Lyle Talbot
Lyle Talbot | |
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in the trailer for the film
Havana Widows (1933) |
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Born | Lisle Henderson February 8, 1902 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. San Francisco, California, U.S. |
Cause of death | Congestive heart failure |
Resting place | Cremation |
Years active | 1931–1987 |
Spouse(s) | Margaret Epple (1948-1989; her death); 4 children Keven McClure (1946-1947; divorced) Abigail Adams (1942-1942; annulled) Marguerite Cramer (1937-1940; divorced Elaine Melchior (1930-1930; divorced) |
Lyle Talbot (February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American actor on stage and screen, best known for his long career in film from 1931 to 1960 and for his frequent appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He played Ozzie Nelson's friend and neighbor, Joe Randolph, for ten years in the ABC situation comedy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.[1]
He began his movie career under contract with Warner Brothers in the early days of sound film. He appeared in more than 150 films, first as a young matinée idol and later as a character actor and star of many B movies. He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and later served on its board.[2] Talbot's long career as an actor is recounted in a book by his youngest daughter, The New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot, entitled The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century (Riverhead Books 2012).[3]
Contents
Background
Born Lisle Henderson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Talbot was reared in Brainard, Nebraska. He left home at 17, and began his career as a magician's assistant, becoming a leading actor in traveling tent shows in the American Midwest. He briefly established his own theater company in Memphis, Tennessee. He went to Hollywood in 1931, when the film industry began producing movies with sound and needed "actors who could talk". His screen test was watched and appreciated by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and, even more so, by director William Wellman who immediately wanted to cast Talbot.[4]
Film and stage
Most notable among Talbot's film work were his appearances in Three on a Match and 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (both 1932). He played a star running back in "College Coach" (1933) with Pat O'Brien and Dick Powell, romanced opera singer Grace Moore in One Night of Love in 1934, and pursued Mae West in Go West, Young Man (1936). He was a gangster in "Ladies They Talk About" and "Heat Lightning" and a doctor kicking a drinking habit in "Mandalay." He co-starred with Pat O'Brien in "Oil for the Lamps of China" (1935). He would appear opposite Ann Dvorak, Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple during his career, as well as sharing the screen with Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy and Tyrone Power. Overall, Talbot would appear in some 150 movies.[5]
Talbot's activism in SAG union affairs reportedly hurt his career.[6] Warner Bros. dropped him from its roster, and Talbot seldom received starring roles again. He became a capable character actor, playing affable neighbors or crafty villains with equal finesse. Talbot's supporting roles spanned the gamut, as he played cowboys, pirates, detectives, cops, surgeons, psychiatrists, soldiers, judges, newspaper editors, storekeepers, and boxers. In later years, he would claim to have never rejected a single role offered to him, including three now infamous Ed Wood, films: Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait and Plan 9 from Outer Space. Talbot worked with the Three Stooges in Gold Raiders, was the first actor to portray evil scientist Lex Luthor onscreen in 1950's Atom Man vs. Superman (wearing a rubber "bald cap"), played villains in four comedies with The Bowery Boys, and took the role of Commissioner Gordon in the 1949 serial Batman and Robin. His last film role was in 1960 in Sunrise at Campobello.[7]
Having started his career in the theater and later co-starred on Broadway in 1940-1941 in Separate Rooms, Talbot returned to the stage in the 1960s and 1970s, starring in national road company versions of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, Gore Vidal's The Best Man, Neil Simon's The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, Arthur Sumner Long's play Never Too Late, and appearing as Captain Braddock in a 1967 revival of South Pacific (at Lincoln Center).[8] He also starred in Preston Jones' "The Last Meeting of the Knights of the White Magnolia" at the Alley Theater in Houston and the Chicago area Lincolnshire Theater. [9]
Television
Although Talbot once starred in a film called "Trapped by Television" (1936),[10] the invention of TV actually revived his acting career, as his movie roles faded. Talbot was a frequent presence on American television from the 1950s well into the 1970s with occasional appearances in the 1980s. From 1955–66, he appeared in some seventy episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, as neighbor Joe Randolph. He also had a recurring role (1955–58) as Robert Cummings's character's buddy from the Air Force, Paul Fonda, in numerous episodes of The Bob Cummings Show.
During the 1950s/60s Talbot acted in every genre from westerns to comedies to mysteries. He played Colonel Billings three times on the syndicated western series, The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951–1955), starring Bill Williams. He appeared four times as a judge on the syndicated western The Cisco Kid, starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo. He guest starred on Gene Autry's The Range Rider, starring Jock Mahoney and Dick Jones.[11]
From 1950–55, he was cast five times in different roles on the western, The Lone Ranger. In 1955, he appeared as Baylor in six episodes of the series, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. From 1953–57, he was cast as different characters in four episodes of the anthology series, Lux Video Theatre.[11] In 1967, he played Colonel Blake three times on The Beverly Hillbillies, and also appeared three times (between 1965–71) on Green Acres. On one episode of Green Acres Talbot played himself, as a senator, in a spoof on actors who became politicians.[11] In 1959, Talbot played Sheriff Clyde Chadwick in the episode "The Sanctuary" on Colt .45.[12]
Other guest appearances included Annie Oakley, It's a Great Life, The Public Defender, The Pride of the Family, Crossroads, Hey, Jeannie!, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Broken Arrow, The Millionaire, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Tales of Wells Fargo, Buckskin, Cimarron City, Angel, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6, The Roaring 20s, The Restless Gun, Stagecoach West, The Red Skelton Show, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Topper, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Laredo, Perry Mason, The Real McCoys, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Charlie's Angels, Newhart, The Dukes of Hazzard, St. Elsewhere, and Who's the Boss?.[11]
He appeared occasionally on television in his eighties and narrated two PBS biographies, The Case of Dashiell Hammett and World Without Walls about pioneering pilot Beryl Markham, both produced and written by his son, Stephen Talbot, formerly a recurring cast member, Gilbert Bates, on Leave It to Beaver, another series on which his father had also appeared. Talbot was the first live action actor to play two prominent DC Comics characters on-screen: the aforementioned Commissioner Gordon in Batman and Robin, and supervillain Lex Luthor in Atom Man vs. Superman (who at the time was simply known as Luthor). Talbot began a longstanding tradition of actors in these roles that were most recently filled by Gary Oldman and Kevin Spacey, respectively.[13]
Personal life
After several brief marriages and a number of romantic entanglements, Talbot in 1948 married for the fifth time, to a young singer and actress, Margaret "Paula" Epple; the couple had four children together and remained married for more than forty years until her death in 1989.[14][15]
Three of the four children became writers or journalists. Only Cynthia Talbot, the elder daughter, did not. She is a family physician and residency director in Portland, Oregon. One of Talbot's grandchildren, Caitlin Talbot, is an actress based in Los Angeles.[16]
- Stephen Talbot was for many years a documentary producer for the PBS series Frontline and "Frontline World" and is now the executive producer of Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders. As a child actor, he played Gilbert on the hit television show Leave it to Beaver.
- David Talbot is an author ("Brothers" about John F. and Robert F. Kennedy) and the founder and editor of Salon.com.
- Margaret Talbot of The New Yorker who wrote about her father's long career beginning in pre-Code Hollywood, why he never became a big star, and his role in founding the Screen Actors Guild, in her magazine's edition of October 1, 2012.[4]
Death
Talbot died in 1996 at his home in San Francisco, California, aged 94, from congestive heart failure.
Partial filmography
Year | Title | Role | Other notes |
---|---|---|---|
1932 | Love Is a Racket | Edw. Griswold 'Eddie' Shaw | Alternative title: Such Things Happen |
Three on a Match | Michael Loftus | ||
No More Orchids | Tony Gauge | ||
20,000 Years in Sing Sing | Bud Saunders | ||
1933 | Ladies They Talk About | ||
The Life of Jimmy Dolan | Doc Woods | ||
Mary Stevens, M.D. | Don | ||
A Shriek in the Night | Ted Kord | ||
Havana Widows | |||
1934 | Mandalay | Dr. Gregory Burton | |
Heat Lightning | Jeff | ||
Registered Nurse | Dr. Greg Connolly | ||
Fog Over Frisco | Spencer Carlton | ||
The Dragon Murder Case | Dale Leland | ||
1935 | Red Hot Tires | Wallace Storm | |
While the Patient Slept | Ross Lonergan | ||
Oil for the Lamps of China | Jim | ||
Page Miss Glory | Slattery of the Express | ||
The Case of the Lucky Legs | Dr. Bob Doray | ||
It Happened in New York | Charley Barnes | ||
1937 | Second Honeymoon | Robert "Bob" Benton | |
1939 | Second Fiddle | Willie Hogger | |
1940 | He Married His Wife | Paul Hunter | |
1944 | The Falcon Out West | Tex Irwin | |
Gambler's Choice | Yellow Gloves Weldon | ||
Sensations of 1945 | Randall | ||
1946 | Chick Carter, Detective | Chick Carter | |
1948 | Appointment with Murder | Fred Muller | |
1949 | Batman and Robin | Commissioner Jim Gordon | |
She Shoulda Said No! | Police Captain Hayes | ||
1950 | Dick Tracy | B.R. Ayne aka The Brain | TV, 7 episodes |
Atom Man vs. Superman | Luthor/The Atom Man | ||
Lucky Losers | Bruce McDermott | ||
1950–1954 | The Cisco Kid | Various roles | TV, 4 episodes |
1950–1956 | The Lone Ranger | Various roles | TV, 5 episodes |
1951 | Gold Raiders | Taggert | Alternative title: The Stooges Go West |
1951–1956 | The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok | Various roles | TV, 4 episodes |
1952 | Untamed Women | Col. Loring | |
Death Valley Days | TV, 1 episode | ||
1953 | Glen or Glenda | Insp. Warren | |
The Roy Rogers Show | John Zachary | TV, 1 episode | |
1954 | Gunfighters of the Northwest | Inspector Wheeler | |
Jail Bait | Inspector Johns | ||
1954–1958 | December Bride | Bill Monahan | TV, 6 episodes |
1955 | Hallmark Hall of Fame | TV, 1 episode | |
Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe | Baylor | TV, 6 episodes | |
Sudden Danger | Harry Woodruff | ||
1955–1959 | The Bob Cummings Show | Paul Fonda | TV, 4 episodes |
1956 | Navy Log | Captain Morgan | TV, 1 episode |
The Millionaire | Joe Price | TV, 1 episode | |
1956–1966 | The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet | Joe Randolph | TV, 71 episodes (2 uncredited) |
1957 | Science Fiction Theatre | General Dothan | TV, 1 episode |
Tales of Wells Fargo | Reporter | TV, 1 episode | |
1958 | M Squad | Paul Crowley | TV, 1 episode |
Leave It to Beaver | Charles "Chuck" Dennison | TV, 2 episodes | |
1958–1959 | The Restless Gun | Various roles | TV, 2 episodes |
1959 | Plan 9 from Outer Space | General Roberts | |
The Ann Sothern Show | Finletter | TV, 1 episode | |
1960 | Surfside 6 | Alan Crandell | TV, 1 episode |
Hawaiian Eye | George Wallace | TV, 1 episode | |
1960 | The DuPont Show with June Allyson | Mr. Anders | CBS-TV, 1 episode, "The Trench Coat" |
Richard Diamond, Private Detective | "The Lovely Fraud" | ||
1961 | Mister Ed | George Hausner | TV, 1 episode |
Lawman | Orville Luster | TV, 1 episode | |
1962 | Make Room for Daddy | TV, 1 episode | |
Dennis the Menace | Mayor | TV, 1 episode | |
1962–1967 | The Beverly Hillbillies | Colonel Blake | TV, 4 episodes |
1963 | Arrest and Trial | Phil Paige | TV, 1 episode |
The Lucy Show | TV, 1 episode | ||
1964 | 77 Sunset Strip | Tatum | TV, 1 episode |
Petticoat Junction | Mr. Cheever | TV, 1 episode | |
1965 | Run for Your Life | Steven Blakely | TV, 1 episode |
The Smothers Brothers Show | Marty Miller | TV, 1 episode | |
1965–1966 | Laredo | Various roles | TV, 2 episodes |
1968 | Dragnet | William Joseph Cornelius | TV, 1 episode |
1969 | Green Acres | Senator Lyle Talbot | TV, 1 episode |
1970 | Here's Lucy | Various roles | TV, 2 episodes |
1972 | O'Hara, U.S. Treasury | Art Prescott | TV, 1 episode |
1973 | Adam-12 | Avery Dawson | TV, 1 episode |
1979 | Charlie's Angels | Mills | TV, 1 episode |
1984 | The Dukes of Hazzard | Carter Stewart | TV, 1 episode |
St. Elsewhere | Johnny Barnes | TV, 1 episode | |
1985 | 227 | Harold | TV, 1 episode |
1986 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Mr. Fletcher | TV, 1 episode |
Who's the Boss? | Ralph | TV, 1 episode | |
1987 | Newhart | Cousin Ned | TV, 1 episode |
References
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- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/05/arts/lyle-talbot-94-charactor-actor-and-tv-neighbor.html
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- ↑ http://www.ovrtur.com/production/2893788
- ↑ http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1979/06/08/page/37/article/knights-finally-gets-a-shining-production
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028405/
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.. |
- Lyle Talbot at the Internet Movie Database
- Lyle Talbot at the Internet Broadway DatabaseLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- "Great Character Actors"
- Lyle Talbot at Find a Grave
- Lyle Talbot at Talbot Players
- Caitlin Talbot http://www.caitlintalbot.com/Site/__Home.html
- Lyle Talbot on Turner Classic Movies http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/188546%7C102763/Lyle-Talbot/
- The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's 20th Century http://www.amazon.com/The-Entertainer-Fathers-Twentieth-Century/dp/1594487065/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359608980&sr=8-1&keywords=margaret+talbot+the+entertainer
Preceded by
None
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Actors portraying Lex Luthor 1950 for Atom Man vs. Superman |
Succeeded by Gene Hackman for Superman, Superman II and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace |