Lyle Bettger, a veteran stage and screen actor known for playing the heavy, died on Sept. 24. Cause of death was not released. He was 88.
Born in 1915, Bettger was the son of Franklin Bettger, a third baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1937 and made his Broadway debut in the play “The Flying Gerardos” when he was 25 years old. He acted in “The Moon Is Down,” “Oh, Brother!” and “John Loves Mary,” but his most successful stage role was as William Taylor in “Love Life,” which was directed by Elia Kazan and ran for 252 performances.
Bettger moved to Hollywood in the 1950s and made his mark as the steely-eyed villain in a string of westerns. Before retiring to Hawaii in 1979, Bettger appeared in 30 films, including “The Greatest Show on Earth,” “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral” and “Destry.”
Categotry Archives: Actors
Denis Quilley
Categories: Actors
Denis Quilley, a British stage actor, died on Oct. 5 from liver cancer. He was 75.
Born in north London, Quilley won a scholarship to attend Bancroft’s at Woodford Green in Essex. There he met Don Francombe, a professor who introduced him to “Shakespeare, Mozart, civilization and the meaning of democracy.” Thanks to Francombe’s influence, Quilley informed his parents that he planned to skip college and become an actor. They were less than pleased.
Quilley first performed at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. He had long runs on London’s West End during the 1950s in “Wild Thyme” and “Grab Me a Gondola,” and won his first SWET Award (London’s equivalent of the Tony) in 1977 playing camp soldier Terri Dennis in the play, “Privates on Parade.” He also appeared in its film adaptation with John Cleese in 1982.
After performing in dozens of plays, including “Macbeth,” “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” “Deathtrap,” “La Cage aux Folles”and “Hamlet,” Quilley found his favorite role in the murderous barber in Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd.” The part earned him another SWET Award.
Quilley was awarded an Officer of the British Empire in 2001. His final stage performance occurred last March in the National Theatre Company musical, “Anything Goes.” He was writing his autobiography in the months before he died.
Stanley Fafara
Stanley Fafara, a child actor on the TV show, ”Leave It to Beaver,” died on Sept. 20 from complications of hernia surgery. He was 54.
When he was four years old, Fafara’s mother got him an agent who placed him in vitamin and milk commercials. After appearing in an episode of “The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin,” Fafara and his brother Tiger answered an open casting call for “Leave It to Beaver.” They were both hired. From 1957 to 1969, Fafara played Hubert “Whitey” Whitney, and Tiger played the character, “Tooey.”
After the show ended, Fafara attended North Hollywood High School, where he developed a drug and alcohol habit. He played music in Hollywood clubs and befriended members of the rock band, Paul Revere and the Raiders.
Drug addiction was eventually Fafara’s downfall. In the 1980s, he was arrested and jailed for breaking into pharmacies. When he was released, he worked several odd jobs and then became a drug dealer to support his habit. Fafara finally got clean at a detox center in 1995 then spent the rest of his life in a Portland apartment, where he survived on Social Security checks.
Fred Tuttle
Categories: Actors, Politicians
Fred Tuttle, a retired farmer, actor and U.S. Senate candidate, died on Oct. 4. Cause of death was not released. He was 84.
Tuttle quit school in the 10th grade to work as a dairy farmer. In his 70s, he became a local icon when he appeared in the low budget movie, “A Man With a Plan,” a political spoof about a Vermont dairy farmer who runs for the U.S. Senate.
In 1998, filmmaker John O’Brien persuaded Tuttle to actually enter the GOP Senate primary as a publicity stunt. Tuttle’s “campaign” was a grassroots effort; he capped his general election campaign spending at $16.
Amazingly, Tuttle won 54 percent of the vote. He then dropped out of the race and endorsed his Democratic opponent, Sen. Patrick Leahy.
• Tuttle Interview With NPR
Donald O’Connor
Donald David Dixon Ronald O’Connor, an acrobatic dancer and Emmy award-winning actor who was best known for his role in “Singin’ in the Rain,” died on Sept. 27 from heart failure. He was 78.
Born in Chicago to a vaudeville family, O’Connor first appeared in movies as a child, starring as Huckleberry Finn in “Tom Sawyer — Detective.” At 18, he was drafted into the Army, and spent World War II performing in 3,000 shows for the troops.
Once the war ended, O’Connor became one of the top Hollywood stars of the 1940s and 1950s. He made a name for himself in musical comedies like “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything Goes” and “Walking My Baby Back Home.” His dance routine in the 1952 hit, “Singin’ in the Rain,” had him tumbling on the floor, running up walls and doing back flips while singing the song, “Make ‘em Laugh.” O’Connor won a Best Actor Golden Globe for his performance.
In 1949, he starred in “Francis, The Talking Mule,” a film about an Army private who speaks, Dr. Doolittle-fashion, with a mule. It was such a hit that five sequels followed. As one of the rotating hosts of “The Colgate Comedy Hour,” O’Connor won an Emmy in 1952 for Outstanding Personality. That same year, he hosted the Academy Awards.
O’Connor continued acting well into his 70s, making memorable appearances in the films, “Toys” and “Out to Sea.” His family, who was by his side when he died, said his last words were: “I’d like to thank the Academy for my lifetime achievement award that I will eventually get.”
Gordon Mitchell
Gordon Mitchell, a bodybuilder who appeared in more than 200 B-movies, died on Sept. 20 from a heart attack. He was 80.
Born Charles Pendleton, Mitchell served in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II, taking part in the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Buchenwald. After he returned to the states, he became a high school teacher and bodybuilder.
His handsome physique caught the eye of actress Mae West, who hired him to work on her all-male chorus line, the Mae West Revue. That job opened the doors to roles in films like “Man With the Golden Arm” and “The Ten Commandments.”
In 1961, Mitchell moved to Italy to star in “Atlas in the Land of the Cyclops.” Because of his muscular form, he spent the next 30 years appearing in Italian and American sword-and-sandal films, mythic features, spaghetti westerns and martial arts movies.
George Plimpton
Categories: Actors, Hollywood, Sports, Writers/Editors
George Ames Plimpton, the actor, author and editor of the Paris Review, died on Sept. 25. Cause of death was not released. He was 76.
Plimpton graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University. The son of wealthy New Yorkers, he ran in high society circles filled with literary scions and powerful politicians. He was a friend of the Kennedys and aided Robert Kennedy in his bid for the presidency. When the senator was assassinated in Los Angeles, Plimpton wrestled the gun out of Sirhan Sirhan’s hand.
He spent three years in the U.S. Army, then moved to Britain to study at King’s College in Cambridge. In 1953, Plimpton and his writer friends, H.L. Humes and Peter Matthiessen, launched the Paris Review, a quarterly literary magazine that publishes prestigious and talented writers like Philip Roth, Jack Kerouac, Jay McInerney and Henry Miller. Plimpton had just put the publication’s 50th anniversary issue to bed when he died.
After he returned to America in the mid-1950s, Plimpton made a name for himself by writing sports articles and then inserting himself into the tales. He took on Archie Moore, the light heavyweight boxing champion, for three rounds. For a baseball story, he pitched to eight star batters in the American baseball leagues. And in 1963, he joined the Detroit Lions as a quarterback in an exhibition game. He turned that event into the best-selling book, “Paper Lions,” which was adapted into a film starring Alan Alda.
Plimpton also wrote or edited more than 50 books and appeared in almost two dozen movies including, “Good Will Hunting,” “Nixon” and “L.A. Story.”
• An Interview With Plimpton on NPR
Errol Hill
Errol Gaston Hill, an actor, playwright and director who became the first African American to earn tenure at Dartmouth College, died on Sept. 15 of cancer. He was 82.
A native of Trinidad, Hill received his early theater training in England and obtained degrees from the University of London, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Yale University. In the early 1960s, he worked as an announcer for the BBC, and as an actor and creative arts teacher in the West Indies before moving to the U.S.
In 1968, he joined the Dartmouth faculty. During his 35 years with the school, Hill taught a portfolio of 13 different theatre courses, and ran the Summer Repertory Program for six seasons. Through his scholarly writings, Hill developed an international reputation as an expert in African American Caribbean theatre. He also wrote 11 plays and produced/directed 120 performances in the U.S., England and Nigeria.
Hill was honored in 1991 with the Presidential Medal from Dartmouth for outstanding leadership and achievement. Five years later, he received the Robert Lewis Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Theater Research from Kent State University.