Who’s left from early TV
Yes, he is.
Geoffrey Bayldon, for example.
Who?
Naturally.
No, no. When he gets paid, the check is made out to who?
Every penny. Sometimes his wife picks it up, and – oh, I see what your problem is! You’re confused by their names, because they all sound like questions!
I’d urge you to check out The Abbott and Costello Show circa 1953, since it featured Noreen Nash, who picked up dozens of TV credits before the OP’s deadline.
You guys have forgotten a very big name. Carol Burnett was first cast on The Paul Winchell and Jerry Mahoney Show in 1955.she then playeda starring role opposite Buddy Hackett in the short-lived sitcom Stanley from 1956 to 1957.
Post 100, same as Patty Duke.
Mary Tyler Moore first cast as a dancing elf in 1957, went on to play in several episodes of Richard Diamond PD in 1959.
NBC page turned two-time Emmy nominee Ann Flood had plenty of small-screen roles before the end of '57 – on Kraft Theatre and Armstrong Circle Theatre and Men of Annapolis and The Phil Silvers Show – before getting steady work playing the part of Liz Allen on From These Roots in '58 and '59 and '60 and '61.
Kay Starr acted in a TV movie in '57, after performing on The Milton Berle Show and The Colgate Comedy Hour and All Star Revue and et cetera: doing episode after episode of The Ed Sullivan Show when she wasn’t busy acting opposite Robert Stack in Producers’ Showcase, and even picking up '40s television credits on The Ed Wynn Show and Cavalcade of Stars; anything, everything.
Ray Anthony – who hosted The Ray Anthony Show before the deadline – got plenty of pre-'58 work acting on Matinee Theatre and The Eddie Cantor Comedy Theater, and appearing on The Spike Jones Show and The Milton Berle Show, and doing episode after episode of The Colgate Comedy Hour, and so on, and so on.
Has anyone mentioned Phyllis Coates yet? She was born in 1927, and I didn’t see a death date on her IMDB entry :
She did a ton of stuff on television in the early and mid 1950s, most notably playing Lois Lane on Superman.
Robert Boon – Sven Johanssen on Little House On The Prairie – was all over early television: before spending the early '60s getting work on Twilight Zone episodes and Rawhide episodes, he spent the late '50s acting on The Millionaire and The Alaskans, and before the deadline he was on Navy Log and Producers’ Showcase and Dragnet and Space Patrol and Chevron Theatre and et cetera dating back to the '40s.
Donald May was playing Charles Thompson on West Point in '56 and '57, after which he spent the rest of the '50s (a) getting work on Kraft Theatre and Hawaiian Eye; and (b) starting his run as Sam Colt Jr on Colt .45, which he of course kept at in the '60s until he could spend season after season as Pat Garrison on The Roaring 20’s.
I came in here to mention Connie Francis. She was a regular on NBC’s Startime Kids between 1953 and 1955.
His most recent IMDB credit is from last year, but before he spent the 1950s acting on Gunsmoke and Tales of Wells Fargo and Have Gun - Will Travel, Johnny Western held down a recurring role on Boots and Saddles in '57, because of course he did.
John Wayne’s kid Patrick Wayne is still up and around, the better part of a century after appearing in uniform as Bookser in Mister Roberts in '55 – the same year he was acting on television in Screen Directors Playhouse – and while he of course kept at it in '56 by getting small parts in The Conqueror and The Searchers, he was soon back to getting TV work in '57 as a castmember on Mr. Adams and Eve.
And nothing beats him out-straight-talking Tom Berenger in Rustlers’ Rhapsody.
Since he was the Boy Wonder in the 1949 Batman and Robin serial, Johnny Duncan is always welcome at modern-day comic conventions – and between then and now, he got early-TV work on Public Defender and The Cisco Kid and The Stu Erwin Show and The Ford Television Theatre before playing Eddie James on Whirlybirds in '57.
(Incidentally, his movie roles likewise run the gamut – from Bedtime For Bonzo to The Caine Mutiny to Plan 9 From Outer Space to Spartacus.)
Jacqueline Scott acted on Armstrong Circle Theatre and The Sheriff of Cochise and Robert Montgomery Presents and Navy Log and The Kaiser Aluminum Hour before the end of '57 – all while continuing to act on Broadway in Inherit The Wind.
She kept acting through the end of the '50s (Mike Hammer, Steve Canyon) and in the '60s (Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits) and '70s (Starsky and Hutch, CHiPs) and '80s (Code Red, L.A. Law) and even the '90s and '00s (Equal Justice, Cold Case).