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Ray Walston
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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:
Seasoned character actor active in theater, films, and television. Walston debuted on the stage in Houston in 1938, and gained major stardom in New York beginning in the mid 1940s, in such plays as "Summer and Smoke" and "The Rat Race," and the musicals "Me and Juliet" and "House of Flowers." He won a Tony Award playing Mr. Applegate, the Devil, in the musical hit "Damn Yankees" (1956), and recreated the part onscreen in 1958; that same year he played seabee Luthur Billis in the movie version of another Broadway smash, South Pacific (1958), which he'd performed on stage in the road company and in London. (He returned to musicals one more time, in 1969's large-scale production of Paint Your Wagonas Mad Jack Duncan.) Billy Wilder gave him one of his best film roles, as a trysting insurance executive in The Apartment (1960), and when a heart attack felled Peter Sellers during filming of Kiss Me, Stupid (1964), Wilder called on Walston to replace him as the desperate songwriter; it was his only starring role in a long film career. He had debuted onscreen in Kiss Them for Me (1957), and went on to appear in Convicts Four (1962), Who's Minding the Store? Wives and Lovers (both 1963), Caprice (1967), The Sting (1973), Silver Streak (1976), Popeye (1980, as Poopdeck Pappy), and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982, as the punctilious schoolteacher). He's also appeared in his fair share of junk, including The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1977), Private School (1983), Galaxy of Terror (1981), Blood Salvage (1990), and Ski Patrol (1990), a streak that was broken by his casting as Candy in Of Mice and Men (1992). Walston starred in TV's "My Favorite Martian" (1963-66) and was featured in "Stop Susan Williams," a part of the "Cliffhangers" series (1979), and "Fast Times" (1986), recreating his screen role from Fast Times at Ridgemont High Most recently he appeared in the recurring role of a judge on the critically acclaimed series "Picket Fences" (1992- ). |  |
