1. Herman Ray Walston was an American actor and comedian.
28 Facts About Ray Walston
1. 2.
Ray Walston started his career on Broadway earning the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as Mr Applegate in Damn Yankees.
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Ray Walston appeared in the films South Pacific, Damn Yankees, The Apartment, Kiss Me, Stupid, Paint Your Wagon, The Sting, Popeye, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Of Mice and Men.
4.
Ray Walston started acting at an early age, beginning his tenure as a spear carrier rounding out productions at many New Orleans theaters.
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Ray Walston mostly played small roles with stock companies, where he not only starred in traveling shows, but worked at a movie theater, selling tickets and cleaning the stage floors.
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Ray Walston's family moved to Dallas, Texas, where he joined a repertory theater company under Margo Jones in 1938.
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Ray Walston was popular with Margo Jones' team of actors before he traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, where he spent three years with the Cleveland Play House.
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Three years later, Ray Walston became one of the first members admitted to the newly formed Actors Studio.
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Ray Walston starred as Luther Billis in the 1951 London production of South Pacific.
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Ray Walston reprised that role in the 1958 film adaptation.
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Ray Walston reprised his role in the 1958 film version of Damn Yankees.
12.
Ray Walston narrated many United States Department of Defense and Atomic Energy Commission films about nuclear experiments, including the Operation Hardtack I nuclear test film series of 1958.
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Ray Walston guest starred on numerous television programs, including The Shirley Temple Show, The Americans, and a television version of Going My Way.
14.
Ray Walston achieved his greatest success as the title character on My Favorite Martian from 1963 to 1966, alongside co-star Bill Bixby.
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Ray Walston returned to character actor status in the 1970s and 1980s, and guest starred in such series as Custer, The Wild Wild West, Love, American Style, The Rookies, Mission: Impossible, Ellery Queen, The Six Million Dollar Man, Little House on the Prairie, and The Incredible Hulk, again with Bixby, in which Walston played Jasper the Magician in an episode called "My Favorite Magician".
16.
From 1980 to 1992, Ray Walston starred in 14 films, including Galaxy of Terror and Fast Times at Ridgemont High as Mr Hand.
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In 1984, Ray Walston played a judge on an episode of Night Court.
18.
Ray Walston later was hired for the role of Judge Henry Bone on Picket Fences; the character was originally a recurring role, but Walston proved to be so popular the character was later upgraded to a starring role.
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Ray Walston appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation as Boothby, head groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, and reprised the role twice on Star Trek: Voyager.
20.
In 1992, Ray Walston played the role of Candy in the big-screen remake of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich.
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Ray Walston made a cameo appearance as a barman in Madonna's Deeper and Deeper video.
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Ray Walston reunited with Sinise in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's The Stand.
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Ray Walston received three Emmy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Picket Fences, winning twice, in 1995 and 1996.
24.
Ray Walston played Grandfather Walter Addams in Addams Family Reunion.
25.
Ray Walston appeared in the Touched by an Angel episode, "The Face on the Barroom Floor", which aired on October 15,2000.
26.
Ray Walston made a cameo in the 7th Heaven episode, "One Hundred", which aired on January 29,2001, four weeks after his death.
27.
In 1994, Ray Walston was diagnosed with lupus, and as a result, worked less frequently in his final years.
28.
On January 1,2001, Ray Walston died at his home at Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 86.