James MacArthur
Encyclopedia
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O
.
, he was adopted as an infant by playwright Charles MacArthur
and actress Helen Hayes
. He grew up in Nyack, New York
, along with the MacArthurs' biological daughter, Mary. He was educated at Allen-Stevenson School
in New York, and later at the Solebury School
in New Hope, Pennsylvania
, where he starred in basketball
, football
, and baseball
.
In his final year at Solebury, he played guard on the football team; captained the basketball team; was president of his class, the student government, and the Drama Club; rewrote the school's constitution; edited the school paper, The Scribe; and played Scrooge in a local presentation of A Christmas Carol
. He also started dating a fellow student, Joyce Bulifant
; they were married in November 1958 and divorced nine years later.
MacArthur grew up around the greatest literary and theatrical talent of the time. Lillian Gish
was his godmother, and his family guests included Ben Hecht
, Harpo Marx
, Robert Benchley
, Beatrice Lillie
, John Barrymore
, and John Steinbeck
. His first radio role was on Theatre Guild of the Air, in 1948. The Theatre Guild of the Air was the premier radio program of its day, producing one-hour plays that were performed in front of a live audience of 800. Helen Hayes accepted a role in one of the plays, which also had a small part for a child. Her son was asked if he would like to do it, and agreed.
, in 1949, with a two-week stint in The Corn Is Green
. His sister Mary was in the play and telephoned their mother to request that James go to Olney to be in it with her. The following summer, he repeated the role at Dennis, Massachusetts
, and his theatrical career was underway. In 1954, he played John Day in Life With Father
with Howard Lindsay
and Dorothy Stickney
. He became involved in important Broadway
productions only after receiving his training in summer stock
.
He also worked as a set painter, lighting director and chief of the parking lot. During a Helen Hayes festival at the Falmouth Playhouse on Cape Cod
, he had a few walk-on parts. He also helped the theatre electrician and grew so interested that he was allowed to stay on after his mother's plays had ended. As a result, he lighted the show for Barbara Bel Geddes
in The Little Hut and for Gloria Vanderbilt
in The Swan. When he visited Paris with his mother as a member of The Skin of Our Teeth
Company, he was in charge of making thunder backstage with a sheet of metal.
At the age of 18, he played Hal Ditmar in the television play, Deal a Blow, directed by John Frankenheimer
and starring Macdonald Carey
, Phyllis Thaxter
and Edward Arnold
. In 1956, Frankenheimer directed the movie version of the play, which was renamed The Young Stranger, with MacArthur again in the starring role. Again his performance was critically acclaimed, earning him a nomination for Most Promising Newcomer at the 1958 BAFTA awards. He made The Light in the Forest
and Third Man on the Mountain
, for Walt Disney
, during summer breaks from Harvard University
, where he was studying history. Deciding to make acting his full-time career, he left Harvard in his sophomore year to make two more Disney movies, Kidnapped
and Swiss Family Robinson
. These are now regarded as classics, and are still popular. In February 2003, Conrad Richter
's novel The Light in the Forest was one of the books selected for Ohio's One Book, Two Counties project. MacArthur was a guest speaker, and talked of how the book was turned into the film and of his experiences making the movie.
He made his Broadway debut in 1960, playing opposite Jane Fonda
in Invitation to a March, for which he received a Theater World Award. Although he never returned to Broadway, he remained active in theatre, appearing in such productions as Under the Yum Yum Tree
, The Moon Is Blue
, John Loves Mary (with his then wife, Joyce Bulifant), Barefoot in the Park
and Murder at the Howard Johnson's
. He then went on to star in such movies as The Interns
, Spencer's Mountain
, The Truth About Spring
and Cry of Battle
, as well as in the rather less successful The Love-Ins
and The Angry Breed. On the set of The Angry Breed, in 1968, MacArthur met Melody Patterson
, who was to become his second wife. They were married on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai
, in July 1970, but divorced several years later. In 1963, he was nominated for the "Top New Male Personality" category of the Golden Laurel Awards.
Between movie and theatre roles, MacArthur was also much in demand for television guest appearances, which included parts in Studio One, G.E. Theatre
, Bus Stop
the play, Bus Stop
the television series, Bonanza
, Gunsmoke
, Wagon Train
, The Eleventh Hour
, The Great Adventure
, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Combat!, The Virginian
. In 1966 he guest-starred as Lt. Harley Wilson in the "The Outsider", episode 20 in the second season of 12 O-Clock High (TV series)
. He co-starred with his mother Helen Hayes
in the 1968 episode "The Pride of the Lioness" on the Tarzan television series. MacArthur also gave a particularly chilling performance as baby-faced opium dealer "Johnny Lubin" in The Untouchables
episode, Death For Sale.
Though not all his movie parts were starring roles, and some were quite brief, they were usually pivotal to the plot. His role in The Bedford Incident
was that of a young ensign
who becomes so rattled by the needling of his Captain (Richard Widmark
) that he accidentally fires an ASROC
at a Soviet submarine, thus (we are given to understand) starting World War III
.
In Battle of the Bulge
he again played the role of a young and inexperienced officer. This time, however, the officer finds courage and a sense of responsibility. His brief but memorable appearance in the Clint Eastwood
movie, Hang 'Em High
eventually led to his role as Dan Williams in Hawaii Five-O
, popularizing the catch phrase "Book 'em Danno."
, the producer of Hang 'Em High, made the pilot for a new television cop show, Hawaii Five-O
. Before it went to air, the pilot was well-received by test audiences, except for some dislike of the actor playing Dan Williams. Freeman remembered MacArthur's portrayal of the traveling preacher in Hang 'Em High: He had come on the set and done the scene in one take. He called MacArthur and offered him the role of Dan Williams. Hawaii Five-O ran for twelve years—eleven with MacArthur. Leaving Hawaii Five-O at the end of its eleventh season, MacArthur returned to the theatre, appearing in The Lunch Hour with Cybill Shepherd
.
and Larry Storch
. In 1989, he followed another stint in The Foreigner with Love Letters and, in 1990–1991, A Bedfull of Foreigners, this time in Las Vegas.
After leaving Hawaii Five-O, McArthur guest-starred on such television shows as Murder, She Wrote
, The Love Boat
, Fantasy Island
and Vega$
, as well as in the mini series Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story and The Night the Bridge Fell Down, and in the 1998 television movie Stormchasers: Revenge of the Twister, with Kelly McGillis
.
and Alan Ladd, Jr.
in a Beverly Hills telephone answering service; in June 1972, he directed The Honolulu Community Theatre in a production of his father's play The Front Page
, and, for a period in the 1990s he was part-owner of Senior World publication, as well as writing the occasional celebrity interview. In 2000 MacArthur was awarded his own "sidewalk star" in Palm Springs
. He continued to appear at conventions, collectors' shows, and celebrity sporting events. A keen golfer, he was the winner of the 2002 Frank Sinatra Invitational Charity Golf Tournament.
He also appeared in television and radio specials and interview programs. His most recent appearances include spots on Entertainment Tonight, Christopher's Closeup and the BBC Radio 5 Live
obituary program Brief Lives, in which he paid tribute to his Hawaii Five-O castmate, the late Kam Fong
. In 1997, MacArthur returned without Jack Lord
(who was in declining health) to reprise his character, who had become Hawaii's Governor in the plot, in the 1997 unaired pilot of Hawaii Five-O which starred actor Gary Busey
. In April 2003, he traveled to Honolulu's historic Hawaii Theatre for a cameo role in Joe Moore's play Dirty Laundry. Negotiations were underway in summer 2010 for MacArthur to make a cameo appearance in the new CBS prime time remake of Hawaii Five-0 at the time of his death, a role that eventually was given to Al Harrington. On the November 1, 2010 episode, MacArthur's death was mentioned in a short tribute that played before the start of that episode.
in Jacksonville, Florida
. He was survived by his third wife, H. B. Duntz, and his four children and six grandchildren. The episode Ho'apono from the 2010 version of Hawaii Five-0 was dedicated to MacArthur.
He is interred in Nyack, New York
's Oak Hill Cemetery.
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
.
Early life
Born in Los Angeles, CaliforniaLos Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, he was adopted as an infant by playwright Charles MacArthur
Charles MacArthur
Charles Gordon MacArthur was an American playwright and screenwriter.-Biography:Charles MacArthur was the second youngest of seven children born to stern evangelist William Telfer MacArthur and Georgiana Welsted MacArthur. He early developed a passion for reading...
and actress Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
. He grew up in Nyack, New York
Nyack, New York
Nyack is a village in the towns of Orangetown and Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of South Nyack; east of Central Nyack; south of Upper Nyack and west of the Hudson River, approximately 19 miles north of the Manhattan boundary, it is an inner suburb of New...
, along with the MacArthurs' biological daughter, Mary. He was educated at Allen-Stevenson School
Allen-Stevenson School
Allen-Stevenson is a private boys elementary school located at 132 East 78th Street in New York City, New York.- History :The Allen School was founded in 1883 by Francis Bellows Allen at a home on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. Its first class enrolled only three boys. In 1885, the school moved to...
in New York, and later at the Solebury School
Solebury School
Solebury School is a co-educational college preparatory day and boarding school located on a campus in Solebury Township, Pennsylvania . There are currently 230 day and boarding students enrolled...
in New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope, formerly known as Coryell's Ferry, is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 2,528 at the 2010 census. The borough lies on the west bank of the Delaware River at its confluence with Aquetong Creek. A two-lane bridge carries automobile and foot traffic across the...
, where he starred in basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, and baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
.
In his final year at Solebury, he played guard on the football team; captained the basketball team; was president of his class, the student government, and the Drama Club; rewrote the school's constitution; edited the school paper, The Scribe; and played Scrooge in a local presentation of A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
. He also started dating a fellow student, Joyce Bulifant
Joyce Bulifant
Joyce Bulifant is an American television actress, notable for her sunny "little girl"-like Southern lilt of a voice. She was a frequent panelist on the television game show Match Game, more often than not giving bizarre answers that seldom matched the contestants.-Life and career:Bulifant was born...
; they were married in November 1958 and divorced nine years later.
MacArthur grew up around the greatest literary and theatrical talent of the time. Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
was his godmother, and his family guests included Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...
, Harpo Marx
Harpo Marx
Adolph "Harpo" Marx was an American comedian and film star. He was the second oldest of the Marx Brothers. His comic style was influenced by clown and pantomime traditions. He wore a curly reddish wig, and never spoke during performances...
, Robert Benchley
Robert Benchley
Robert Charles Benchley was an American humorist best known for his work as a newspaper columnist and film actor...
, Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Lillie
Beatrice Gladys "Bea" Lillie was an actress and comedic performer. Following her 1920 marriage to Sir Robert Peel in England, she was known in private life as Lady Peel.-Early career:...
, John Barrymore
John Barrymore
John Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
, and John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
. His first radio role was on Theatre Guild of the Air, in 1948. The Theatre Guild of the Air was the premier radio program of its day, producing one-hour plays that were performed in front of a live audience of 800. Helen Hayes accepted a role in one of the plays, which also had a small part for a child. Her son was asked if he would like to do it, and agreed.
Acting career
He made his stage debut at Olney, MarylandOlney, Maryland
Olney, a census-designated place and an unincorporated area of Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, is located in the north central part of the county, twenty miles north of Washington, D.C. It was largely agricultural until the 1960s, when growth of the Washington suburbs led to its conversion into...
, in 1949, with a two-week stint in The Corn Is Green
The Corn is Green
The Corn Is Green is a semi-autobiographical play by Emlyn Williams.At its core is L. C. Moffat, a strong-willed English school teacher working in a small poverty-stricken coal mining town in the late 19th century...
. His sister Mary was in the play and telephoned their mother to request that James go to Olney to be in it with her. The following summer, he repeated the role at Dennis, Massachusetts
Dennis, Massachusetts
Dennis is a town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States; located near the center of Cape Cod. The population was 14,207 at the 2010 census.The town encompasses five distinct villages, each of which has its own post office...
, and his theatrical career was underway. In 1954, he played John Day in Life With Father
Life with Father
Life with Father is the title of a humorous autobiographical book of stories compiled in 1935 by Clarence Day, Jr., which was adapted in 1939 into a long-running Broadway play by Lindsay and Crouse, which was, in turn, made into a 1947 movie and a television series.-The book:Clarence Day wrote...
with Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay
Howard Lindsay was an American theatrical producer, playwright, librettist, director and actor. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with...
and Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney
Dorothy Stickney was a Broadway actress best known for appearing in the long running Life with Father.Born in Dickinson, North Dakota, Stickney attended the North Western Dramatic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
. He became involved in important Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions only after receiving his training in summer stock
Summer Stock
For the article about the theatre genre, see Summer stock theatre.Summer Stock is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical made in 1950. The film was directed by Charles Walters and stars Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Eddie Bracken, Gloria DeHaven, Marjorie Main, and Phil Silvers...
.
He also worked as a set painter, lighting director and chief of the parking lot. During a Helen Hayes festival at the Falmouth Playhouse on Cape Cod
Cape Cod
Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
, he had a few walk-on parts. He also helped the theatre electrician and grew so interested that he was allowed to stay on after his mother's plays had ended. As a result, he lighted the show for Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes
Barbara Bel Geddes was an American actress, artist and children's author. She is best known for her role in the television drama series Dallas as matriarch Eleanor "Miss Ellie" Ewing. Bel Geddes also starred in the original Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in the role of Maggie...
in The Little Hut and for Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Vanderbilt
Gloria Laura Vanderbilt is an American artist, author, actress, heiress, and socialite most noted as an early developer of designer blue jeans...
in The Swan. When he visited Paris with his mother as a member of The Skin of Our Teeth
The Skin of Our Teeth
The Skin of Our Teeth is a play by Thornton Wilder which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It opened on October 15, 1942 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving to the Plymouth Theatre on Broadway on November 18, 1942...
Company, he was in charge of making thunder backstage with a sheet of metal.
At the age of 18, he played Hal Ditmar in the television play, Deal a Blow, directed by John Frankenheimer
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films...
and starring Macdonald Carey
Macdonald Carey
Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor, best known for his role as the patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of our Lives...
, Phyllis Thaxter
Phyllis Thaxter
-Early life and career:Born Phyllis St. Felix Thaxter, she was the daughter of Maine Supreme Court Justice Sidney Thaxter and his wife, a former actress. Thaxter worked on Broadway in the 1930s and signed an MGM contract in 1944...
and Edward Arnold
Edward Arnold (actor)
Edward Arnold was an American actor. He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, the son of German immigrants Carl Schneider and Elizabeth Ohse.-Acting career:...
. In 1956, Frankenheimer directed the movie version of the play, which was renamed The Young Stranger, with MacArthur again in the starring role. Again his performance was critically acclaimed, earning him a nomination for Most Promising Newcomer at the 1958 BAFTA awards. He made The Light in the Forest
The Light in the Forest
The Light in the Forest is a novel first published in 1953 by U.S. author Conrad Richter. Though it is a work of fiction and primarily features fictional characters, the novel incorporates several real people with facts from U.S...
and Third Man on the Mountain
Third Man on the Mountain
Third Man on the Mountain is a 1959 American Walt Disney Productions movie set during the golden age of alpinism about a young Swiss man who conquers the mountain that killed his father. It is based on Banner in the Sky, a James Ramsey Ullman novel about the first ascent of the Matterhorn, and was...
, for Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
, during summer breaks from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he was studying history. Deciding to make acting his full-time career, he left Harvard in his sophomore year to make two more Disney movies, Kidnapped
Kidnapped (1960 film)
Kidnapped is a 1960 Walt Disney Productions film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel, Kidnapped. It stars Peter Finch and James MacArthur, and was Disney's second production based on a novel by Stevenson.-Plot:...
and Swiss Family Robinson
Swiss Family Robinson (film)
Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 American Technicolor feature film starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Sessue Hayakawa in a tale of a shipwrecked family building an island home. The screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley was loosely based upon the 1812 novel Der Schweizerische Robinson by Johann...
. These are now regarded as classics, and are still popular. In February 2003, Conrad Richter
Conrad Richter
Conrad Michael Richter was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist whose lyrical work focuses on life along the American frontier.-Biography:...
's novel The Light in the Forest was one of the books selected for Ohio's One Book, Two Counties project. MacArthur was a guest speaker, and talked of how the book was turned into the film and of his experiences making the movie.
He made his Broadway debut in 1960, playing opposite Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
in Invitation to a March, for which he received a Theater World Award. Although he never returned to Broadway, he remained active in theatre, appearing in such productions as Under the Yum Yum Tree
Under the Yum Yum Tree
Under the Yum Yum Tree is a 1963 comedy movie that stars Jack Lemmon, Carol Lynley, Paul Lynde, Dean Jones and Edie Adams.This sex comedy was one of the successful small comic movies that Lemmon despised making . It first ran on Broadway in 1960-1961.-Plot:Jack Lemmon stars as the playboy landlord...
, The Moon Is Blue
The Moon Is Blue
The Moon Is Blue is a 1953 American comedy film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by F. Hugh Herbert, based on his 1951 play of the same title, focuses on a young woman who meets an architect on the observation deck of the Empire State Building and quickly turns his life...
, John Loves Mary (with his then wife, Joyce Bulifant), Barefoot in the Park
Barefoot in the Park
This article is about the Broadway production. For the film adaptation see Barefoot in the Park .Barefoot in the Park is a romantic comedy by Neil Simon. The original Broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols, opened October 23, 1963, with the four lead roles taken by actors Elizabeth Ashley ,...
and Murder at the Howard Johnson's
Murder at the Howard Johnson's
Murder at the Howard Johnson's is a 1979 play in two acts by American playwrights Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick. The production officially opened on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre after 10 preview performances on May 17, 1979; closing just three days later after only 4 more performances. The...
. He then went on to star in such movies as The Interns
The Interns (film)
The Interns is a 1962 drama film that starred Michael Callan and Cliff Robertson. This film is a medical melodrama that presages many similar TV programs to follow. It centers around the personal and professional conflicts of young medical interns under the tutorage of senior surgeons, Telly...
, Spencer's Mountain
Spencer's Mountain
Spencer's Mountain is a 1963 family film written, directed, and produced by Delmer Daves from a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr. The novel and film became the basis for the popular television series The Waltons, which followed in 1972...
, The Truth About Spring
The Truth About Spring
The Truth about Spring is a 1965 film released by Universal. It stars Hayley Mills, her father Sir John Mills and James MacArthur It is a romantic comedy adventure.-Plot:...
and Cry of Battle
Cry of Battle
Cry of Battle is a 1963 coming of age story and war film based on the 1951 novel Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel who was a journalist and special assistant to the U.S. Commissioner for the Philippines from 1945-46. The film stars Van Heflin, James MacArthur, Rita Moreno, Leopoldo Salcedo...
, as well as in the rather less successful The Love-Ins
The Love-Ins
The Love-Ins is a 1967 exploitation film about LSD that was directed by Arthur Dreifuss. The film is loosely based on the 1960s American figure, Timothy Leary and represents the 1960s San Francisco scene, particularly that of the Haight-Ashbury district...
and The Angry Breed. On the set of The Angry Breed, in 1968, MacArthur met Melody Patterson
Melody Patterson
Melody Patterson is an American actress best known for her role as Wrangler Jane in the 1960s TV series F Troop...
, who was to become his second wife. They were married on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai
Kauai
Kauai or Kauai, known as Tauai in the ancient Kaua'i dialect, is geologically the oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands. With an area of , it is the fourth largest of the main islands in the Hawaiian archipelago, and the 21st largest island in the United States. Known also as the "Garden Isle",...
, in July 1970, but divorced several years later. In 1963, he was nominated for the "Top New Male Personality" category of the Golden Laurel Awards.
Between movie and theatre roles, MacArthur was also much in demand for television guest appearances, which included parts in Studio One, G.E. Theatre
General Electric Theater
General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:...
, Bus Stop
Bus Stop (play)
Bus Stop is a 1955 play by William Inge. The 1956 film is only loosely based upon it.-Characters:Bus Stop is a drama, with romantic and some comedic elements. It is set in a diner in rural Kansas, about 20 miles west of Kansas City, Missouri during a snowstorm from which bus passengers must take...
the play, Bus Stop
Bus Stop (TV series)
Bus Stop is a 26-episode drama which aired on ABC from October 1, 1961, until March 25, 1962, starring Marilyn Maxwell as Grace Sherwood, the owner of a bus station and diner in the fictitious town of Sunrise in the Colorado Rockies...
the television series, 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...
, 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....
, Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
, The Great Adventure
The Great Adventure (TV series)
The Great Adventure is a historical anthology series that appeared on CBS for the 1963-1964 television season. The series, hosted each week by Van Heflin, and featuring theme music by Richard Rodgers, presented each week a one-hour dramatization of the lives of famous Americans and important...
, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Combat!, The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
. In 1966 he guest-starred as Lt. Harley Wilson in the "The Outsider", episode 20 in the second season of 12 O-Clock High (TV series)
Twelve O'Clock High
Twelve O'Clock High is a 1949 American war film about aircrews in the United States Army's Eighth Air Force who flew daylight bombing missions against Nazi Germany and occupied France during the early days of American involvement in World War II. The film was adapted by Sy Bartlett, Henry King ...
. He co-starred with his mother Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes
Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...
in the 1968 episode "The Pride of the Lioness" on the Tarzan television series. MacArthur also gave a particularly chilling performance as baby-faced opium dealer "Johnny Lubin" in The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
episode, Death For Sale.
Though not all his movie parts were starring roles, and some were quite brief, they were usually pivotal to the plot. His role in The Bedford Incident
The Bedford Incident
The Bedford Incident is a 1965 British-American Cold War film starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier, and co-produced by Richard Widmark. The cast also features James MacArthur, Martin Balsam, Wally Cox and Eric Portman, as well as early appearances by Donald Sutherland and Ed Bishop...
was that of a young ensign
Ensign (rank)
Ensign is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was traditionally the carrier of the ensign flag, the rank itself acquired the name....
who becomes so rattled by the needling of his Captain (Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
) that he accidentally fires an ASROC
Anti-submarine missile
An anti-submarine missile is a standoff weapon including a rocket designed to rapidly deliver an explosive warhead or homing torpedo from the launch platform to the vicinity of a submarine.-History:...
at a Soviet submarine, thus (we are given to understand) starting World War III
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
.
In Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge (film)
Battle of the Bulge is a widescreen war film produced in Spain that was released in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews and Charles Bronson...
he again played the role of a young and inexperienced officer. This time, however, the officer finds courage and a sense of responsibility. His brief but memorable appearance in the Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
movie, Hang 'Em High
Hang 'Em High
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American Western film directed by Ted Post and produced and co-written by Leonard Freeman. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching, Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him, Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched him, and Pat...
eventually led to his role as Dan Williams in Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
, popularizing the catch phrase "Book 'em Danno."
Hawaii Five-O
In 1967, Leonard FreemanLeonard Freeman
Leonard Freeman was an American television writer and producer whose most famous achievement was the creation of the CBS television network series Hawaii Five-O in 1968. The show ran for twelve seasons. At the time that was a record for a crime drama. In 1960, he wrote for the series Route 66; in...
, the producer of Hang 'Em High, made the pilot for a new television cop show, Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,...
. Before it went to air, the pilot was well-received by test audiences, except for some dislike of the actor playing Dan Williams. Freeman remembered MacArthur's portrayal of the traveling preacher in Hang 'Em High: He had come on the set and done the scene in one take. He called MacArthur and offered him the role of Dan Williams. Hawaii Five-O ran for twelve years—eleven with MacArthur. Leaving Hawaii Five-O at the end of its eleventh season, MacArthur returned to the theatre, appearing in The Lunch Hour with Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Shepherd
Cybill Lynne Shepherd is an American actress, singer and former model. Her best known roles include starring as Jacy in The Last Picture Show, as Betsy in Taxi Driver, as Madeleine Spencer in Psych, as Maddie Hayes on Moonlighting, as Cybill Sheridan on Cybill, and as Phyllis Kroll on The L...
.
Post- Hawaii Five-O
He appeared in A Bedfull of Foreigners in Chicago in 1984, and in Michigan in 1985. He followed this with The Hasty Heart, before taking a year out of show business. In 1987, he returned to the stage in The Foreigner, then played Mortimer in the national tour of Arsenic and Old Lace with Jean Stapleton, Marion RossMarion Ross
Marion Ross is an American actress best known for her role as Marion Cunningham on the television series Happy Days from 1974 to 1984.-Early life:...
and Larry Storch
Larry Storch
Lawrence Samuel "Larry" Storch is an American actor best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for top cartoon shows, including Mr...
. In 1989, he followed another stint in The Foreigner with Love Letters and, in 1990–1991, A Bedfull of Foreigners, this time in Las Vegas.
After leaving Hawaii Five-O, McArthur guest-starred on such television shows as Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote
Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,...
, The Love Boat
The Love Boat
The Love Boat is an American television series set on a cruise ship, which aired on the ABC Television Network from September 24,1977, until May 24,1986.The show starred Gavin MacLeod as the ship's captain...
, Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:...
and Vega$
Vega$
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series, was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas...
, as well as in the mini series Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story and The Night the Bridge Fell Down, and in the 1998 television movie Stormchasers: Revenge of the Twister, with Kelly McGillis
Kelly McGillis
Kelly Ann McGillis is an American actress. Her films include Top Gun, The Accused, and Witness, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination.-Career:...
.
Semi-retirement
Throughout his career, MacArthur had also found time for various other ventures. From 1959–60, he partnered with actor James FranciscusJames Franciscus
James Grover Franciscus was an American actor, known for his roles in the series The Naked City and The Investigators, and in feature films.-Life and career:...
and Alan Ladd, Jr.
Alan Ladd, Jr.
Alan Ladd, Jr. is an American film industry executive and producer. He is famous for giving George Lucas the go-ahead to make Star Wars and remained as Lucas' only support at times when the Board of Directors wished to shut down production...
in a Beverly Hills telephone answering service; in June 1972, he directed The Honolulu Community Theatre in a production of his father's play The Front Page
The Front Page
The Front Page is a hit Broadway comedy about tabloid newspaper reporters on the police beat, written by one-time Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur which was first produced in 1928.-Synopsis:...
, and, for a period in the 1990s he was part-owner of Senior World publication, as well as writing the occasional celebrity interview. In 2000 MacArthur was awarded his own "sidewalk star" in Palm Springs
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
. He continued to appear at conventions, collectors' shows, and celebrity sporting events. A keen golfer, he was the winner of the 2002 Frank Sinatra Invitational Charity Golf Tournament.
He also appeared in television and radio specials and interview programs. His most recent appearances include spots on Entertainment Tonight, Christopher's Closeup and the BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live
BBC Radio 5 Live is the BBC's national radio service that specialises in live BBC News, phone-ins, and sports commentaries...
obituary program Brief Lives, in which he paid tribute to his Hawaii Five-O castmate, the late Kam Fong
Kam Fong Chun
Kam Fong Chun , born Kam Tong Chun, was an American actor whose claim to fame was his 1968 to 1978 star performance as Chin Ho Kelly, a police detective on the CBS television network series Hawaii Five-O.-Life:...
. In 1997, MacArthur returned without Jack Lord
Jack Lord
John Joseph Patrick Ryan , best known by his stage name Jack Lord, was an American television, film, and Broadway actor. He was known for his starring role as Steve McGarrett in the American television program Hawaii Five-O from 1968 to 1980. Lord appeared in feature films earlier in his career,...
(who was in declining health) to reprise his character, who had become Hawaii's Governor in the plot, in the 1997 unaired pilot of Hawaii Five-O which starred actor Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
. In April 2003, he traveled to Honolulu's historic Hawaii Theatre for a cameo role in Joe Moore's play Dirty Laundry. Negotiations were underway in summer 2010 for MacArthur to make a cameo appearance in the new CBS prime time remake of Hawaii Five-0 at the time of his death, a role that eventually was given to Al Harrington. On the November 1, 2010 episode, MacArthur's death was mentioned in a short tribute that played before the start of that episode.
Death
MacArthur died of natural causes on October 28, 2010, a month and ten days short of his 73rd birthday, at the Mayo ClinicMayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice and medical research group specializing in treating difficult patients . Patients are referred to Mayo Clinic from across the U.S. and the world, and it is known for innovative and effective treatments. Mayo Clinic is known for being at the top of...
in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
. He was survived by his third wife, H. B. Duntz, and his four children and six grandchildren. The episode Ho'apono from the 2010 version of Hawaii Five-0 was dedicated to MacArthur.
He is interred in Nyack, New York
Nyack, New York
Nyack is a village in the towns of Orangetown and Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of South Nyack; east of Central Nyack; south of Upper Nyack and west of the Hudson River, approximately 19 miles north of the Manhattan boundary, it is an inner suburb of New...
's Oak Hill Cemetery.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | Climax! | Hal Ditmar | Deal a Blow |
| 1957 | Self | April 30, 1957 | |
| 1957 | Harold James 'Hal' Ditmar | ||
| 1958 | General Electric Theater General Electric Theater General Electric Theater is an American anthology series hosted by Ronald W. Reagan that was broadcast on CBS radio and television. The series was sponsored by General Electric's Department of Public Relations.-Radio:... |
Johnny Dundeen | The Young and the Scared |
| 1958 | Studio One Studio One (TV series) Studio One is a long-running American radio–television anthology series, created in 1947 by the 26-year-old Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC.-Radio:... |
Jim Gibson | Ticket to Tahiti |
| 1958 | Studio One | Ben Adams | Tongues of Angels |
| 1958 | Johnny Butler/True Son | ||
| 1959 | Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse is an American television anthology series produced by Desilu Productions. The show ran on CBS television between 1958 and 1960... |
Jamsie Corcoran | The Innocent Assassin |
| 1959 | Third Man on the Mountain Third Man on the Mountain Third Man on the Mountain is a 1959 American Walt Disney Productions movie set during the golden age of alpinism about a young Swiss man who conquers the mountain that killed his father. It is based on Banner in the Sky, a James Ramsey Ullman novel about the first ascent of the Matterhorn, and was... |
Rudi Matt | |
| 1959 | Wagon Train Wagon Train Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65... |
(uncredited) | The Jenny Tannen Story |
| 1960 | Kidnapped Kidnapped (1960 film) Kidnapped is a 1960 Walt Disney Productions film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel, Kidnapped. It stars Peter Finch and James MacArthur, and was Disney's second production based on a novel by Stevenson.-Plot:... |
David Balfour | |
| 1960 | Night of the Auk | Lt. Mac Hartman | |
| 1960 | Swiss Family Robinson Swiss Family Robinson (film) Swiss Family Robinson is a 1960 American Technicolor feature film starring John Mills, Dorothy McGuire, and Sessue Hayakawa in a tale of a shipwrecked family building an island home. The screenplay by Lowell S. Hawley was loosely based upon the 1812 novel Der Schweizerische Robinson by Johann... |
Fritz Robinson | |
| 1960 | Play of the Week Play of the Week Play of the Week is an American anthology series of televised stage plays which aired in NTA Film Network syndication from October 12, 1959 to May 1, 1961... |
Lieutenant Max | Night of the Auk |
| 1961 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Johnny Butler/True Son | Archive footage Light in the Forest: True Son's Revenge |
| 1961 | Play of the Week | Lt. Max Hartman | Night of the Auk |
| 1961 | Johnny Lubin | Death for Sale | |
| 1961 | Bus Stop Bus Stop (TV series) Bus Stop is a 26-episode drama which aired on ABC from October 1, 1961, until March 25, 1962, starring Marilyn Maxwell as Grace Sherwood, the owner of a bus station and diner in the fictitious town of Sunrise in the Colorado Rockies... |
Thomas 'Tom' Quincy Hagan | And the Pursuit of Evil |
| 1962 | Insight Insight (TV series) Insight was an Emmy-winning syndicated television series produced by Paulist Productions that aired 250 episodes from 1960 to 1983. The series presented half-hour dramas illuminating the contemporary search for meaning, freedom, and love... |
Jim Brown | The Sophomore |
| 1962 | Wagon Train | Dick Pederson | The Dick Pederson Story |
| 1962 | Dr. Lew Worship | ||
| 1962 | Jack Doffer | The Court Martial of Captain Wycliff | |
| 1963 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Rudi Matt | Archive footage Banner in the Sky: To Conquer the Mountain |
| 1963 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | Rudi Matt | Archive footage Banner in the Sky: The Killer Mountain |
| 1963 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | David Balfour | Archive footage Kidnapped: Part 1 |
| 1963 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color | David Balfour | Archife footage Kidnapped: Part 2 |
| 1963 | Sam Benedict Sam Benedict Sam Benedict is an American legal drama that aired on NBC from September 1962 to March 1963. The series was created and executive produced by E. Jack Neuman.... |
Bert Stover | Some Fires Die Slowly |
| 1963 | Spencer's Mountain Spencer's Mountain Spencer's Mountain is a 1963 family film written, directed, and produced by Delmer Daves from a novel by Earl Hamner, Jr. The novel and film became the basis for the popular television series The Waltons, which followed in 1972... |
Clayboy Spencer | |
| 1963 | Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial Arrest and Trial is a 90-minute American Police procedural/legal drama that ran during the 1963-64 season on ABC, airing Sundays from 8:30-10 p.m. Eastern.The majority of episodes consisted of two segments... |
Deke Palmer | A Shield is for Hiding Behind |
| 1963 | Cry of Battle Cry of Battle Cry of Battle is a 1963 coming of age story and war film based on the 1951 novel Fortress in the Rice by Benjamin Appel who was a journalist and special assistant to the U.S. Commissioner for the Philippines from 1945-46. The film stars Van Heflin, James MacArthur, Rita Moreno, Leopoldo Salcedo... |
David McVey | |
| 1963 | Amos Burke: Secret Agent | Larry Forsythe | Who Killed the Kind Doctor? |
| 1963 | Mason Walker | La Belle Indifference | |
| 1963 | Lieutenant Alexander | The Hunley | |
| 1964 | Rodger Young | Rodger Young | |
| 1964 | Dave Snowden | Behind the Locked Door | |
| 1965 | William Ashton | ||
| 1965 | Ensign Ralston | ||
| 1965 | Johnny Bradford | Jennifer | |
| 1965 | Battle of the Bulge Battle of the Bulge (film) Battle of the Bulge is a widescreen war film produced in Spain that was released in 1965. It was directed by Ken Annakin. It starred Henry Fonda, Robert Shaw, Telly Savalas, Robert Ryan, Dana Andrews and Charles Bronson... |
Lieutenant Weaver | |
| 1966 | Ride Beyond Vengeance Ride Beyond Vengeance Ride Beyond Vengeance is a 1966 western film. It stars Chuck Connors, Michael Rennie, Kathryn Hays and Bill Bixby.The film was directed by Bernard McEveety and produced by Andrew J. Fenady from the story "The Night of the Tiger" by Al Dewlen. Glenn Yarbrough sang the title song vocals. It was... |
The Census Taker | |
| 1966 | Branded | Lt. Laurence | A Destiny Which Made Us Brothers |
| 1966 | 12 O'Clock High | Lt. Wilson | The Outsider |
| 1966 | 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.... |
David McGovern | Harvest |
| 1967 | Dateline: Hollywood | Self | June 19, 1967 |
| 1967 | Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Colour | Cpl. Henry Jenkins | Willie and the Yank: The Deserter Willie and the Yank: The Mosby Raiders |
| 1967 | Combat! | Jack Cole | Encounter |
| 1967 | Larry Osborne | ||
| 1967 | Insight | Billy Thorp | Some Talk About Pool Rooms and Gin Mills |
| 1967 | Hondo Hondo (TV series) Hondo is a Western television series starring Ralph Taeger, that aired in the United States on ABC during the 1967 fall season.-Overview:Hondo was based on the film of the same name starring John Wayne, which was in turn based on an early Louis L'Amour novel... |
Judd Barton | Hondo and the Mad Dog |
| 1967 | Tarzan | Dr. Richard Wilson | The Pride of the Lioness |
| 1967 | 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... |
Jason 'Jase' Fredericks | Check Rein |
| 1967 | Death Valley Days Death Valley Days Death Valley Days is an American radio and television anthology series featuring true stories of the old American West, particularly the Death Valley area. Created in 1930 by Ruth Woodman, the program was broadcast on radio until 1945. It continued from 1952 to 1975 as a syndicated television series... |
Kit Carson | Spring Rendezvous |
| 1968 | Death Valley Days | Kit Carson | The Indian Girl |
| 1968 | Deek Stacey | ||
| 1968 | Premiere | Russ Faine | Lassiter |
| 1968 | Hang 'Em High Hang 'Em High Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American Western film directed by Ted Post and produced and co-written by Leonard Freeman. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching, Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him, Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched him, and Pat... |
The Preacher | |
| 1968– 1979 |
Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for twelve seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. The show featured a fictional state police unit run by Detective Steve McGarrett,... |
Det. Danny Williams | 259 episodes |
| 1971 | Self | June 28, 1971 July 4, 1971 |
|
| 1971 | Self | April 12, 1971 | |
| 1972 | Self | March 6, 1972 | |
| 1973 | Self | January 1, 1973 | |
| 1977 | Battle of the Network Stars III Battle of the Network Stars Battle of the Network Stars is the name of 19 US television specials featuring competitions among teams of popular television performers representing the three major broadcast networks at that time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.- History :... |
Self | |
| 1978 | Battle of the Network Stars IV Battle of the Network Stars Battle of the Network Stars is the name of 19 US television specials featuring competitions among teams of popular television performers representing the three major broadcast networks at that time: ABC, CBS, and NBC.- History :... |
Self | |
| 1978 | Fantasy Island Fantasy Island Fantasy Island is the title of two separate but related American fantasy television series, both originally airing on the ABC television network.-Original series:... |
Fantasy Island | The Funny Girl/Butch and Sundance |
| 1979 | Time Express Time Express Time Express is a short-lived American fantasy TV series, broadcast April–May 1979 on CBS and later syndicated. The series was created by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts who had both previously been involved in the creation of Charlie's Angels... |
Dr. Mark Toland | Garbage Man/Doctor's Wife |
| 1979 | Chet Hanson | The Spider Serenade/The Wife Next Door/The Harder They Fall | |
| 1980 | 34th Annual Tony Awards | Self | |
| 1980 | Alcatraz: The Whole Shocking Story | Walt Stomer | |
| 1980 | Scott Burgess | The Caller/The Marriage of Convenience/No Girls for Doc/Witness for the Prosecution | |
| 1981 | Fantasy Island | Bob Graham | The Heroine/The Warrior |
| 1981 | Vega$ Vega$ Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series, was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas... |
Jerry Lang | Heist |
| 1981 | Walking Tall | Father Adair | The Fire Within |
| 1981 | Jim Haley | Trail of No Return | |
| 1983 | Self | ||
| 1983 | Cal Miller | ||
| 1983 | Paul Krakauer | I Don't Play Anymore/Gopher's Roommate/Crazy for You | |
| 1984 | Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote Murder, She Wrote is an American television mystery series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network, with 264 episodes transmitted. It was followed by four TV films and a spin-off series,... |
Alan Gephardt | Hooray for Homicide |
| 1985 | Marc Silver | Vicki's Gentleman Caller/Partners to the End/The Perfect Arrangement | |
| 1989 | Hogan | Birdwoman of the Swamps | |
| 1991 | JFK JFK (film) JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison .Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay... |
uncredited David McVey | Archive footage Cry of Battle |
| 1991 | American Masters American Masters American Masters is a PBS television show which produces biographies on the artists, actors and writers of the United States who have left a profound impact on the nation's popular culture. It is produced by WNET in New York City... |
Self | Helen Hayes: First Lady of the American Theatre |
| 1994 | Self | ||
| 1997 | Hawaii Five-O (1997 pilot) Hawaii Five-O (1997 pilot) A pilot for a Hawaii Five-O remake series of the TV show Hawaii Five-O was produced in 1997, but did not air. The pilot was produced by Stephen J. Cannell Productions and CBS Television. It starred Gary Busey and Russell Wong as the new Five-O team while the character of Danny Williams , would have... |
Governor Danny Williams | Unsold pilot episode |
| 1997 | Light Lunch Light Lunch Light Lunch is a Channel 4 lunch-time comedy chatshow broadcast between March 1997 and February 1998. It starred Mel and Sue... |
Self | 70 Super Cops |
| 1998 | Storm Chasers: Revenge of the Twister | Frank Del Rio | |
| 2002 | Swiss Family Robinson: Adventure in the Making | Narrator | Special thanks |
| 2002 | Inside TVLand: 40 Greatest Theme Songs | Self | |
| 2002 | Inside TVLand: Cops on Camera | Self | |
| 2005 | Self | ||
| 2006 | Self | ||
| 2007 | Entertainment and TVLand Present: The 50 Greatest TV Icons | Self | |
| 2008 | Self | Grateful thanks |