamacallit](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7460/13099000323_517fa491e8_b.jpg). Looks like only Norman Lloyd (1939) still survives from the prewar experiments, unless some child performer made a long-forgotten appearance. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Two-time Tony winner Marian Seldes, now in her eighties, got plenty of TV work from '51 to '57: _Lux Video Theatre_, _Kraft Theatre_, _Matinee Theatre_, _Zane Grey Theater_, _General Electric Theater_, and everything else from _Playhouse 90_ to an episode of _Gunsmoke_ to a TV movie about Emily Bronte; she kept working on TV and in the movies during the '60s, and the '70s, and the '80s and '90s and '00s and '10s. Not behind a camera - that we know about - but Marian spent some time as a teen hanging around the CBS-TV studio at Grand Central Terminal, which her dad, Gilbert Seldes, ran during the late '30s and early '40s. ---
**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 12, 2014, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/220 "2014-03-12T10:40:18Z")
It’s hardly surprising that Alfred Hitchcock had the twentysomething actress from _Strangers On A Train_ act in half-a-dozen _Alfred Hitchcock Presents_ episodes in '55 and '56 and '57 – or that she kept at it in '58 and '59 and '60, by which point he also gave her a part in _Psycho_ – because, after all, she was Patricia Hitchcock. (That said, she had a decent amount of other early TV credits: a _Suspense_ episode with Oscar winner Thomas Mitchell; a _Front Row Center_ episode with a pre-_Batman_ Alan Napier; and et cetera from _Screen Directors Playhouse_ to _Matinee Theatre_ before '57, followed by acting on _Playhouse 90_ with a young Robert Loggia.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=12)