Summer Nose-talgia #12: William Schallert -- Happy Birthday! 92 and still going strong!

An extra-special Happy Birthday greeting goes out to today to veteran movie, TV and stage actor William Schallert, a familiar face to audiences since the late 1940s.  Mr. Schallert turns 92 today!

In addition to his array of movie roles, including characters in films such as The High and the Mighty, Gog, Riot in Cell Block 11, In The Heat of the Night and as a compassionate doctor treating Grant Williams as The Incredible Shrinking Man, Schallert has worked non-stop in all television genres.  His credits are endless, including a recent cameo on the CBS hit comedy 2 Broke Girls this year.  You just have to take a look at the list of his roles -- it's mind-boggling and unbelievably impressive. Truly...just click here and have a look!

We'll present a few clips here to remind you of William Schallert's awesome body of work, but as you can imagine, there are just too many to do him full justice!

Here are a couple of movie trailers from interesting mid-1950s melodrama in which he appeared:






And now into his TV work.  One of his famous early gigs was his role as understanding schoolteacher Mr. Pomfritt in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, co-starring Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver.





William Schallert's most beloved role was no doubt his character of Martin Lane on The Patty Duke Show for three seasons beginning in 1963.  He played the father of Patty and -- in an occasional dual role of his own -- her identical cousin Cathy, too.  Schallert's Martin Lane was wise, understanding, urbane and intelligent -- he was a newspaper editor -- and one of the very best TV fathers ever, thanks in large part to the generous portion of personal charm and warmth brought by Schallert to the role.




In 1998 the entire cast reunited for a TV movie called The Patty Duke Show: Still Rockin' in Brooklyn Heights:




An even more recent reunion took place on behalf of the Social Security Administration, as Patty Duke and several of the cast got back together in 2010 to make several nostalgic public service announcements on behalf of Medicare:




One very important aspect of William Schallert's long career is his continuing activism on behalf of the Screen Actors Guild and his commitment to ethical conduct and fair play for all citizens.  In 2010 he became an on-air spokesman for a California group advocating for single-payer healthcare in California.





You'll enjoy this clip of Schallert as Gen. Robert E. Lee from the popular 1986 miniseries North and South: Book 2, alongside Lloyd Bridges as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Patrick Swayze as a dashing Rebel agent:




Last but certainly not least, we bring you the appearance that Schallert has claimed gets him the most attention from fans everywhere, and we don't doubt it.  Of course, it's from Star Trek and his episode just happens to be one of the most popular from the series, the unforgettable "The Trouble with Tribbles" from 1967.  His work as the uptight interstellar bureaucrat Nilz Baris is classic spot-on Schallert and assures his place forever in the annals of Popular Culture, not to mention that he also guested on an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 and appeared in clips from their Tribbles tribute episode!  Solid gold credentials!







Again, check out the nearly endless array of William Schallert's TV and movie credits -- right here.  Is he the most prolific actor in TV's history?  If he isn't, he certainly has got to be in the topmost tier.  Fittingly, the Television Academy sat him down two years ago for a comprehensive interview about his incredible television legacy.  Check out his multi-part conversation at the Archive of American Television; click here.  There is also a wonderful two-part interview with Schallert beginning here -- it's terrific, and thanks to Sam Tweedle of Confessions of a Pop Culture Addict for doing it!

Mr. Schallert also recently started his own personal website which you should definitely visit -- click here! Lots of great information, wonderful photos and a tremendous selection of clips!  Great job!

There are nothing but good things to be said about William Schallert.  Talented, professional, caring, committed, kind, involved, dedicated -- those things are all William Schallert.

Our very best wishes to him for a wonderfully Happy Birthday today, and many more!

P.S.:  The clips here are but a tiny sampling of everything available on Mr. Schallert -- check out YouTube and other online video sources for more evidence of his prolific talent.  Many more are available linked at Mr. Schallert's own website, too!

Classic TV Fathers We (Still) Love

As we approach Father's Day, we've been thinking about television fatherhood. Though a while back we declared Charles Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie and Andy Taylor from The Andy Griffith Show our favorite television dads, we've always had a soft spot for some of the other father characters from the 1950s and 1960s. We grew up watching these, if not in primetime, then certainly in afternoon reruns on our local independent stations. Frequently funny, sometimes even a little crazy, these dads had some super qualifications and appeal. We knew it was all make-believe, but that didn't stop these guys from getting to us! In no particular order, but with much affection...

Ozzie Nelson as himself from The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Cool, slyly hilarious, so completely relaxed, the original "no visible means of support" father (bandleader? office guy? who knew?), Ozzie Nelson was extremely personable and seemed like a lot of fun, in a Perry Como-kind of lazy, let-me-take-a-nap kind of way. Much funnier than he is generally given credit for, and that's unfortunate. Up with Ozzie! Frank Faylen as Herbert Gillis in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Like so many TV fathers, Herbert was frequently exasperated by his dreamy son Dobie's girl troubles and Dobie's beatnik buddy Maynard, but he was also inspired, hep, nutty, hard-working, and realistically cynical. No sugar coating here! Credit creator and writer Max Schulman for making Herbert Gillis so unique in the annals of bland male father characters! Robert Young as Jim Anderson in Father Knows Best. This was one of those sitcoms which wasn't particularly funny and in fact was often fraught with domestic issues. Jim Anderson was the serious kind of father, definitely employed, pretty square, but thoughtful and understanding. Good thing, because his family, consisting of smart and ambitious older daughter Betty, rambunctious teenage boy Bud, and sensitive youngest girl Kathy, seemed to have identity crises, school issues and performance anxiety incidents occuring on a regular basis. Much suburban angst was in evidence in the Anderson household, but Jim made it all better by the end of the half-hour, thank goodness! William Bendix as Chester Riley on The Life of Riley. Closer to Herbert Gillis than Jim Anderson, Riley was a harried, blue-collar aircraft plant worker, and often perplexed by his family obligations in the form of a son and a daughter. He was a nice guy, definitely a comedy father, making The Life of Riley one of the genuinely funniest of the fatherhood series, and William Bendix one of the best and unfortunately slightly less well-known of the TV dads. Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver in Leave It To Beaver. Possibly my favorite of this bunch, Ward was a working dad, a quite modern and progressive parent, blessed with a keen wit and not unaware of the absurdities of raising kids in post-war America. He'd often mention how he was trying to parent differently from his own father, who in a different time had not spared the rod and certainly wouldn't have discussed disciplinary ethics with his kids before meting out punishment. Ward Cleaver liked his wife and wasn't afraid to show it, and also seemed to like his two boys, Wally and Theodore aka Beaver. He was a terrific father figure and funny as heck, too. Oo La La! (A quote from the wonderful episode "June's Birthday" where Beaver gives his mother a gaudy blouse with French pictures on it.)

William Schallert as Martin Lane in The Patty Duke Show. I've been watching this show lately and have been so impressed by Schallert's calm, decent, educated, and appreciative portrayal of the man who had to put up with his daughter Patty's schemes. The Patty Duke Show is very urban -- Martin Lane is the editor of a big NYC newspaper -- and Schallert brings a keen intelligence to the role, perfectly in tune with what you'd expect an editor to exhibit. No harried suburbanite or line worker, Martin Lane is upper middle class without being a snob, and authoritative without being a bully. What a treasure! Love that Poppo! Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett in The Beverly Hillbillies. Jed, the lucky mountain man who discovered oil, remained the same unaffected and kind person even after he moved to Beverly Hills -- quite a feat, then or today. He was an understanding father to his animal-loving voluptuous daughter Ellie May, who also retained her sweetness amid the money-grubbing snobs of the Hills. He was the patriarch of a very nutty bunch, including his cantankerous mother-in-law and goofy nephew, but never lost his humanity or center. Whee Doggies! Happy Father's Day!