# 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:** 23
**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:** [July 25, 2014, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/441 "2014-07-25T23:42:30Z")
**James Noble** , who you maybe remember as the Governor on _Benson_, was acting on TV before the cut-off date – as was **Inga Swenson** , who played Gretchen. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/442 "2014-07-26T16:02:59Z")
The OP’s choice of cutoff is turning out to be a surpisingly interesting choice for reasons other than I’ve given before. I keep coming across a lot of older, active actors whose IMDb credits start in 1958 or 1959. E.g., [Lisa Lu](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0523734/). I don’t recall anything big changing around that time that would cause a lot of actors to enter the business. Could have become “more respectable” to be a TV actor rather than a movie actor around then. (As well as better chances of finding work.) The old studio system was breaking down around then, but that stretched out for years. It also could be merely a bias caused by credits not being easily found for earlier shows. Anyway. [Shani Wallis](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0908861/) started in 1956 and was on a soap as recently as 2004. Another 1956 starter was [Steven Marlo](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0549194/). But I am less sure if he is still alive. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/443 "2014-07-27T00:11:44Z")
**Gloria Henry** didn’t start playing Dennis the Menace’s mom until '59, but in '57 you could see her on _Tales of Wells Fargo_ and _Perry Mason_ and _Father Knows Best_ and et cetera, sure as she had a recurring role on _My Little Margie_ years before that, and sure as she was a regular on _The Files of Jeffrey Jones_ before that, after doing more than a dozen movies in the '40s. Her most recent acting credit? _Parks and Recreation_, back in 2012. ---
**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:** [July 27, 2014, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/444 "2014-07-27T11:30:27Z")
Appearing even more recently on _Parks and Recreation_: two-time Emmy winner **Bonnie Bartlett** , who more than a quarter of a century ago was playing the mom of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in _Twins_, and more than a quarter of a century before that was acting on _Love of Life_ in '55 and '56 and '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:** [July 29, 2014, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/445 "2014-07-29T00:46:05Z")
Hey, you know who else was on _Love of Life_ in '57? (Same year he was a big-screen leading man in _Johnny Gunman_, as it happens?) **Martin E. Brooks** of _Six Million Dollar Man_ and _Bionic Woman_ fame, who made his TV debut back in 1951 – on _Sure As Fate_ – before acting on _Suspense_ in '52 and '53 and '54 and otherwise making the rounds on everything from _Armstrong Circle Theatre_ to _Climax!_ to _Studio One In Hollywood_ to _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_. ---
**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:** [July 29, 2014, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/446 "2014-07-29T11:18:06Z")
One more _Love of Life_ alum: **Audrey Peters** , who joined the show in 1959 and kept at it for over two decades before moving on to _All My Children_. (And, yes, she was acting on TV before the deadline: in 1956, on _The Life of Riley_. Her most recent IMDB credit: half a century later, on _Guiding Light_.) ---
**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:** [July 30, 2014, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/447 "2014-07-30T10:39:47Z")
Yet another _Love of Life_-r: Katherine “Scottie” MacGregor, who started acting on the show in '56 – after her big-screen debut in _On The Waterfront_ – decades before her most memorable role, as Harriet Oleson on _Little House On The Prairie_. ---
**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:** [July 31, 2014, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/448 "2014-07-31T11:46:08Z")
After half-a-dozen movie roles, **Lori Nelson** made her TV debut on _It’s A Great Life_ and did episodes of _Climax!_ in '55 and '56 before becoming a castmember (alongside young Barbara Eden) on _How To Marry A Millionaire_ in '57 and '58; she then made the rounds on all those westerns – _Tales of Wells Fargo_, _Sugarfoot_, _The Texan_, _Laramie_, _Whispering Smith_, _Wanted: Dead Or Alive_, and so on – before eventually returning to big-screen work in the '90s and '00s. Also, she was famously Tab Hunter’s beard. And was engaged to Burt Reynolds! But I digress. Anyhow, her other pre-cutoff-date appearances ran the small-screen gamut from _The Bob Hope Show_ to a TV movie with Claude Rains and Jim Backus. ---
**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:** [August 1, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/449 "2014-08-01T23:43:41Z")
**Peter Vaughan** made his debut in a TV movie back in '54 before getting work on series after series prior to the cut-off date; he’s now in his nineties, busily plugging away at his recurring role as Maester Aemon on _Game of Thrones_. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/450 "2014-08-03T00:17:23Z")
After making television history on the first episode of _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in the 1940s, **Monica Lewis** sang on _The Milton Berle Show_ and _The Jackie Gleason Show_ when she wasn’t busy acting on shows like _Studio 57_ and _Make Room For Daddy_; other work before the cut-off date include a TV movie featuring Hope and Crosby, and also _Appointment With Adventure_ alongside a young Paul Newman. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2014, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/451 "2014-08-04T00:37:27Z")
After directing Redford and Fonda in _Please Don’t Eat The Daisies_, **Gene Saks** achieved film immortality by directing Lemmon and Matthau as _The Odd Couple_ before earning Tony Award after Tony Award directing folks on Broadway – but before all of that, he was a struggling actor on _Omnibus_ in '54 and _Ponds Theater_ in '55 and _Playwrights '56_ in, well, '56 – plus various other pre-'57 small-screen roles. ---
**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:** [August 4, 2014, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/452 "2014-08-04T11:07:10Z")
**Wright King** acted on _Captain Video and his Video Rangers_ back in '49 before reprising his Broadway role on the big screen in _Streetcar Named Desire_; he then appeared on dozens of pre-'58 TV shows – even if you skip half-a-dozen of the pre-'58 TV westerns he worked on – but the key is that he stuck with sci-fi back then, starring in all those _Johnny Jupiter_ episodes back in '53 and '54 long before moving from _Twilight Zone_ roles to playing Doctor Galen on _Planet of the Apes_. ---
**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:** [August 5, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/453 "2014-08-05T21:15:51Z")
**Gordon Sterne** was acting on television in '56, and still at it in '66 and '76, and was up on the big screen in _Highlander_ in '86 before heading back to the small screen in '96 for Ted Danson’s TV movie of _Gulliver’s Travels_, and after '06 spent '07 and '08 and '09 on _The Tudors_, and et cetera. Anyhow, he made his debut on _I Spy_. (No, not that _I Spy_; the one back in '55.) ---
**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:** [August 6, 2014, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/454 "2014-08-06T11:20:20Z")
Back in '49, **Marjorie Stapp** was a big-screen Queen Guinevere with George Reeves as the title character in _The Adventures of Sir Galahad_; from 1950 to 1953, she acted in half-a-dozen _Fireside Theatre_ episodes, followed by getting work on everything from _Dragnet_ to _Ozzie & Harriet_ to _The George Burns And Gracie Allen Show_ and et cetera before the cut-off date, along with plenty of westerns: _Death Valley Days_, _Cheyenne_, _26 Men_, you get the idea. She later went from _The Brady Bunch_ to _Quantum Leap_, but it’s her movie roles that can’t help but catch the eye on IMDB; she’s “Woman Getting Dressed”, she’s “Blonde”, she’s “Tall Blonde”, she’s “Tall Blonde Saloon Dancer”, she’s “Min, The Tall Blonde”, she’s “Murdered Blonde”: that’s practically a whole story right there! ---
**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:** [August 7, 2014, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/455 "2014-08-07T10:33:32Z")
**Monty Hall** hosted TV show after TV show after TV show before the deadline, and of course kept plugging away on television since. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2014, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/456 "2014-08-08T16:56:59Z")
Fifty years before he was the old man with a hansom cab on _How I Met Your Mother_, young **Buck Kartalian** was up on the big screen acting on _Mister Roberts_ in '55, and before _that_ he was getting small-screen work on _Robert Montgomery Presents_, and before that he was on Broadway, and before that he was serving in WWII. His IMDB page is pretty wide-ranging: _The Outlaw Josey Wales_ with Clint Eastwood; _The Rock_ with Sean Connery; and _Batman_ and _The Munsters_ and everything else from _Cool Hand Luke_ to _Gymkata_; an episode of _Friends_, an episode of _Just Shoot Me_, an episode of _Felicity_, an episode of _Curb Your Enthusiasm_, you name it. (_“You know the saying: ‘Human See, Human Do’.”_) ---
**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:** [August 9, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/457 "2014-08-09T21:22:05Z")
**Anne Whitfield** racked up half-a-dozen TV credits before the end of '57, taking time along the way to appear on the big screen with Bing Crosby in _White Christmas_; in '58, she turned twenty before getting work on _The Donna Reed Show_; in '59, she turned twenty-one and got work on the Mark Twain episode of _Bonanza_; and et cetera in the '60s and '70s – and '80s, at which point you could see her in a supporting role to young Helen Hunt as the _Quarterback Princess_ when she wasn’t busy acting alongside a post-_The Right Stuff_ Ed Harris in _The Last Innocent Man_. ---
**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:** [August 10, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/458 "2014-08-10T19:25:26Z")
For what it’s worth, **Della Reese** was singing on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in '61, and '60, and '59, and et cetera back through to '58 and even '57 – the year she appeared on _The Big Record_ with everyone from Liberace to Jimmy Dean – after making her TV debut as a guest vocalist on _Stage Show_ way back in '56. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2014, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/459 "2014-08-11T16:53:27Z")
Wiki says radio personality **Don Kennedy** (a) started hosting a TV show back in '56, and went on to get voice work on _The Brak Show_ and _Aqua Teen Hunger Force_ before retiring in September, and (b) shouldn’t be – but often is – confused with the other **Don Kennedy** , also born in 1920; their info and credits are “intertwined” on IMDB. So one of 'em was acting on _The Adventures of Ellery Queen_ in 1950 – and maybe it’s the same guy who acted on _Fireside Theatre_ in '51, and in a _Joan of Arc_ TV movie with EG Marshall in '52, and then _The Pepsi-Cola Playhouse_ in '53, and so on. Maybe it’s the same one who acted last year in _Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell_. The point is, you can count at least one Don Kennedy, and probably two, for purposes of this thread; one was in a bunch of TV westerns back when; possibly both were; one is credited on episodes of _The Monkees_; for all I know, they took turns; I wish I knew which was which, but one way or another it seems kosher. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2014, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/460 "2014-08-12T11:19:31Z")
Before he was serenading a beauty-school drop-out, **Frankie Avalon** did all those beach movies in the 1960s, and before that he spent the late '50s making the rounds on television: singing on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ after the cut-off date, playing trumpet on _The Jackie Gleason Show_ before it, and et cetera for _The Milton Berle Show_ and _The Dick Clark Show_ and so on and so on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=24)