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Ted Donaldson, who starred as Bud Anderson on the original radio version of Father Knows Best and as Neely Nolan in the beloved family drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the first feature directed by Elia Kazan, has died. He was 89.

Donaldson died Wednesday of complications from a fall in his Echo Park apartment in January, his friend Thomas Bruno told The Hollywood Reporter.

In his big-screen debut, Donaldson portrayed a boy who gets his pet caterpillar Curly to dance when he plays “Yes Sir, That’s My Baby” on the harmonica in the comedy fantasy Once Upon a Time (1944), starring Cary Grant and Janet Blair.

He also starred as Danny Mitchell in eight B-movies from Columbia Pictures that revolved around a German shepherd named Rusty. The first one, Adventures of Rusty (1945), featured Ace the Wonder Dog.

An only child, Donaldson was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 20, 1933. His father was...

Ted Donaldson, Joan Blondell, Peggy Ann Garner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Joan Blondell Q&A Pt.2: Joan Blondell-Dick Powell-June Allyson Triangle, Lost Raunchy Pre-Coder Convention City My favorite Joan Blondell performance is her Aunt Sissy in Elia Kazan's 20th Century-Fox drama A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). How did she get that role? What was it like for her to work with Kazan, Peggy Ann Garner, Dorothy McGuire, James Dunn? What did the film do for her career? And how in the world could she not have received an Academy Award nomination? (Especially considering that James Dunn won in the supporting category.) Did Fox push Dunn while ignoring Blondell? A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a beautiful movie, and certainly Aunt Sissy is one of Joan's best performances. According to the sources I use in the book, a Fox contract was delivered to her...

Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, McCabe and Mrs. Miller (top); Ted Donaldson, Joan Blondell, Peggy Ann Garner, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (middle); Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jason Robards, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, All the President's Men (bottom) William Friedkin's The Exorcist (1973, right, with Linda Blair), John Badham's Saturday Night Fever (1977), Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), Elia Kazan's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945), and Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976) are five of the 25 films — both features and shorts; narrative and documentaries — selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. Library of Congress' James H. Billington chose each of the films on this year's list after receiving suggestions from the National Film Preservation Board and the public at large. According to one report, more than 2,100 films were nominated by the public in 2010. Films are selected into the Registry [...]...