Orson Bean
Orson Bean, born Dallas Frederick Burroughs (
July 22,
1928 in
Burlington, Vermont), is an
American film, television, and
stage actor, as well as an author. He made numerous appearances on a variety of
game shows in the 60's, 70's and 80's.
Bean is perhaps best known as a long-time panelist on the television game show
To Tell the Truth, which provided a fitting forum for his affable
wit.
On one
To Tell the Truth episode in
1965, the panel was to try to guess which of three contestants was the real
Harvard University Chief of Police, George Burroughs, who was Orson's father. The happily stunned Orson disqualified himself from the questioning.
Bean made frequent guest appearances on
The Tonight Show (with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson). He also played storekeeper Loren Bray on the television series
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman throughout its five-year run on CBS in the
1990s. He played
John Goodman's
homophobic father on the short-lived
sitcom Normal, Ohio.
Bean is a second
cousin to former
President of the United States Calvin Coolidge.
He was
blacklisted by the
Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.
|
Bean on To Tell The Truth in the 90s |
Two of his significant credits were playing the main characters
Bilbo and
Frodo Baggins in the 1977 and 1980
Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of
J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, and
The Return of the King.
He has been married three times: to Jacqueline De Sibour (1956 to 1962); to Caroline Maxwell (1965 to 1981); and to actress
Alley Mills (1993-)
Alien Autopsy (
2006)
Being John Malkovich (
1999)
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (
1993)
Innerspace (
1987)
The Hobbit (
1977)
The Return of the King (
1980)
Anatomy of a Murder (
1959)
Me and the Orgone (
1971) ISBN 0967967015
Too Much Is Not Enough (
1988) ISBN 0818404655
25 Ways to Cook a Mouse for the Gourmet Cat (
1994) ISBN 1559721995
