Hayden Rorke

Hayden Rorke
Hayden Rorke as Dr. Bellows in I Dream of Jeannie
Born	William Henry Rorke October 23, 1910(1910-10-23) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	August 19, 1987(1987-08-19) (aged 76) Toluca Lake, California, U.S.
Years active	1943-85

William Henry Rorke (October 23, 1910 – August 19, 1987) was an American actor best known for playing Col. Dr. Alfred E. Bellows on the hit 1960s American sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.

Biography

Career

Born William Henry Rorke in Brooklyn, New York in 1910, he was the son of screen and stage actress Margaret Rorke (née Hayden), and he took his stage forename from her maiden name.

He attended Brooklyn Prep School, where he was president of the Dramatics Society and the Student Government and a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. He continued his education at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts and began his stage career in the 1930s with the Hampden Theatrical Company. During World War II, he enlisted in the army, where he made his film debut in the musical This is the Army (1943) starring Ronald W. Reagan, for which he was uncredited as the stage manager and as a soldier in the background.

Following the war, he left the army and worked in small parts on Broadway, finally returning to Hollywood for the 1949 film Lust for Gold, again uncredited. However, it was an opening, and in later films, beginning with Rope of Sand (1949), he is listed in the credits, although he again shows up uncredited in the 1950 films Kim and The Magnificent Yankee, as well as a couple of later films such as the Academy Award-winning An American in Paris (in those days, small bit parts were often uncredited). He continued to make movies, taking on supporting roles, in such films as:

• Father's Little Dividend (1951)
• Francis Goes to the Races (1951)
• The Law and the Lady (1951)
• Starlift (1951)
• When Worlds Collide (1951)
• Wild Stallion (1952)
• Project Moon Base (1953)
• Lucky Me (1954)
• All That Heaven Allows (1955)
• Pillow Talk (1959)
• The Night Walker (1964)

In 1957-1958, Rorke played Steve, the film agent, in the CBS television series Mr. Adams and Eve, starring Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, then married in real life, as a fictitious acting couple residing in Beverly Hills, California.

He played several guest roles on television, winning the role of Colonel Farnsworth in the short-lived 1964 ABC sitcom No Time for Sergeants, based on the Andy Griffith film of the same name but starring Sammy Jackson. He also guest-starred on CBS's Perry Mason. Rorke also appeared in the 1952 episode of I Love Lucy entitled "New Neighbors." He also appeared in an episode of The Wild Wild West entitled "Night of the Man Eating House".

Rorke was best-known for his role as Dr Bellows, the NASA medical officer in the television sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie. Bellows is constantly trying to figure out why Tony Nelson (Larry Hagman), an astronaut under Bellows' supervision, often behaves strangely, and to decipher the madcap antics, but he never figures out what is actually going on. Bellows usually winds up making himself look like a fool in front of his own superiors. Rorke's last film was reprising his role in the television reunion movie, I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later (1985).

Death

Hayden Rorke died of multiple myeloma in 1987. He was buried at Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery.

Personal life

Rorke was "unashamedly gay", as Jeannie co-star Barbara Eden stated in her 2011 Jeannie Out of the Bottle. She commented that Rorke "and his partner, Justus Addiss, lived together for many years in Studio City, along with their menagerie of dogs." He and Addiss would often invite the cast over for parties. Barbara described Hayden as a "prince" who was a good friend of all and always managed to keep up the spirits of the I Dream of Jeannie cast, often in difficult circumstances.

External links

• Hayden Rorke at the Internet Movie Database
• Hayden Rorke at the Internet Broadway Database
• Hayden Rorke at Find a Grave