Walston, Ray

▪ 2002

      American actor (b. Nov. 22, 1914?, New Orleans, La.—d. Jan. 1, 2001, Beverly Hills, Calif.), had a long career filled with quirky, endearingly cranky characters on the stage, in movies, and on television but was especially popular as the extraterrestrial masquerading as Bill Bixby's earthling Uncle Martin in the TV series My Favorite Martian in the mid-1960s. Indeed, his portrayal of the antennaed alien was so successful that he thereafter had trouble shaking that image. Walston began his professional acting career in the late 1930s in Houston, Texas, and in 1943 went to the Cleveland (Ohio) Play House. He made his Broadway debut in 1945 in a small part in Maurice Evans's production of Hamlet. Appearances followed in such shows as Summer and Smoke (1948), for which he won the Clarence Derwent Award, and The Rat Race (1949), and in 1950 he began touring in South Pacific in the role of Luther Billis, a part he also played in the film version (1958). In 1955 Walston opened in his breakthrough role, Mr. Applegate—the devil—in Damn Yankees, for which he won a Tony Award and which he also repeated in the film version (1958). Such Broadway shows as Who Was That Lady I Saw You With? (1958) and Agatha Sue, I Love You (1966) followed. Walston's movie debut came in Kiss Them for Me (1957), and he went on to roles in such films as The Apartment (1960), Paint Your Wagon (1969), The Sting (1973), Silver Streak (1976), Popeye (1980), and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). He made dozens of appearances in made-for-TV movies and on other TV series, most notably Picket Fences (1992–96). Walston's portrayal of the irascible Judge Henry Bone won him Emmy Awards in 1995 and 1996.

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