# 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:** 16
**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 21, 2014, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/301 "2014-04-21T10:28:45Z")
Miss America runner-up **Margia Dean** , born Marguerite Skliris back in '22, made her TV debut in 1950 with a recurring role as Police Officer Mary Faelb on _Dick Tracy_. In '51, you could see her on _Racket Squad_; in '52, _The Adventures of Superman_; in '53, _Revlon Mirror Theater_ and _The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse_; and after a big-screen role in '54, she was back in '55 with a small-screen role on _The Joe Palooka Story_. ---
**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 22, 2014, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/302 "2014-04-22T11:41:43Z")
**Olaf Pooley** turned one hundred last month: he was still acting in his nineties, after getting work on _Star Trek: Voyager_ and _Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman_ in his eighties, and _MacGyver_ and _LA Law_ in his seventies, and et cetera dating back to well over half-a-dozen TV credits between 1950 and 1955, after appearing in various movies back in the '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:** [April 23, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/303 "2014-04-23T12:26:29Z")
**Paul Collins** voiced John Darling for the _Peter Pan_ cartoon, and before '57 was getting live-action work on _Fireside Theatre_ and _The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse_ and everything else from a TV movie to a Mutiny-On-The-Bounty episode of _You Are There_. The better part of a century later, he’s in his seventies and still picking up occasional work on _Sons of Anarchy_ and _The Good Wife_ and et cetera – after racking up dozens of appearances, in his sixties, as the Secretary of the Navy on _JAG_. (Incidentally, his most recent movie credit was in _Evan Almighty_ – more than six decades after his big-screen debut back in '46.) ---
**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 24, 2014, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/304 "2014-04-24T11:05:19Z")
**Mitzi McCall** kept acting on TV in the '10s and '00s after racking up recurring roles on _Silk Stalkings_ and _Life Goes On_ in the '90s and writing credits in the '80s (on _ALF_ and _Charles in Charge_) and '70s (_Eight Is Enough_, _One Day At A Time_) after becoming a _Laugh-In_ regular and _Twilight Zone_ actress in the '60s, after yet other TV work dating back to '55 (on _The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse_ and _The Colgate Comedy Hour_ – same year she did a Jerry Lewis movie, fifty-plus years before doing a Robin Williams one). ---
**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 24, 2014, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/305 "2014-04-24T14:52:30Z")
With yet another movie in the works for next year, **Don Murray** has had an interesting career: he made his screen debut way back in 1950, in a made-for-television version of _The Taming of the Shrew_, did _Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ episodes in 1951; got work on _Kraft Theatre_ and _Lux Video Theatre_ in 1952; and otherwise bounced around from _Danger_ and _Justice_ to _The United States Steel Hour_ before picking up an Oscar nomination opposite Marilyn Monroe in _Bus Stop_… …after which, in '57, the folks at _Playhouse 90_ let him act in an episode he wrote, a formula he of course duplicated upon heading back to the big screen: producing and writing and starring in movie after movie during the '60s. (Now, sure, after playing actor/writer/producer/director in the '70s, he was down to acting on episodes of _Knots Landing_ he was writing in the '80s, but that’s still pretty good.) ---
**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 25, 2014, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/306 "2014-04-25T11:41:54Z")
Now eighty, **Kathryn Grant** – aka Kathryn Crosby, aka Bing Crosby’s widow – got plenty of TV work by the end of '57: on _Damon Runyon Theater_ and _The George Sanders Mystery Theater_ and a couple of episodes of _Lux Video Theatre_ and yet more episodes of _The Ford Television Theatre_, as well as _Father Knows Best_ and _Celebrity Playhouse_, after which you could see her on the big screen in movies like _Anatomy of a Murder_ and _The 7th Voyage of Sinbad_. Her most recent acting role was in 2010, incidentally. ---
**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 25, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/307 "2014-04-25T17:40:55Z")
**Patricia Morison** , who has movie credits dating back to the '30s, was singing on _The Milton Berle Show_ and _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in the '40s before becoming a castmember on _The Cases of Eddie Drake_ in '52 and otherwise bouncing around from _Pulitzer Prize Playhouse_ to _Four Star Playhouse_ to _Screen Directors Playhouse_ to _Schlitz Playhouse_ and et cetera before '57. ---
**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 26, 2014, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/308 "2014-04-26T11:01:15Z")
Between serving in WWII and earning 17 Grammys, **Tony Bennett** not only appeared on _The Milton Berle Show_ and _The Nat King Cole Show_ and _The Ed Sullivan Show_ and _The Jackie Gleason Show_ and _The Dave Garroway Show_ and _The Julius LaRosa Show_ but also hosted, well, _The Tony Bennett Show_. And still going strong this year, as anyone who saw _Muppets Most Wanted_ knows. ---
**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 26, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/309 "2014-04-26T21:48:35Z")
Back in 1937 – yes, you read that right – teenaged actress **Muriel Pavlow** parlayed her big-screen experience into playing Gretel in a TV movie of _Hansel and Gretel_; ten years after that, she was in her twenties and playing Ophelia in a 1947 TV movie of _Hamlet_; and ten years after that, we’re at the OP’s 1957 cut-off date and she’s got yet more TV movie credits under her belt, along with work on a couple of TV shows. And she kept getting work on TV shows in the '60s, and the '70s, and the '80s, and the '90s, and the '00s, after which she neatly came full circle with a TV movie role in '04 before heading back to the big screen in '09. ---
**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 27, 2014, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/310 "2014-04-27T11:28:38Z")
In '58, **Audrey Dalton** was all over the place on television – _Man With A Camera_, _Wagon Train_, _The Millionaire_, _Bat Masterson_ – after (a) doing movies with everyone from Olivia de Havilland to Joan Fontaine: a western with Alan Ladd, a comedy with Gene Barry, a drama with Lana Turner, sci-fi with Hans Conried, et cetera; and (b) acting on episodes of _The Bob Cummings Show_ and episodes of _Lux Video Theatre_ plus _Men of Annapolis_ and _The 20th Century-Fox 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 28, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/311 "2014-04-28T10:45:37Z")
If you were a fan of the _Star Trek_ franchise in '99, you probably watched episode after episode featuring Vic Fontaine: the holographic simulation of a Rat-Pack-era Vegas crooner amidst showgirls and mobsters – played by **James Darren** , who in '59 was singing on _The Steve Allen Plymouth Show_, and acting on _The Donna Reed Show_, and singing and acting on the big screen as Moondoggie in _Gidget_. Granted, those all came after the OP’s cut-off date – but Darren’s first small-screen role was back in '57, which still qualifies. And he kept at it in the 1960s (as one of the _Time Tunnel_ guys) and the 1970s (as a TV game-show regular) and the 1980s (with his recurring _TJ Hooker_ role) and, yes, the 1990s (directing and acting on _Melrose Place_) before putting out his most recent album in '01. Note that James Darren shouldn’t be confused with **James Karen** , who has television credits that stretch back even further – to _Lux Video Theatre_ in the early '50s, and _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ in the late '40s – and who, at ninety, is set to appear in yet another movie later this year. ---
**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 29, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/312 "2014-04-29T12:48:42Z")
**Lois Smith** appeared on _Ponds Theater_ in '53, and _Studio One In Hollywood_ in '54, and _Robert Montgomery Presents_ in '55, and _The United States Steel Hour_ in '56, and _Matinee Theatre_ in '57, and et cetera before the cut-off date, and promptly kept racking up TV credits in the '60s and '70s and '80s and '90s and '00s and '10s. (Plenty of movie credits, too – from _East of Eden_ to _Five Easy Pieces_ to _Fatal Attraction_ to _Twister_ to _Minority Report_ – and plenty of Broadway credits, with a couple of Tony nominations along the way.) ---
**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 30, 2014, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/313 "2014-04-30T10:43:29Z")
**Vic Damone** has TV credits dating back to _The Morey Amsterdam Show_ in the 1940s, and after making the rounds on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ and _The Milton Berle Show_ and so on from '50 to '55 hosted _The Vic Damone Show_ in '56 and '57 – taking a quick break from that gig to act on _The Alcoa Hour_ with **Olive Dunbar** , who’d gone from Broadway to _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ years earlier. ---
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/314 "2014-04-30T22:32:17Z")
> [@JacobSwan](#): > > Bruce Forsyth had his tv debut in 1939. He’s recently announced his retirement from his prime time Saturday night show. Forsyth, who sang and danced from the Radiolympia Exhibition over BBC-TV as an eleven-year-old, might be the Mickey Rooney of video. Now 86, he just formally stepped down as host of the rather oddly titled _Strictly Come Dancing_. Bea Wain, heartthrob singer of the 30s and 40s, turns 97 today. She is best known from radio and the big bands, but was a guest performer on TV by at least 1948, on Horn & Hardart’s _Children’s Hour_. (H&H ran the famous Automat cafés.) ---
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/315 "2014-04-30T22:43:25Z")
Actress-singer [Pat Englund](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257706/) (b. 1925) and actress [Patricia Englund](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0257707/) (no dates) have separate IMDb bios and no cross credits. But if Pat is Patricia, she co-starred on a June 1947 production of _Kraft Television Theatre._ ---
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/316 "2014-04-30T23:06:52Z")
double post - oops… ---
**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:** [April 30, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/317 "2014-04-30T23:08:26Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Back in 1937 – yes, you read that right – teenaged actress **Muriel Pavlow** parlayed her big-screen experience into playing Gretel in a TV movie of _Hansel and Gretel_ […] > And she kept getting work on TV shows in the '60s, and the '70s, and the '80s, and the '90s, and the '00s, after which she neatly came full circle with a TV movie role in '04 before heading back to the big screen in '09. Ms. Pavlow now displaces Norman Lloyd (1939) for the earliest known TV appearance by a living person. _Hansel and Gretel_ was televised in live adaptation by the BBC on Dec. 23, 1937. ---
**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:** [May 1, 2014, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/318 "2014-05-01T10:58:21Z")
In the '50s, **Bradford Dillman** graduated from Yale, served in the USMC, and took home the Best Actor award at Cannes for his big-screen work; he’d also picked up plenty of small-screen roles by '57 – bouncing from _Ponds Theater_ to _Kraft Theatre_ to _Matinee Theatre_, doing a TV movie along the way, and so on – before eventually authoring book after book about professional football. That’s a weird career arc. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/319 "2014-05-02T11:40:24Z")
After his film debut in '56 and all those TV westerns in '57 – _Maverick_, _Cheyenne_, _Sugarfoot_, _Colt .45_ – **Michael Dante** racked up big-screen and small-screen acting credits in the '60s and '70s and '80s before hosting a radio show in the '90s and '00s, and is set to appear in yet another movie later this year. ---
**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:** [May 2, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/320 "2014-05-02T17:46:45Z")
Happy 90th birthday to Theodore Bikel. Who, like basically everyone I can think of lately, has already been listed in this thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=17)