Fay Roope born Winfield Harding Roope, was a Harvard graduate and a character actor who appeared in American theater in New York City from the 1920s through 1950, and in American film and television from 1949 through 1961.

Early life

Winfield Harding Roope was born October 20, 1893 near Boston, in Allston, Massachusetts, the only son of George Winfield Roope and Lucie Mattie Jacobs, a wealthy couple listed in Newton's Blue Book

Social Register

Specific to the United States, the Social Register is a directory of names and addresses of prominent American families who form the social elite, . The "Directory" automatically includes the President of the United States and the First Family, and in the past always included the U.S. Senators and...

. He "prepared" at Stone School for Boys, a Boston boarding school, and attended Harvard University from 1912 to 1916. During his time there, he appeared in varied dramatic and musical roles in school productions. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the university in 1916.

Acting career

He began acting professionally on stage in New York City in the early 1920s, and continued to do so for almost thirty years, appearing both off and on Broadway. He moved into film around 1950. He did do some television in the early 1950s, but did most of his television work in dramas during the last five years of his life, from 1955 on.

Broadway career

His first appearance on the Broadway stage was in the musical revue One Helluva Night, on June 4, 1924.

From September 5, 1924 through September 12, 1925, he played Lieutenant Aldrich in the drama What Price Glory?

What Price Glory? (play)

What Price Glory?, a comedy-drama written by Maxwell Anderson and critic/veteran Laurence Stallings was Anderson's first commercial success, with a long run on Broadway.The play depicted the rivalry between two U.S...

.

From March 30, 1949 through April 9, 1949, he played Colonel Jared Rumley in the comedy The Biggest Thief in Town.

His last appearance on Broadway was in the first Broadway production of The Madwoman of Chaillot

The Madwoman of Chaillot

The Madwoman of Chaillot is a play, a poetic satire, by French dramatist Jean Giraudoux, written in 1943 and first performed in 1945, after his death. The play has two acts and follows the convention of the classical unities...

, June 13–25, 1950, playing both 'One of the Presidents' and 'The Broker'.

Film career

Fay Roope portrayed generals, admirals and colonels, in such movies as From Here To Eternity

From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...

, Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson

Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...

's Seminole

Seminole (film)

Seminole is a 1953 American western film directed by Budd Boetticher and starring Rock Hudson and Anthony Quinn. Much of the film was shot in the Everglades National Park, Florida, USA.-Plot:...

, the Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...

 comedy You're in the Navy Now

You're in the Navy Now

You're in the Navy Now is a Hollywood film released in 1951 by Twentieth Century Fox about the United States Navy in the first months of World War II. Its initial release was titled USS Teakettle...

, and the original version of the science-fiction classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still. He played President of Mexico Porfirio Diaz in the movie Viva Zapata. He appeared in several political, military and crime dramas, and many Westerns, working with such stars as Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

, James Cagney

James Cagney

James Francis Cagney, Jr. was an American actor, first on stage, then in film, where he had his greatest impact. Although he won acclaim and major awards for a wide variety of performances, he is best remembered for playing "tough guys." In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him eighth...

, Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

, and Jimmy Stewart

James Stewart (actor)

James Maitland Stewart was an American film and stage actor, known for his distinctive voice and his everyman persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...

. But, primarily, he worked in comedies with such stars as Fred MacMurray

Fred MacMurray

Frederick Martin "Fred" MacMurray was an American actor who appeared in more than 100 movies and a successful television series during a career that spanned nearly a half-century, from 1930 to the 1970s....

, Red Skelton

Red Skelton

Richard Bernard "Red" Skelton was an American comedian who is best known as a top radio and television star from 1937 to 1971. Skelton's show business career began in his teens as a circus clown and went on to vaudeville, Broadway, films, radio, TV, night clubs and casinos, all while pursuing...

, Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney

Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...

, the Bowery Boys, Martin & Lewis, and Marjorie Main

Marjorie Main

Marjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...

 & Percy Kilbride

Percy Kilbride

Percy W. Kilbride was an American character actor. The son of Irish immigrants, he made a career of playing country hicks, most memorably as Pa Kettle in the Ma and Pa Kettle series of feature films.-Career:...

 (Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle

Ma and Pa Kettle are comic film characters of the successful film series of the same name, produced by Universal Studios, in the late '40s and '50s. They are a hillbilly couple with fifteen children whose lives turn upside-down when they win a model-home-of-the-future in a slogan-writing contest...

).

Film Roles

• Callaway Went Thataway
  Callaway Went Thataway
  Callaway Went Thataway is a 1951 American comedy film starring Fred MacMurray, Dorothy McGuire, and Howard Keel. It was written, directed, and produced by Melvin Frank and Norman Panama...
  
   (1951) playing Tom Lorrison
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) (uncredited) playing Major General
• The Frogmen (1951) (uncredited) playing Adm. Dakers
• You're in the Navy Now (1951) (uncredited) playing Carrier Admiral
• Assignment: Paris (1952) (uncredited) playing American Ambassador
• Washington Story (1952) playing Caswell
• The Brigand (1952) playing Mons. De Laforce
• Young Man with Ideas
  Young Man with Ideas
  Young Man with Ideas is a film released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and starring Ruth Roman and Glenn Ford. A young small-town lawyer played by Ford moves his family from the country to Los Angeles in the hope of passing the bar in California to ensure that his family can have a more prosperous...
  
   (1952) playing Kyle Thornhill
• Carbine Williams
  Carbine Williams
  Carbine Williams is a 1952 American drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring James Stewart. The film follows the life of its namesake, David Marshall Williams, who invented the operating principle for the M1 Carbine while in a North Carolina prison...
  
   (1952) playing Ed - District Attorney
• Deadline - U.S.A.
  Deadline - U.S.A.
  Deadline – U.S.A. is a 1952 crime film starring Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore and Kim Hunter. A crusading newspaper editor fights a gangster. The newspaper used as background on the film, called The Day is loosely based upon the old New York City newspaper The Sun, which closed in 1950. The...
  
   (1952) (uncredited) playing Surrogate Court Judge
• My Six Convicts
  My Six Convicts
  My Six Convicts is an American 1952 comedy-drama film adapted from the autobiographical book written by Donald Powell Wilson. The film was adapted for the screen by screenwriter Michael Blankfort and directed by Hugo Fregonese who was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for...
  
   (1952) playing Warden George Potter
• Viva Zapata! (1952) playing President Porfirio Diaz
• Indian Uprising
  Indian Uprising (film)
  Induian Uprising is a 1952 Western film directed by Ray Nazarro and starring George Montgomery.-Plot synopsis:Arizona 1885 - Cavalry Captain Case McCloud tries to maintain the treaty between the Apache led by Geronimo and the government that keeps white prospectors off Apache...
  
   (1952) (uncredited) playing Maj. Gen. George Crook
• Man of Conflict (1953) playing Ed Jenks
• A Lion Is in the Streets
  A Lion Is in the Streets
  A Lion Is in the Streets is a 1953 drama film directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney as a southern politician loosely based on Huey Long. Cagney's brother William was the producer, while his younger sister Jeanne was a member of the cast. The screenplay was based on a 1945 book by Adria...
  
   (1953) (uncredited) playing Governor Charles Snowden
• Clipped Wings (1953) playing Col. Davenport
• From Here to Eternity (1953) (uncredited) playing Gen. Slater
• The Charge at Feather River
  The Charge at Feather River
  The Charge at Feather River is a 1953 Western film directed by Gordon Douglas, was originally released in 3D with lots of arrows, lances, and other weapons flying directly at the audience in several scenes....
  
   (1953) playing Lt. Col. Kilrain
• The System (1953) playing Roger Stuart
• Seminole (1953) playing Col. Zachary Taylor
• All Ashore
  All Ashore
  All Ashore is a 1953 Technicolor musical comedy film directed by Richard Quine. It is the second of Mickey Rooney's three films for Columbia Pictures that was produced by Jonie Taps, directed by Richard Quine and written by Blake Edwards...
  
   (1953) playing Commodore Stanton
• Down Among the Sheltering Palms (1953) (uncredited) playing Colonel Thomas B. Richards
• The Clown (1953) playing Doctor Strauss
• The Atomic Kid
  The Atomic Kid
  The Atomic Kid is a 1954 Black-and-white science fiction comedy film starring Mickey Rooney and directed by Leslie H. Martinson. While a Uranium prospector is in the desert he is accidentally exposed to radiation from an atomic bomb test...
  
   (1954) playing Gen. Lawlor
• The Last Time I Saw Paris
  The Last Time I Saw Paris
  The Last Time I Saw Paris is a 1954 romantic drama made by MGM. It is loosely based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "Babylon Revisited." It was directed by Richard Brooks, produced by Jack Cummings and filmed on locations in Paris and the MGM backlot. The screenplay was by Julius J. Epstein,...
  
   (1954) (uncredited) playing City Editor
• Naked Alibi
  Naked Alibi
  Naked Alibi is a 1954 black-and-white film starring Sterling Hayden. Portions of the film, considered film noir, were shot in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico.-Plot:...
  
   (1954) playing Commissioner F.J. O'Day
• The Black Dakotas (1954) playing John Lawrence
• Living It Up
  Living It Up
  Living It Up is a 1954 film comedy starring the team of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and released by Paramount Pictures.The film was directed by Norman Taurog and produced by Paul Jones. The screenplay by Jack Rose and Melville Shavelson was based on the 1953 musical Hazel Flagg by Ben Hecht, in...
  
   (1954) playing Man
• The Lone Gun (1954) playing Mayor Booth
• Alaska Seas
  Alaska Seas
  Alaska Seas is a 1954 crime drama film directed by Jerry Hopper and starring Robert Ryan and Brian Keith.-Plot:Matt Kelly is released from jail and skips town in his boat without paying outstanding storage fees. Back in his home town he is hired by his old friend Jim Kimmerly , the head of the...
  
   (1954) playing Captain Walt Davis
• Ma and Pa Kettle at Waikiki (1955) playing Fulton Andrews
• The Rack
  The Rack (film)
  The Rack is a 1956 American war drama film, based on a play written by Rod Serling for television. It was directed by Arnold Laven and starred Paul Newman, Wendell Corey, Lee Marvin and Walter Pidgeon. After two years in a North Korean prison camp, an American officer returns home, only to be...
  
   (1956) playing Col. Dudley Smith
• The Proud Ones (1956) playing Markham
• The True Story of Jesse James (1957) (uncredited) playing Tom Trope
• The FBI Story
  The FBI Story
  The FBI Story is a 1959 American drama film produced and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. The screenplay by Richard L. Breen and John Twist is based on a book by Don Whitehead.-Plot:...
  
   (1959) playing Dwight McCutcheon

Television career

Faye Roope played judges in Raymond Burr's Perry Mason

Perry Mason (TV series)

Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...

 TV series, had a continuing role as Mr. Botkin in the long-lasting western Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke

Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West....

, and appeared as an older man of authority in many TV Western's of the 1950s. He played the old-west hanging judge in the classic 1960 Twilight Zone time-travel episode Execution

Execution (The Twilight Zone)

"Execution" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It features Albert Salmi, who also plays the lead character in the Season 4 episode "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville".-Synopsis:...

, and appeared in many of the classic drama anthology shows of American television's Golden Age.

Roles in Television Episodes

• The Philco Television Playhouse
  The Philco Television Playhouse
  The Philco Television Playhouse, a live television anthology series sponsored by Philco, was telecast from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the NBC series was seen on Sundays from 9:00pm to 10:00pm...
  
  

  The Beautiful Bequest (1949)

• The Ford Television Theatre

  Junior (1952)

• Mr. & Mrs. North

  Till Death Do Us Part (1952) playing Edward Barry

  House Behind the Wall (1953) playing Richard Burton

• Fireside Theatre

  Grey Gardens (1953) playing Justin

• Racket Squad
  Racket Squad
  Racket Squad is an American TV crime drama series starring Reed Hadley as Captain John Braddock, a fictional detective working for the San Francisco, California Police Department....
  
  

  The Knockout (1951) playing Clayton Carswell

  The Strange Case of James Doyle (1952) playing Jim Doyle

  Sting of Fate (1953) playing Albert (Husband)

• The Lone Ranger
  The Lone Ranger (TV Series)
  The Lone Ranger is an American western television series starring Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels as Tonto. The live-action series initially featured Gerald Mohr as the episode narrator...
  
  

  Message to Fort Apache (1954) playing Colonel Gaines

• City Detective
  City Detective (TV series)
  City Detective is a half-hour syndicated crime drama starring Rod Cameron as 43-year-old Bart Grant, a tough 1950s New York City police lieutenant. The first of three consecutive Rod Cameron series, City Detective aired between January 1, 1953 and May 10, 1955...
  
  

  The Blonde Orchid (1954) playing Police Commissioner Ralph

• The Public Defender

  The Case of the Parolee (1954) playing Mr. Marshall

• Climax!

  A Man of Taste (1955)

• The Millionaire

  The Jerome Wilson Story (1955) playing Dr. Tom Evans

• Screen Directors Playhouse

  Want Ad Wedding (1955) playing Reverend Walker

• Studio 57

  Cubs of the Bear (1954) playing Amos Harlock

  "The Senorita and the Texan" (1955) playing Don Luis

• Soldiers of Fortune
  Soldiers of Fortune (TV)
  Soldiers of Fortune was a 1955 syndicated half hour American television adventure series. It starred John Russell as Tim Kelly and Chick Chandler as his sidekick Toubo Smith who were international adventurers. Each episode would take place in a different country...
  
  

  The General (1955) playing General DeSaba

• Celebrity Playhouse
  Celebrity Playhouse
  Celebrity Playhouse is the title of a 30 minute American television drama series which aired from 1956-1957 .Recurring Roles and Notable Guest Stars:...
  
  

  Tantrum Size 12 (1956)

• Ford Star Jubilee
  Ford Star Jubilee
  Ford Star Jubilee was a usually live, ninety minute, color anthology series that aired once a month on Saturday nights on CBS at 9:00 P.M., E.S.T. from the fall of 1955 to the fall of 1956...
  
  

  The Day Lincoln Was Shot (1956)

• Broken Arrow
  Broken Arrow (TV series)
  Broken Arrow is a Western series which ran on ABC-TV in prime time from 1956 through 1958 on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Repeat episodes were shown by ABC on Sunday afternoons during the 1959–60 season...
  
  

  Indian Medicine (1957) playing Tyoe

• Tales of Wells Fargo
  Tales of Wells Fargo
  Tales of Wells Fargo is an American Western television series that ran from March 18, 1957 to June 2, 1962 on NBC. Produced by Revue Productions, the series aired in a half-hour format until its final season when it expanded to an hour.-Synopsis:...
  
  

  The Inscrutable Man (1957) playing Mr. Harper

• Zane Grey Theater

  The Bitter Land (1957) playing Morgan Batterson

• Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
  Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
  Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, is a weekly CBS anthology television series, was telecast on Friday nights from 1951 until 1959. Offering both comedies and drama, the series was sponsored by Schlitz beer...
  
  

  The Lonely Wizard (1957) playing Dr. Elliott

• The Californians
  The Californians (TV series)
  The Californians is a 54-episode half-hour Western television series, set in the San Francisco gold rush of the 1850s, which aired on NBC from September 24, 1957, to May 26, 1959...
  
  

  The Search for Lucy Manning (1957)

• Code 3

  The Man with Many Faces (1957) playing Dr. Matthews

• Panic!

  Child's Play (1957) playing Charlie Jennings

• Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal
  Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal
  Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal is an American medical drama which aired in syndication from 1955 to 1957. Based on the book of the same name by Lloyd C. Douglas, a total of 78 episodes were produced....
  
  

  Dr. Means' Surgery (1955) (as Fay Roupe) playing Chairman

  Love in White Shoes (1957)

• The Adventures of Jim Bowie
  The Adventures of Jim Bowie
  In September of 1956 a TV series named "The Adventures of Jim Bowie" was aired on ABC. The show was only on the air for two years from 1956 to 1958. The series' music was unique in that is was primarily vocal, provided by Ken Darby and The King's Men .-Synopsis:The series stars Scott Forbes as the...
  
  

  Bayou Tontine (1957) playing Etienne Broussard

  Curfew Cannon (1958) playing Etienne Rochambeau

• The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
  The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp
  The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp is a Western television series loosely based on the adventures of frontier marshal Wyatt Earp. The half-hour black and white series ran on ABC-TV from 1955 to 1961 and featured Hugh O'Brian as Earp. An off-camera barbershop quartet sang the theme song and hummed...
  
  

  Frontier Journalism was Fearless (1955) playing Colonel Josh Clanton

  The Frontier Theatre (1956) playing Older Actor

  The Underdog (1958) playing Uncle George Jackson

• The Court of Last Resort
  The Court of Last Resort
  The Court of Last Resort is an American television drama series which aired on the NBC from 1957 through 1958. It was co-produced by Erle Stanley Gardner's Paisano Productions, which also brought forth the long-running hit television program, Perry Mason on CBS.Its approach to dealing with...
  
  

  The Westover Case (1958) playing Dan Tackberry

• Dragnet

  The Big Oskar (1958) playing Oskar Hovejg

• Perry Mason
  Perry Mason (TV series)
  Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
  
  

  The Case of the Gilded Lily (1958) playing Judge Kyle

  The Case of the Hesitant Hostess (1958) playing Judge

• The Rifleman
  The Rifleman
  The Rifleman is an American Western television program that starred Chuck Connors as homesteader Lucas McCain and Johnny Crawford as his son, Mark McCain. It was set in the 1880s in the town of North Fork, New Mexico Territory. The show, filmed in black-and-white with a half hour running time, ran...
  
  

  The Brother-in-Law (1958) playing Jeff Stacey

  The Legacy (1959) playing Doc Burrage

  The Spiked Rifle (1959) playing Barton

  Panic (1959) playing Doc Burrage

• Bonanza
  Bonanza
  Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
  
  

  The Magnificent Adah (1959) playing Castellan

• Gunsmoke

  "Change of Heart (1959) playing Mr. Botkin

  Murder Warrant (1959) playing Mr. Botkin

  The F.U. (1959) playing Mr. Botkin

• Have Gun, Will Travel

  Killer's Widow (1958) playing E.J. Randolph

  Alaska (1959) playing Wade

• Rawhide
  Rawhide (TV series)
  Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
  
  

  Incident on the Edge of Madness (1959) playing Mayor Haslip

• Tate
  Tate (TV series)
  Tate was a Western television series that aired on the NBC television network from June 8, 1960 until September 14, 1960. It was created by Harry Julian Fink and produced by Perry Como's company, Roncom Video Films, Inc...
  
  

  The Gunfighters (1960) playing Keefer

• The Chevy Mystery Show

  Fear Is the Parent (1960) playing Dow

• The Texan
  The Texan (TV series)
  The Texan is a Western television series starring popular B movie star Rory Calhoun. It aired on the CBS television network from 1958-1960.-Production notes:...
  
  

  Desert Passage" (1958) playing Ben Atkins

  The Accuser (1960) playing Mr. Benton

• The Twilight Zone
  The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
  The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
  
  

  Execution (1960) playing Judge

• Cheyenne

  Gold, Glory and Custer - Prelude (1960) playing Commissioner Brady

  Gold, Glory and Custer - Requiem (1960) playing Commissioner Brady

• The Tom Ewell Show
  The Tom Ewell Show
  The Tom Ewell Show was a television situation comedy broadcast in the United States in the 1960-61 television season.-Summary:The Tom Ewell Show was created by Madelyn Martin and Bob Carroll, Jr. , and produced by Tom Ewell's own production company...
  
  

  The Old Magic (1961) playing Dutton

Personal life

Fay Roope married Marie Teresa Roope.They had two children. Martha and George and many grandchildren. He died September 13, 1961, in Port Jefferson (Long Island), New York.

External links