Lyle Talbot

Lyle Talbot
in the trailer for the film Havana Widows (1933)
Born	Lisle Henderson (1902-02-08)February 8, 1902 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	March 2, 1996(1996-03-02) (aged 94) San Francisco, California
Cause of death	Congestive heart failure
Resting place	Cremation
Years active	1931–1987
Spouse(s)	Margaret Epple (1948-1989) (her death) 4 children Keven McClure (1946-1947) (divorced) Abigail Adams (1942-1942) (annulled) Marguerite Cramer (1937-1940) (divorced)

Lyle Talbot (February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American actor on stage and screen, best known for his long career in film from 1931 to 1960 and for his frequent appearances on television in the 1950s and 1960s. He also played Joe Randolph for ten years in the ABC situation comedy, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

He began his movie career under contract with Warner Brothers in the early days of "talking pictures." He appeared in more than 150 films, first as a young matinée idol and later as a character actor and star of many B movies. He was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and later served its board.

Talbot's exceptionally long and varied career as an actor is recounted in a book by his youngest daughter, The New Yorker writer Margaret Talbot, entitled The Entertainer: Movies, Magic and My Father's Twentieth Century,(Riverhead Books: A division of Penguin, 2012).

Background

Born Lisle Henderson in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Talbot was reared in Brainard in Butler County in eastern Nebraska. He began his career as a magician's assistant and became a leading actor in traveling tent shows in the American Midwest. He briefly established his own theater company in Memphis, Tennessee. He went to Hollywood, California, in 1931, when the film industry began producing movies with sound and needed "actors who could talk". His screen test was watched and appreciated by studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and, even more so, by director William Wellman who immediately wanted to cast Talbot.

Film and stage

Most notable among Talbot's film work was his appearance in the classic pre-Code proto-noir Three on a Match (1932) with Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart, and co-starring with Spencer Tracy in the prison movie 20,000 Years in Sing Sing that same year. He romanced opera singer Grace Moore in One Night of Love in 1934 and pursued Mae West in Go West, Young Man two years later. He also appeared opposite Carole Lombard, Barbara Stanwyck, Mary Astor, Ginger Rogers, and Shirley Temple.

Talbot's activism in SAG union affairs severely impacted his career path. Warner Bros. dropped him from its roster, and Talbot seldom received starring roles again. He became a capable character actor, playing affable neighbors or crafty villains with equal finesse. In countless low-budget B-movies, Talbot's supporting roles spanned the gamut. He played cowboys, pirates, detectives, cops, surgeons, psychiatrists, soldiers, judges, newspaper editors, storekeepers, and boxers.

In later life, Talbot proudly claimed to have never rejected any role offered to him. He played roles in three now infamous Edward D. Wood, Jr., films: Glen or Glenda, Jail Bait and Plan 9 from Outer Space. Talbot also worked with the Three Stooges in Gold Raiders, was the first actor to portray evil scientist Lex Luthor onscreen in 1950's Atom Man vs. Superman (wearing a rubber "bald cap"), played villains in four comedies with The Bowery Boys, and took the role of Commissioner Gordon in the 1949 serial Batman and Robin. His last film role was in 1960 in the Franklin D. Roosevelt biography, Sunrise at Campobello, starring Ralph Bellamy in the title role.

Having started his career in the theater and later co-starred on Broadway in 1940-1941 in Separate Rooms, Talbot returned to the stage in the 1960s and 1970s, starring in national road company versions of Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker, Gore Vidal's political drama The Best Man, Neil Simon's The Odd Couple and Barefoot in the Park, Arthur Sumner Long's "Never Too Late," and appearing as Captain Braddock in a 1967 revival of South Pacific, at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Television

Talbot also appeared in many television programs, three times as Colonel Billings on the syndicated western series, The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951–1955), starring Bill Williams. He appeared four times as a judge on the syndicated western The Cisco Kid, starring Duncan Renaldo and Leo Carrillo. He guest starred on Gene Autry's The Range Rider, starring Jock Mahoney and Dick Jones.

From 1955 to 1966, Talbot appeared in some seventy episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, as the helpful neighbor, Joe Randolph, with Mary Jane Croft as the outspoken Mrs. Clara Randolph. In time, he superseded Don DeFore as Thorny, the Nelson's other neighbor.

From 1950 to 1955, Talbot was cast five times in different roles on the western, The Lone Ranger. In 1955, he appeared as Baylor in six episodes of the series, Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. From 1953 to 1957, he was cast as different characters in four episodes of the anthology series, Lux Video Theatre.

Talbot also had a recurring role from 1955 to 1958 as Robert Cummings' United States Air Force buddy Paul Fonda in seven episodes of NBC's The Bob Cummings Show. From 1954 to 1958, he appeared six times on the CBS' sitcom, December Bride, with Spring Byington. In 1958 he appeared on Perry Mason as Michael Garvin Sr. in "The Case of the Long-Legged Models." In 1967, he was cast three times as Colonel Blake in CBS's The Beverly Hillbillies. From 1965 to 1971, he appeared three times on The Beverly Hilbillies spin-off, Green Acres.

In 1959, Talbot was cast as Sheriff Clyde Chadwick in "The Sanctuary" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. The guest cast also included Harry Lauter as Johnny Tyler, and Van Williams as Tom Rucker.

Among Talbot's other guest-starring appearances included Annie Oakley, It's a Great Life, The Public Defender, The Pride of the Family, Crossroads, Hey, Jeannie!, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, Broken Arrow, The Millionaire, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Tales of Wells Fargo, Buckskin, Cimarron City, Angel, Hawaiian Eye, 77 Sunset Strip, Surfside 6

Continued: The Roaring 20s, The Restless Gun, Stagecoach West, The Red Skelton Show, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok, Topper, The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin, Laredo, Perry Mason, The Real McCoys, Rawhide, Wagon Train, Charlie's Angels, Newhart, The Dukes of Hazzard, St. Elsewhere, and Who's the Boss?.

Talbot continued to appear occasionally on television in his eighties and narrated two PBS biographies, The Case of Dashiell Hammett and World Without Walls about pioneering pilot Beryl Markham, both produced and written by his son, Stephen Talbot, formerly a recurring cast member, Gilbert Bates, on Leave It to Beaver, another series on which his father had also appeared.

Talbot was the first live action actor to play two prominent DC Comics characters on-screen: the aforementioned Commissioner Gordon in Batman and Robin, and supervillain Lex Luthor in Atom Man vs. Superman (who at the time was simply known as Luthor). Talbot began a longstanding tradition of actors in these roles that were most recently filled by Gary Oldman and Kevin Spacey, respectively.

Personal life

After several brief marriages and countless romantic entanglements, Talbot in 1948 married a young singer and actress, Margaret Epple, who often used the stage name, Paula. They had four children together and remained married for more than forty years until her death in 1989.

Three of their four children became journalists: Stephen Talbot was for many years a documentary producer for the PBS series Frontline and "Frontline World" and is now the executive producer of Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders. David Talbot is an author ("Brothers" about John F. and Robert F. Kennedy) and the founder and editor of Salon.com.

Margaret Talbot of The New Yorker who wrote about her father's long career beginning in pre-Code Hollywood, why he never became a big star, and his role in founding the Screen Actors Guild, in her magazine's edition of October 1, 2012. The second daughter, Cynthia Talbot, is a family physician and residency director in Portland, Oregon.

Talbot's granddaughter, Caitlin Talbot, is an actress based in Los Angeles.

Death

Talbot died in 1996 at his home in San Francisco, California, at the age of ninety-four from congestive heart failure, his remains were cremated and given to his family.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1932	Love Is a Racket	Edw. Griswold 'Eddie' Shaw	Alternative title: Such Things Happen
	No More Orchids	Tony Holt
	Three on a Match	Michael Loftus
	20,000 Years in Sing Sing	Bud Saunders
1933	The Life of Jimmy Dolan	Doc Woods
	Havana Widows
	Ladies They Talk About
	A Shriek in the Night	Ted Kord
1934	Heat Lightning	Jeff
	Registered Nurse	Dr. Greg Connolly
	Fog Over Frisco	Spencer Carlton
	The Dragon Murder Case	Dale Leland
1935	Red Hot Tires	Wallace Storm
	Oil for the Lamps of China	Jim
	Page Miss Glory	Slattery of the Express
	The Case of the Lucky Legs	Dr. Bob Doray
1937	Second Honeymoon	Robert "Bob" Benton
1939	Second Fiddle	Willie Hogger
1940	He Married His Wife	Paul Hunter
1944	Gambler's Choice	Yellow Gloves Weldon
	Sensations of 1945	Randall
1946	Chick Carter, Detective	Chick Carter
1949	Batman and Robin	Commissioner Jim Gordon
	She Shoulda Said No!	Police Captain Hayes
1950	Dick Tracy	B.R. Ayne aka The Brain	TV, 7 episodes
	Atom Man vs. Superman	Luthor/The Atom Man
	Lucky Losers	Bruce McDermott
1950–1954	The Cisco Kid	Various roles	TV, 4 episodes
1950–1956	The Lone Ranger	Various roles	TV, 5 episodes
1951	Gold Raiders	Taggert	Alternative title: The Stooges Go West
1951–1956	The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok	Various roles	TV, 4 episodes
1952	Untamed Women	Col. Loring
	Death Valley Days		TV, 1 episode
1953	Glen or Glenda	Insp. Warren
	The Roy Rogers Show	John Zachary	TV, 1 episode
1954	Gunfighters of the Northwest	Inspector Wheeler
	Tobor the Great	An Admiral
1954–1958	December Bride	Bill Monahan	TV, 6 episodes
1955	Hallmark Hall of Fame		TV, 1 episode
	Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe	Baylor	TV, 6 episodes
1955–1959	The Bob Cummings Show	Paul Fonda	TV, 4 episodes
1956	Navy Log	Captain Morgan	TV, 1 episode
	The Millionaire	Joe Price	TV, 1 episode
1956–1966	The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet	Joe Randolph	TV, 71 episodes (2 uncredited)
1957	Science Fiction Theatre	General Dothan	TV, 1 episode
	Tales of Wells Fargo	Reporter	TV, 1 episode
1958	M Squad	Paul Crowley	TV, 1 episode
	Leave It to Beaver	Charles "Chuck" Dennison	TV, 2 episodes
1958–1959	The Restless Gun	Various roles	TV, 2 episodes
1959	Plan 9 from Outer Space	General Roberts
	The Ann Sothern Show	Finletter	TV, 1 episode
1960	Surfside 6	Alan Crandell	TV, 1 episode
	Hawaiian Eye	George Wallace	TV, 1 episode
1960	The DuPont Show with June Allyson	Mr. Anders	CBS-TV, 1 episode, "The Trench Coat"
	Richard Diamond, Private Detective		"The Lovely Fraud"
1961	Mister Ed	George Hausner	TV, 1 episode
	Lawman	Orville Luster	TV, 1 episode
1962	Make Room for Daddy		TV, 1 episode
	Dennis the Menace	Mayor	TV, 1 episode
1962–1967	The Beverly Hillbillies	Colonel Blake	TV, 4 episodes
1963	Arrest and Trial	Phil Paige	TV, 1 episode
	The Lucy Show		TV, 1 episode
1964	77 Sunset Strip	Tatum	TV, 1 episode
	Petticoat Junction	Mr. Cheever	TV, 1 episode
1965	Run for Your Life	Steven Blakely	TV, 1 episode
	The Smothers Brothers Show	Marty Miller	TV, 1 episode
1965–1966	Laredo	Various roles	TV, 2 episodes
1968	Dragnet	William Joseph Cornelius	TV, 1 episode
1970	Here's Lucy	Various roles	TV, 2 episodes
1972	O'Hara, U.S. Treasury	Art Prescott	TV, 1 episode
1973	Adam-12	Avery Dawson	TV, 1 episode
1979	Charlie's Angels	Mills	TV, 1 episode
1984	The Dukes of Hazzard	Carter Stewart	TV, 1 episode
	St. Elsewhere	Johnny Barnes	TV, 1 episode
1985	227	Harold	TV, 1 episode
1986	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Mr. Fletcher	TV, 1 episode
	Who's the Boss?	Ralph	TV, 1 episode
1987	Newhart	Cousin Ned	TV, 1 episode

External links

• Lyle Talbot at the Internet Movie Database
• Lyle Talbot at the Internet Broadway Database
• "Great Character Actors"
• Lyle Talbot at Find a Grave
• Lyle Talbot at Talbot Players
• Caitlin Talbot http://www.caitlintalbot.com/Site/__Home.html

Preceded by None

Actors portraying Lex Luthor 1950 for Atom Man vs. Superman

Succeeded by Gene Hackman for Superman, Superman II and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace