RAY WALSTON
Name: Ray Walston
Birth name: Herman Walston
Born: 2 December 1914 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died January 1, 2001 Beverly Hills, California
Ray Walston (December 2, 1914 - January 1, 2001) was an American stage,
television and feature film character actor who played the title character on
the situation comedy My Favorite Martian and Judge Henry Bone on the drama
series Picket Fences.
He was born Herman Walston in New Orleans, Louisiana (some sources indicate
Laurel, Mississippi) to middle-class parents Mittie (nee Kimball) and Harry
Norman Walston, a lumber man. He started acting at an early age, beginning
his tenure as a "spear carrier" rounding out productions at many New Orleans
theaters. He mostly played small roles with stock companies, where he not only
starred in travelling shows but also worked at a movie theater, selling tickets
and cleaning the stage floors. His family moved to Houston, Texas, where he
joined the Houston Civic Theater's repertory company under Margo Jones, debuting
in 1938.
Walston was very popular with Margo Jones's team of actors before he travelled
to Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent three years with the Cleveland Playhouse. He
then traveled to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in a 1945
production of Hamlet. In 1949 he appeared in the short-lived play Mrs. Gibbons'
Boys directed by George Abbott, who later cast him as Satan in Damn Yankees
opposite Gwen Verdon as his sexy aide Lola. The chemistry between the two was
such that they both garnered critical success and won awards for their roles.
After a decade in New York theater, he won a Tony Award, and he and Verdon were
invited to reprise their roles in the 1958 film version.
Walston had a successful movie career in addition to Damn Yankees!, beginning
with Kiss Them for Me in 1957, and then South Pacific (1958), where he played
Luther Billis; Say One for Me (1959); Tall Story, Portrait in Black, and The
Apartment (all in 1960); Convicts 4 (1962); Wives and Lovers, and Who's Minding
the Store? (both in 1963); Kiss Me, Stupid (1964); Caprice (1967); and Paint
Your Wagon (1969). Walston is also featured in the 1973 Best-Picture-Winner The
Sting, in which he is crucial to the successful swindling of an unsuspecting
griftee (played by Robert Shaw). He was also among many of the actors who played
themselves in cameos for Robert Altman's The Player, although Walston along with
several other stars, are actually in character for a movie within a movie
sequence.
Walston went on to some of his greatest success on the small screen. He starred
as the Martian, alias Uncle Martin, on My Favorite Martian from 1963 to 1966.
His co-star was Bill Bixby.
Name: Ray Walston
Birth name: Herman Walston
Born: 2 December 1914 New Orleans, Louisiana
Died January 1, 2001 Beverly Hills, California
Ray Walston (December 2, 1914 - January 1, 2001) was an American stage,
television and feature film character actor who played the title character on
the situation comedy My Favorite Martian and Judge Henry Bone on the drama
series Picket Fences.
He was born Herman Walston in New Orleans, Louisiana (some sources indicate
Laurel, Mississippi) to middle-class parents Mittie (nee Kimball) and Harry
Norman Walston, a lumber man. He started acting at an early age, beginning
his tenure as a "spear carrier" rounding out productions at many New Orleans
theaters. He mostly played small roles with stock companies, where he not only
starred in travelling shows but also worked at a movie theater, selling tickets
and cleaning the stage floors. His family moved to Houston, Texas, where he
joined the Houston Civic Theater's repertory company under Margo Jones, debuting
in 1938.
Walston was very popular with Margo Jones's team of actors before he travelled
to Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent three years with the Cleveland Playhouse. He
then traveled to New York City, where he made his Broadway debut in a 1945
production of Hamlet. In 1949 he appeared in the short-lived play Mrs. Gibbons'
Boys directed by George Abbott, who later cast him as Satan in Damn Yankees
opposite Gwen Verdon as his sexy aide Lola. The chemistry between the two was
such that they both garnered critical success and won awards for their roles.
After a decade in New York theater, he won a Tony Award, and he and Verdon were
invited to reprise their roles in the 1958 film version.
Walston had a successful movie career in addition to Damn Yankees!, beginning
with Kiss Them for Me in 1957, and then South Pacific (1958), where he played
Luther Billis; Say One for Me (1959); Tall Story, Portrait in Black, and The
Apartment (all in 1960); Convicts 4 (1962); Wives and Lovers, and Who's Minding
the Store? (both in 1963); Kiss Me, Stupid (1964); Caprice (1967); and Paint
Your Wagon (1969). Walston is also featured in the 1973 Best-Picture-Winner The
Sting, in which he is crucial to the successful swindling of an unsuspecting
griftee (played by Robert Shaw). He was also among many of the actors who played
themselves in cameos for Robert Altman's The Player, although Walston along with
several other stars, are actually in character for a movie within a movie
sequence.
Walston went on to some of his greatest success on the small screen. He starred
as the Martian, alias Uncle Martin, on My Favorite Martian from 1963 to 1966.
His co-star was Bill Bixby.