- Orson Bean
-
Orson Bean Born Dallas Frederick Burrows
July 22, 1928
Burlington, Vermont, U.S.Occupation Actor Years active 1952–present Spouse Jacqueline deSibour (1956–1962) 1 child
Carolyn Maxwell (1965–1981) 3 children
Alley Mills (1993-present)Orson Bean (born July 22, 1928) is an American film, television, and Broadway actor. He appeared frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, including being a long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth.
Contents
Early life
Bean was born Dallas Frederick Burrows in Burlington, Vermont, the son of Marian Ainsworth (née Pollard) and George Frederick Burrows. His father was a co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, a fund-raiser for the Scottsboro Boys' defense, and a 20-year member of the campus police of Harvard College.[1] Bean graduated from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is a first cousin twice removed of Calvin Coolidge, who was President of the United States at the time of Bean's birth.[2]
Acting career
In 1952 Orson Bean made a guest appearance on NBC Radio's weekly hot-jazz series The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. His vocal mannerisms were ideal for the mock-serious tone of the show, and he became the show's master of ceremonies ("Dr. Orson Bean") for its final season.
Bean guested on The Tonight Show (with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson), and appeared on game shows originating from New York. He was a regular panelist on To Tell the Truth in versions from the late 1950s through 1991. During this time, his father appeared as a subject of the panel and he had to disqualify himself from participating. Apparently no one knew his real name was Burrows.[3] He also appeared on Super Password among other game shows. He hosted a pilot for a revamped version of Concentration in 1985 which was picked up later on in 1987 as Classic Concentration with Alex Trebek.
He played the title character in the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis". In 1961, for the CBS anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson, he starred as John Monroe in "The Secret Life of James Thurber", based on the works of the American humorist James Thurber.
Bean greatly admired movie comedians Laurel and Hardy and was one of the founding members of The Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel and Hardy Society.
On Broadway, he was the star of the original cast of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1955), and was featured in Subways Are For Sleeping (1961), for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actor in a Musical, as well as Never Too Late (1962). He also starred in Illya Darling, the 1967 musical adaptation of the film Never on Sunday. In 1964 he produced the Obie Award winning Home Movies and appeared on Broadway in I Was Dancing.
He was a regular on both Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spin-off, Fernwood 2Nite, and also played the shrewd businessman and storekeeper Loren Bray on the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman throughout its six-year run on CBS in the 1990s. He played John Goodman's homophobic father on the sitcom Normal, Ohio. He played the main characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1977 and 1980 Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and The Return of the King. He also played Dr. Lester in Spike Jonze's 1999 film, Being John Malkovich.
In 2005, Bean appeared in the sitcom Two and a Half Men, in an episode entitled "Does This Smell Funny to You?", playing a former playboy whose conquests included actresses Tuesday Weld and Anne Francis. He appeared in the 2007 How I Met Your Mother episode "Slapsgiving".
In 2009, he was cast in the recurring role of Roy Bender, a steak salesman, who is Karen McCluskey's love interest on the ABC series Desperate Housewives.
Personal life
Bean was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s for attending two Communist Party meetings, but made numerous appearances on television and in the theater.[4] A conservative Christian, he came out in support of the Proposition 8 ballot initiative in California.[5][6] He is father-in-law to Andrew Breitbart and jokingly describes his own children, who are all married, as "little communists[7]". He was once a proponent of Orgone therapy and published a book about it titled Me and the Orgone.
Bean has been married three times. His first wife was actress Jacqueline de Sibour (stage name Rain Winslow),[8] whom he married in 1956 and divorced in 1962. She was the daughter of Vicomte Jacques J. de Sibour, a French nobleman and pilot, and his wife, Violette B. Selfridge (later Mrs Frederick T. Bedford), who was a daughter of British department-store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge.[9][10] Jacqueline and Bean had one child, Michele.
His second wife was fashion designer Carolyn Maxwell.[11] They married in 1965 and divorced in 1981. They had three children: Max, Susannah, and Ezekiel.
He now lives in Los Angeles with his third wife, actress Alley Mills, who is twenty-three years his junior and whom he married in 1993.
Filmography
Year Film Role Notes 1952 Broadway Television Theatre Erwin Throwbridge Episodes: Three Men on a Horse, Nothing but the Truth 1952 Westinghouse Studio One Harvey B. Hines Episode: The Square Peg 1954 The Blue Angel Host 1954 Robert Montgomery Presents unknown Episode: It Happened in Paris 1954 Westinghouse Studio One Joey Episode: Joey 1955 The Best of Broadway Mortimer Brewster Episode: Arsenic and Old Lace 1955 The Elgin Hour Arthur Episode: San Francisco Fracas 1955 How to Be Very, Very Popular Toby Marshall 1956 Showdown at Ulcer Gulch Llewelyn Throckmorton, III 1956 Omnibus (U.S. TV series) Episode: The Best Year in the Whole History of the World 1956 Westinghouse Studio One Charlie Digger Episode: A Christmas Surprise 1957 Kraft Television Theatre Episode: A Travel from Brussels 1957 Playhouse 90 Jack Chesney Episode: Charley's Aunt 1958 The Phil Silvers Show Episode: Bilko's Insurance Company 1958 The Millionaire Newman Johnson Episode: The Newman Johnson Story 1959 Anatomy of a Murder Dr. Matthew Smith 1959 Miracle on 34th Street Dr. William Sawyer 1960 The Twilight Zone James B.W. Bevis Episode: Mr. Bevis 1960 Play of the Week (TV series) Episodes 1960–1961: Two by Saroyan: 'Once Around the Block' and 'My Heart's in the Highlands', New York Scrapbook 1961 The DuPont Show with June Allyson John Monroe Episode: The Secret Life of James Turber 1962 Naked City (TV series) Arnold Platt Episode: To Walk Like a Lion 1963 The United States Steel Hour Lester, Eddie West, Dennis Kavanaugh Episodes 1954–1963: Good for You, The Fifth Wheel, Don't Shake the Family Tree 1964 Vacation Playhouse Episode: The Bean Show 1966 The Star Wagon Stephen Minch 1970 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Hank/Sir Boss 1970 Twinky Hal 1970 Love, American Style Episode: Love and the Co-ed Dorm/Love and the Optimist/Love and the Teacher 1970 NET Playhouse Multiple Roles Episode: Helen Hayes Remembers 1974 Wide World Mystery Bob Episode: The Spy Who Returned from the Dead 1975 Ellery Queen Warren Wright Episode: The Adventure of the Chinese Dog 1977 Forever Fernwood Reverend Brim 1977 The Hobbit Bilbo Baggins 1978 Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman Reverend Brim Unknown episodes 1977–1978 1978 The Love Boat Artie D' Angelo Episode: Heads or Tails/Little People, The/Mona of the Movies 1980 The Return of the King Frodo Baggins/Bilbo Baggins 1982 Forty Deuce Mr. Roper 1982 One Life to Live Harrison Logan Unknown episodes 1984 Garfield in the Rough Billy Rabbit 1984 The Fall Guy Jason Klemer Episode: October the 31st 1986 Smart Alec Arthur Fitzgerald 1987 The Facts of Life Oliver Thompson Episodes 1986–1987: Fast Food, Cupid's Revenge, Ex Marks the Spot 1987 Innerspace Lydia's Editor 1989 Murder, She Wrote Ebeneezer McEnery Episodes 1986–1989: Keep the Home Fries Burning, Town Father 1990 Monsters Dr. Hubbard Episode: The Offering 1990 Instant Karma Dr. Berlin 1990 Tiny Toon Adventures Gepetto Episode: Fairy Tales for the 90's 1991 Chance of a Lifetime Fred 1992 Final Judgement Monsignor Corelli 1992 Just My Imagination Jeremy Stitcher 1997 California Loren Bray 1997 One of Those Nights Neighbor 1998 Diagnosis: Murder Lewis Sweeney Episode: Obsession part 1 1998 Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman Loren Bray 146 episodes, 1993–1998 1999 Thanks Burnaby Fitzhugh Episode: Spring 1999 Being John Malkovich Dr. Lester 1999 Unbowed Purdy 2000 Manhattan, AZ Lew Goldberg Episodes: The Voyage Home, Atticus Doesn't Live Here Anymore 2000 Ally McBeal Marty Episode: In Search of Pygmies 2000 The King of Queens Carl Tepper Episode: Surprise Artie 2000 Family Law Archbishop Phillips Episode: Possession Is Nine Tenths of the Law 2000 Will & Grace Professor Joseph Dudley Episode: There But for the Grace of Grace 2000 Normal, Ohio William 'Bill' Gamble, Sr. 7 episodes, 2000 2001 The Gristle Mr. Bowen 2001 Burning Down the House Sy 2002 Becker Mr. Bennet Episode: Piece Talks 2002 Frank McKlusky, C.I. Mr Gafty 2003 7th Heaven Patient Episodes: Life and Death, part 1 and 2 2003 Knee High P.I. Macintyre 2004 Myron's Movie Stanley 2004 Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of 'Charlie's Angels' John Forsythe 2004 Soccer Dog: European Cup Mayor Milton Gallagher 2004 Cacophony Ferruccio 2004 Cold Case Harland Sealey Episode: Red Glare 2005 Yesterday's Dreams Tony Vicedomini 2005 Two and a Half Men Norman Episode: Does This Smell Funny to You? 2006 Alien Autopsy Homeless Man 2006 Commander in Chief Bill Harrison Episode: The Price You Pay 2006 The Lather Effect Jonathan 'God Damn' Iverson 2006 The Novice Father McIlhenny 2007 Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe Raff Buddemeyer 2007 The Closer Donald Baxter Episode: The Round File 2007 The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman Chick Episode: Good Times and Great Oldies 2007 Women's Murder Club Harold Grant Episode: Grannies, Guns and Love Mints 2007 How I Met Your Mother Bob Episode: Slapsgiving 2009 Oranges Dennis 2009 Safe Harbor Judge 2009—present Desperate Housewives Roy Bender Recurring Books
- Me and the Orgone (1972) ISBN 0-9679670-1-5
- Too Much Is Not Enough (1988) ISBN 0-8184-0465-5
- 25 Ways to Cook a Mouse for the Gourmet Cat (1994) ISBN 1-55972-199-5
- Mikey[12] (2007)
Recordings
- At the Hungry i (1959 Fantasy UFAN 7009), comedy
- I Ate the Baloney (1969 Columbia CS 9743), comedy
References
- ^ "George Burrows, 89, an A.C.L.U. Founder". The New York Times. 1989-04-15. http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/15/obituaries/george-burrows-89-an-aclu-founder.html. Retrieved 2010-04-10.
- ^ Orson Bean at the Internet Movie Database
- ^ "To Tell the Truth - Orson's Dad". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJRNkCWJl68&NR=1.
- ^ "Orson Bean and the blacklist". http://www.thedqtimes.com/pages/castpages/other/orsonbeanblacklistinterview.htm.
- ^ Stars Pull Out The Bucks To Buck Proposition 8
- ^ Hollywood comes out in support of gay marriage
- ^ http://www.breitbart.tv/orson-bean-talks-up-life-new-book-with-dennis-miller/
- ^ Grafic Magazine, The Chicago Sunday Tribune, 25 January 1953
- ^ "Actress Wed to Orson Bean", The New York Times, 21 August 1956
- ^ "Frederick T. Bedford Is Dead; Industrialist and Yachtsman, 85", The New York Times, 9 May 1963
- ^ "Designer Will Create Style to Suit Wearer", The New York Times, 22 April 1964
- ^ Mikey website
External links
- Orson Bean at the Internet Movie Database
- Orson Bean at the Internet Broadway Database
- Orson Bean at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- Orson Bean at AllRovi
Categories:- 1928 births
- Living people
- People from Burlington, Vermont
- American Lutherans
- American film actors
- American stage actors
- American television actors
- Hollywood blacklist
- American autobiographers
- Orgone energy
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