# 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:** 15
**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:** [April 9, 2014, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/281 "2014-04-09T13:28:46Z")
Born as Irena Ludmilla Vladimirovna Augustinovich in Warsaw, **Lisa Montell** had the dark-but-not-too-dark looks that endeared her to folks making TV westerns in the '50s: she acted on _Broken Arrow_ and _Tales of Wells Fargo_ and _The Gene Autry Show_ and _Cheyenne_ and _Colt .45_ before '58 – when she was on the big screen, in _The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold_ – after which she’d pop by whenever _The Deputy_ needed someone to play Rosaria Martinez, or _Maverick_ needed an Andalucia Rubio, or _Have Gun - Will Travel_ needed a Soledad Ortega, and so on for _Bat Masterson_ and _Maverick_ and _Frontier Doctor_ and et cetera. (Of course, that was hardly the limit of her abilities; pre-'58, you could also see her on _Public Defender_ and _Lux Video Theatre_ and _The O. Henry Playhouse_ and _The Millionaire_ and _Cavalcade of America_ and so on. But that’s also when you could see her in movies like _Tomahawk Trail_ and _The Wild Dakotas_, because, y’know, that was her signature schtick.) ---
**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:** [April 10, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/282 "2014-04-10T14:45:18Z")
Arthur Miller’s kid sister **Joan Copeland** appeared on _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ back in '57, after years of acting on _The Web_ and _Pulitzer Prize Playhouse_ and _Suspense_ and _Campbell Summer Soundstage_ and _General Electric Theater_. (In her seventies, she had a recurring role as Judge Rebecca Stein on _LAW & ORDER_; in her eighties, she was still picking up work on _NYPD Blue_ and _Johnny Zero_.) ---
**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:** [April 12, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/283 "2014-04-12T02:53:47Z")
**Patricia Barry** is set to appear in a movie later this year – sixty years after she was on _The Motorola Television Hour_ with ten-year-old child actor Christopher Walken. Before that, she’d done _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ and _Robert Montgomery Presents_ and _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_; she later made the rounds on more than half-a-dozen other TV shows before 1958, followed by the soap-opera trifecta of _Days of Our Lives_ and _Guiding Light_ and _All My Children_. ---
**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:** [April 12, 2014, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/284 "2014-04-12T11:12:08Z")
**Bernadette Withers** made her television debut back in '55, when you could see her on _Buffalo Bill Jr_ and _Schlitz Playhouse_ and _TV Reader’s Digest_; by '56 she’d moved on to _Warner Brothers Presents_, and by '57 she’d started her recurring role as Ginger on _Bachelor Father_ (which she kept at in '58 and '59 and '60 and '61 and '62). She was still working, both as an actress and a stuntwoman, as recently as 2000. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/285 "2014-04-12T11:25:37Z")
Bruce Forsyth had his tv debut in 1939. He’s recently announced his retirement from his prime time Saturday night 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:** [April 13, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/286 "2014-04-13T17:49:22Z")
**Dickie Jones** spent '55 and '56 as the eponymous star of _Buffalo Bill Jr_ after years of working on other TV westerns in his twenties – be it four episodes of _Annie Oakley_, or ten of _The Gene Autry Show_, or seventy-eight of _The Range Rider_ – after making his television debut on _The Lone Ranger_ back in '49; he also racked up pre-'58 credits on _Navy Log_ and _Chevron Theatre_ and _Mr. & Mrs. North_ and et cetera. (Incidentally, his movie credits date back to '34: before he was in _Sands of Iwo Jima_ with John Wayne in the '40s, he was everything from the voice of Pinocchio to the Senate page in _Mr. Smith Goes To Washington_.) ---
**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:** [April 14, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/287 "2014-04-14T11:58:16Z")
**Rosemary Prinz** made her TV debut in '51 on _Lights Out_, and after appearing on Broadway with Walter Matthau she became a castmember on _First Love_ by '54; she then got work on _Robert Montgomery Presents_ in '55 before starting all those years on _As The World Turns_ in '56. She’s picked up plenty more work on Broadway as well: a play with Robert Picardo and Jack Lemmon, another play with Theodore Bikel and Louis Jordan, another other play with Hal Linden and Butterfly McQueen, you name it. (Her most recent acting credit was in 2010, at the age of eighty.) ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/288 "2014-04-14T15:48:59Z")
We should probably check thing more carefully guys as several people on here have either been mentioned several times (Anne Jackson and James Hong) or are deceased and have been since before this thread was started. Here are a few more: **Eilene Janssen** , a minor character actress who had several teenaged roles in the mid-1950s including \*\*\*Tales of the Wells Fargo \*\*\*and _ **Father Knows Best** _ is still very much alive. Although she no longer acts and hasn’t in many decades,she is still with us. **Dewey Martin** is still among the living. A “beefcake” actor in the 1950s he had roles in such classics as _ **Climax!** _ and _ **The Loretta Young Show.** _ Anglo-Russian actress, **Joan Lorring** will celebrate her 88th birthday this year. Her first television credit was for a role in _ **The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse** _ in 1952. Her last credited role in was in ABCs _ **The Love Boat** _ in 1980. **Richard Sanders** , best known to today’s viewing audiences as Les Nessman in the 1970’s cult TV hit WKRP in Cincinnati is still alive. He was a child in the in the 1950s and his first credited roles were for _ **The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse** _ in 1950. ---
**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:** [April 15, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/289 "2014-04-15T10:50:51Z")
> [@nevadaexile](#): > > We should probably check thing more carefully guys as several people on here have either been mentioned several times (Anne Jackson and James Hong) or are deceased and have been since before this thread was started. As far as I can tell, **Patti Gallagher** hasn’t yet been mentioned and is still alive decades after making her television debut in '53 – the year she was on _I Led 3 Lives_ and _You Are There_. You could still see her acting on _You Are There_ in '55, and picking up work on _Sergeant Preston of the Yukon_; by '57, she’d also acted on _Navy Log_. Speaking of which: since someone later repeated my mention of James Hong, how about **Frances Fong**? She also acted on _Navy Log_ – in '56, same year she was on _Cavalcade of America_ after appearing in all those _New Adventures of China Smith_ episodes. (In her seventies, you could see her on the big screen in _Rush Hour_.) ---
**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:** [April 16, 2014, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/290 "2014-04-16T16:12:34Z")
Back before **William Woodson** was the iconic narrator on _Challenge of the SuperFriends_, he was the narrator on _Dick Tracy_ in the early '50s and the narrator on _Lights Out_ in the '40s. He also picked up bona fide acting work – on _The Borden Show_ and _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ in the '40s; on episodes of _Schlitz Playhouse_ and the _Mickey Spillane’s ‘Mike Hammer!’_ TV Movie in '54; on _The Adventures of Falcon_ and _Producers’ Showcase_ in '55; and et cetera. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/291 "2014-04-16T18:42:55Z")
Josephine the plumber, [**Jane Withers**](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0936730/?ref_=nmbio_ql), hit the small screen in 1949’s Chevrolet Tele-Theatre after movies from 1932 onward, according to IMDb. April 12 marked her 88th birthday. ---
**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:** [April 17, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/292 "2014-04-17T11:52:32Z")
You could see **Wally Cassell** on _Mr. & Mrs. North_ in '52 and '53 and '54 before he popped up on _The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show_ and _Schlitz Playhouse_ and _Gunsmoke_ and so on before '57 – when he appeared on _Date With The Angels_ with a young Betty White. Cassell is ninety-nine now, the better part of a century after all his other pre-'57 television experience – on _Treasury Men In Action_ and _The Lone Wolf_ and _Waterfront_ and _Crossroads_ and et cetera – but before all of that, he was getting work in dozens of movies during the '40s (often simply credited as ‘Soldier’ or ‘Sailor’ or ‘Marine Corporal’ or ‘POW’ or whatever, but, hey, it’s a living). ---
**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:** [April 17, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/293 "2014-04-17T12:25:46Z")
**Lee Miller** made his TV debut in '55 on _The Bob Cummings Show_ and appeared on series after series before he started playing Sergeant Brice on _Perry Mason_ in '57, which he kept plugging away at in '58 and '59 and '60 and '61 and '62 and '63 and '64 and '65 and '66 – after which you could see him on all those episodes of _Ironside_ starting in '67, since, well, he maybe wasn’t a great actor, but he sure was terrific at doubling as Raymond Burr’s stand-in. (Plenty of pre-'57 movie credits as well: in _Godzilla, King of the Monsters_ alongside Raymond Burr, and _Please Murder Me_ alongside Raymond Burr, and _Tarzan and the She-Devil_ alongside Raymond Burr, and _Meet Danny Wilson_ alongside Raymond Burr, and _A Place In The Sun_ alongside Raymond Burr, and…) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/294 "2014-04-17T21:48:43Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > For balance, consider [this](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TZ5sev-yts). It’s funny how sixty years later, we’re seeing Miley Cyrus with the same hairstyle. ---
**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:** [April 18, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/295 "2014-04-18T02:47:37Z")
**Jon Cypher** was the Prince to Julie Andrews as _Cinderella_ back in '57, the year when you could also see him in episode after episode of _Armstrong Circle Theatre_. In the '60s, he was apparently a castmember on _Our Five Daughters_; in the '70s, a castmember on _Marcus Welby, MD_; in the '80s, he was a veritable fixture as Da Chief on _Hill Street Blues_; in the '90s, ditto as Da General on _Major Dad_; and, as recently as the '00s, got yet another paycheck with yet another recurring role: voicing a Batman villain shortly before playing a therapist accused of homicide on _LAW & ORDER_. ---
**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:** [April 18, 2014, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/296 "2014-04-18T10:57:53Z")
Born in 1920, **Carole Mathews** started getting movie work in '35 and soon found herself acting on over twenty different TV shows from 1950 to 1957. Note that she was of course still appearing in movies during that period; for example, _City of Bad Men_, with **Tom McDonough** as Deputy Tex. McDonough racked up small roles in big-screen westerns dating back to _Desperadoes of the West_ in 1950 – he was billed as ‘Cowpuncher’ in _Cattle Drive_, and as ‘Trail Herder’ in _Tension at Table Rock_, and as ‘Posse Member’ in _Cave of Outlaws_ – and in '56 he acted on _Schlitz Playhouse_, in the “A Tale of Wells Fargo” episode; by '57, he’d moved on to acting in episode after episode after episode of – well, _Tales of Wells Fargo_, since who else is going to play the ‘Shotgun Guard’ role? (But I’m being unfair to the guy; his later TV roles really ran the gamut. Why, he was ‘Bank Guard’ on _The Lucy Show_, sure as he was ‘Prison Guard’ on _Mission: Impossible_ and ‘Gorilla Guard’ on _Planet of the Apes_ after he was ‘Guard’ on _The Invaders_.) ---
**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:** [April 18, 2014, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/297 "2014-04-18T15:01:23Z")
**Elaine Riley** got plenty of work on TV westerns in 1957 and earlier – a few episodes of _Hopalong Cassidy_, a few episodes of _The Gene Autry Show_, a few episodes of _The Range Rider_, and everything else from _Stories of the Century_ to _The Cisco Kid_ after making her small-screen debut in 1950 on _The Lone Ranger_ – sure as you could likewise see her on _State Trooper_ and _Private Secretary_ and _Public Defender_ and _Combat Sergeant_ 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:** [April 19, 2014, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/298 "2014-04-19T13:07:32Z")
**David Sheiner** could be seen acting on _The Big Story_ in '57 after years of getting all sorts of other television work – from _Studio One in Hollywood_ with Art Carney and _The Best of Broadway_ with Joseph Cotten to the old _Tom Corbett, Space Cadet_ series and _The Phil Silvers Show_ – and then moved on to big-screen roles: you maybe remember him from the Lemmon-and-Matthau version of _The Odd Couple_, or as one of the Biblical types in _The Greatest Story Ever Told_. Speaking of which, _Greatest Story_ also featured **Carroll Baker** , who’d earned pre-'56 TV credits on _Danger_ and _The Web_ – and even _Monodrama Theater_, on the long-ago DuMont Network – before (a) getting an Oscar nomination for her _Baby Doll_ work, and (b) playing a Schwarzenegger villain, in _Kindergarten Cop_. ---
**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:** [April 20, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/299 "2014-04-20T13:10:00Z")
Since they just got mentioned in other threads, I’ll add that both **James Lipton** and **Shelley Berman** qualify – Lipton on the strength of his pre-'55 work on everything from _Guiding Light_ to _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ to _The Goldbergs_, and even playing Michelangelo in a Sidney-Lumet-directed episode of _You Are There_; and Berman by making his TV debut in '54 on _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_, sticking with it in '55 when it morphed into _Goodyear Playhouse_, and then popping by to do schtick on _The Steve Allen Plymouth Show_ in '57. ---
**Author:** ![nevadaexile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb8c5e/32.png) [@nevadaexile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevadaexile)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/300 "2014-04-20T15:33:43Z")
A child actor, **Ricky Kelman** is still among us. He got his start in _ **The Red Skelton Hour** _ in 1954 and was a feature in many projects throughout the mid and late 1950s. \*\* Lana Wood\*\*, arguably Natalie Wood’s less talented sister is still around.Her first role was in a 1958’s _ **Have Gun,Will Travel** _ **Dianne Foster** ,a Canadian actress who did some television in the 1950s (an episode of the 1955 drama _ **Riverboat** _ being a standout, is still among the living. She’ll be 80 this year (2014). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=14) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=16)