Orson Bean
Encyclopedia : O : OR : ORS : 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.
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-)
Selected filmography
- 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)
Books
- 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
External links
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