# 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:** 29
**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:** [October 26, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/561 "2014-10-26T12:12:05Z")
Before starting work in the Bond movies and the _Pink Panther_ films, **Burt Kwouk** was acting on television in general and before the deadline in particular. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/562 "2014-10-27T11:59:27Z")
**Valentina Cortese** made her TV acting debut in 1955, alongside Douglas Fairbanks Jr; after a couple of movie roles in 1956, you could see her on _Lux Video Theatre_ in 1957 and _Schlitz Playhouse_ in 1958 – after which she did a TV miniseries in the 1960s, and another one in the early 1970s, and then picked up an Oscar nomination before doing _another_ other TV miniseries in the late 1970s, followed by one in the 1980s. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/563 "2014-10-28T23:39:44Z")
**Warren Mitchell** was making television history in _Requiem For A Heavyweight_ in '57, after playing various other small-screen roles – an art dealer in '56, Oliver Cromwell in '55, and so on – when he wasn’t busy with one pre-deadline TV movie or another. And he’s still up and around in his eighties. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2014, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/564 "2014-10-30T00:27:41Z")
Wiki sez that Marlon Brando’s second wife **Movita Castaneda** is the last surviving castmember of _Mutiny On The Bounty_ – no, not the one with Brando; the one with Clark Gable – and she earned plenty of small-screen credits before the end of 1956, on _Conflict_ and _General Electric Theater_ and _The Adventures of Kit Carson_. ---
**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:** [October 30, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/565 "2014-10-30T15:38:09Z")
After playing Lady MacDuff to Orson Welles as Macbeth, **Peggy Webber** acted on dozens of TV shows before the cut-off date – including _Dragnet_ in '52 and '53 and '54 and '55, before getting work on westerns like _Cheyenne_ in '56 and _Gunsmoke_ in '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:** [October 31, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/566 "2014-10-31T10:41:16Z")
Happy Halloween to WWII veteran **John Zacherle** , who made his TV acting debut on a small-screen western years before hosting _Shock Theater_ in '57 and '58, which begat _Zacherley At Large_ and from there to _Chiller 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:** [November 1, 2014, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/567 "2014-11-01T12:15:21Z")
**Rico Alaniz** got work on half-a-dozen TV shows – everything from _Our Miss Brooks_ to _The Lone Ranger_ – before playing the sneaky Mister Cousin in '55 and '56 and '57 and '58 and '59 on _The Life And Legend Of Wyatt Earp_, after which he kept acting in the '60s and '70s and '80s and '90s. ---
**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:** [November 2, 2014, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/568 "2014-11-02T14:00:50Z")
Miss Utah **Carol Ohmart** got work on _The Colgate Comedy Hour_ and _Lights Out_ and _Lux Video Theatre_ and _The 20th Century-Fox Hour_ before the end of 1957 – after which she spent the rest of the '50s (a) performing on a dozen other TV shows, and (b) playing Vincent Price’s wife on the big screen, in _House On Haunted Hill_. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/569 "2014-11-03T12:58:28Z")
**Robert Walker Jr** _looked_ young as Charlie X on _Star Trek_, but the dude was actually twenty-six; he’d already been _Ensign Pulver_ in the movies, already gotten classic TV work on _The Defenders_ and _Ben Casey_ and _Naked City_ and _Route 66_ and _Dr. Kildare_ and half-a-dozen other shows after delivering his first performance on, of all things, _First Performance_ in 1957 – after appearing on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ in 1956. ---
**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:** [November 4, 2014, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/570 "2014-11-04T17:30:02Z")
Movie star **Irene Papas** earned TV acting credits shortly before and after the 1957 deadline – with Sebastian Cabot and Elaine Stritch, respectively – and in the 1960s did _Zorba the Greek_ with Anthony Quinn, and _Anne of the Thousand Days_ with Anthony Quayle, and _The Guns of Navarone_ with Quinn and Quayle, 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:** [November 5, 2014, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/571 "2014-11-05T13:01:02Z")
Before he became the avuncular face of Turner Classic Movies, **Robert Osborne** was a struggling actor in the '50s – making his TV debut on _Death Valley Days_ in '54 before acting on _Whirlybirds_ and _The Californians_ and _Alcoa Presents: One Step Beyond_, not to mention working with Lucy and Desi on _The Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse_. He kept at it in the '60s – in the pilot episode of _The Beverly Hillbillies_, even – but before the decade was out, he’d switched from being an actor to writing books about actors; in the '70s, he landed a Hollywood Reporter column; in the '80s, he became president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association; and the rest is history. ---
**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:** [November 6, 2014, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/572 "2014-11-06T13:25:43Z")
**Tom Troupe** and **Carole Cook** have been married for over fifty years, and have been acting on television for even longer – his credits go back to '57, hers to '56 – and she was just in an episode of _Major Crimes_ earlier this year, sure as he’s got a small part in a movie that’s in post-production, sure as IMDB lists both of 'em as appearing in an upcoming episode of a new TV show that’s now in pre-production. ---
**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:** [November 7, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/573 "2014-11-07T17:45:16Z")
**Catherine Boyle** has half-a-dozen TV appearances before the end of 1957 – mostly acting, but also serving as a game-show panelist on _The Name’s The Same_ – and in 1958, she did a movie with **Jackie Collins** , who’d likewise racked up acting credits in 1957 and 1956 after making her TV acting debut back in 1955. (I could of course say something here about her big sister **Joan Collins** , who’s been getting movie roles since '51 and so naturally spent the late '50s making the rounds on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ and _The Bob Hope Show_ and _The Steve Allen Plymouth Show_ when she wasn’t busy as a _What’s My Line_ panelist, but that seems like overkill.) ---
**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:** [November 8, 2014, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/574 "2014-11-08T19:04:32Z")
**Jean Marsh** is still acting on TV in her eighties as of this year – she got her most recent Emmy nomination in her seventies, back in 2011 – and she’s of course been getting all kinds of work on television for the better part of a century: in the 1990s you could see her on _Murder She Wrote_, in the 1980s on _The Love Boat_, in the 1970s on _Hawaii Five-0_, in the 1960s on _I Spy_, in the 1950s on _Twilight Zone_… …and, sure, those are all _after_ the deadline, but she also racked up pre-deadline TV credits dating back to her small-screen debut in 1952. (And in 1953, she made her big-screen debut alongside Lloyd Bridges, who was already in his forties.) ---
**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:** [November 9, 2014, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/575 "2014-11-09T11:34:36Z")
After making his TV debut on _State Trooper_ in '56, **Nicholas Georgiade** promptly got work on _Playhouse 90_ and _The Millionaire_ and _Whirlybirds_ before famously playing Enrico Rossi on _The Untouchables_ in '59 and '60 and '61 and '62 and '63. ---
**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:** [November 10, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/576 "2014-11-10T11:39:32Z")
**Frazer Hines** has dozens of 1950s TV credits – and, yes, more than a dozen of them are from '57 and earlier – and he’s still acting on television as we speak. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/577 "2014-11-11T12:34:51Z")
As it’s the 11th, I’ll mention WWII veteran **Fredd Wayne** , who made his small-screen debut back in 1949 on _The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse_ before performing on _Musical Comedy Time_ in 1950 and then acting on dozens of classic shows before the end of 1957: _Maverick_, _Gunsmoke_, _Make Room For Daddy_, and et cetera. You maybe remember him as Benjamin Franklin, on _Bewitched_. ---
**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:** [November 11, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/578 "2014-11-11T22:41:58Z")
[Gladys Holland](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390696/)’s first TV role was in 1952 and has worked sporadically since. Most recently a voice job in 2013. (I had a half dozen others lined up but upon checking, found they were already mentioned. William Phipps was a good one.) And happy 89th birthday to the previously mentioned June Whitfield (the mother from _Ab Fab_). Still has stuff in production. ---
**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:** [November 12, 2014, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/579 "2014-11-12T12:03:28Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > [Gladys Holland](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390696/)’s first TV role was in 1952 and has worked sporadically since. Most recently a voice job in 2013. I see where she had a recurring role on _Beverly Hills 90210_ – just like Joe E. Tata, who played the sixtyish owner of The Peach Pit, where the cool kids hang out. Tata doesn’t count, though he misses it pretty close by making his television debut on _Peter Gunn_ back in '60 before getting black-and-white work on first-season episodes of _The Outer Limits_, and so on. And by “and so on”, I mean he played henchman to various _Batman_ villains: the Riddler, the Penguin, even King Tut… …which brings me to 1950s pro wrestler **Mike Lane** , who made his movie debut as a towering boxer in _The Harder They Fall_ with Bogie in '56 before getting television roles on _Cheyenne_ and _Maverick_ and _Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers_ in '57; he then got work on half-a-dozen other TV shows in '58 and '59 – and was back on the big screen, because who _else_ is going to play the hulking monster opposite Boris Karloff as Victor von Frankenstein? – and after playing Hercules in a sword-and-sandal flick, he likewise earned a paycheck as That Guy Looming Over Adam West. ---
**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:** [November 13, 2014, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218/580 "2014-11-13T12:11:58Z")
**Dean Jones** of course owes his name recognition to Disney roles in _That Darn Cat_ and _Blackbeard’s Ghost_ and _The Love Bug_ and _The Shaggy D.A._ and et cetera – but before all of that, he was getting TV work on westerns like _Outlaws_ and _Stagecoach West_ and _Zane Grey Theater_ and _Tales of Wells Fargo_ and so on. And before all of _that_, you could see the Korean War veteran up on the big screen playing a naval officer in _Torpedo Run_ and a Marine lieutenant in _Until They Sail_ and a sergeant in _Never So Few_ and a corporal in _Imitation General_. And before that, he was beating the deadline as a singer on episode after episode of _The Steve Allen Plymouth Show_ when he wasn’t busy on _The Spike Jones Show_. (And back before that, he was making his screen debut – as, of course, an enlisted man, opposite young Paul Newman in _Somebody Up There Likes Me_.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=28) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-left-from-early-tv/681218.md?page=30)