William Joseph Schallert was an American character actor who appeared in dozens of television shows and films over a career spanning more than 60 years.
21 Facts About William Schallert
2.
William Schallert is known for his roles on Richard Diamond, Private Detective, Death Valley Days, and The Patty Duke Show.
3.
William Schallert was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Edwin Francis Schallert, a longtime drama critic for the Los Angeles Times, and Elza Emily Schallert, a magazine writer and radio host.
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William Schallert began acting while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles but left to become an Army Air Corps fighter pilot in World War II.
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William Schallert returned to UCLA after the war and graduated in 1946.
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In 1948, Schallert was directed by Sydney's father, Charlie Chaplin, in a staging of W Somerset Maugham's Rain.
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In 1949, Schallert served as the reciter in a concert performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Ode to Napoleon in celebration of the composer's 75th birthday.
8.
William Schallert portrayed farmer Sam Becker in a 1961 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, whose newborn son is delivered by Andy.
9.
William Schallert appeared in The Partridge Family as a very humble folk-singing guitar player in "Stage Fright" in 1971.
10.
William Schallert appeared three times as Major Karl Richmond on NBC's Steve Canyon, starring Dean Fredericks in the title role.
11.
William Schallert had roles in The Man from Planet X with Robert Clarke, The Tarnished Angels with Robert Stack, Blue Denim with Brandon deWilde, Pillow Talk with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, In The Heat Of The Night with Sidney Poitier, Speedway with Elvis Presley, The Jerk with Steve Martin, Teachers with Nick Nolte, and Innerspace, in which he played Martin Short's doctor.
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William Schallert was a founding member of the Circle Players at The Circle Theatre, started in 1946, now known as El Centro Theatre.
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William Schallert starred in Philbert, an innovative 1964 television pilot for ABC, which combined live-action camera work and animation.
14.
William Schallert was probably best known as Martin Lane on The Patty Duke Show.
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William Schallert appeared as a wise teacher, Mr Leander Pomfritt, on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and as "The Admiral" on Get Smart.
16.
William Schallert had the distinction of appearing in both the original film version of In the Heat of the Night and the later NBC TV version in 1992.
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William Schallert served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1979 to 1981, and afterwards remained active in SAG projects, including serving as a trustee of the SAG Pension and Health Plans since 1983, and of the Motion Picture and Television Fund since 1977.
18.
William Schallert continued to work steadily as an actor in later life, appearing in a 2007 episode of How I Met Your Mother, the HBO television film Recount as US Supreme Court Associate Justice John Paul Stevens, and the HBO series True Blood and his distinctive voice brought him work for commercial and animation voiceovers.
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William Schallert made an appearance on Medium on the February 5,2010, episode and a cameo on the June 26,2011, season premiere of True Blood as the mayor of Bon Temps.
20.
In 2010, William Schallert made a series of public service announcement videos with Patty Duke and other castmates from The Patty Duke Show for the Social Security Administration, which can be found at www.
21.
William Schallert died on May 8,2016, at his home in Pacific Palisades at the age of 93, six weeks after the death of his on-screen daughter Patty Duke, on March 29.