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American Playhouse

1982

American Playhouse is an anthology television series periodically broadcast by Public Broadcasting Service in the United States.

Tina Rathborne

Ernestine "Tina" Rathborne (born 1950) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is best known for writing and directing the 1988 film Zelly and Me, her feature film directorial debut. Prior to this, she directed the television film The Joy That Kills (1984), which later became an episode of the anthology series American Playhouse. Rathborne also went on to direct two episodes of the television series Twin Peaks ("Episode 3", "Episode 17"). Rathborne is an alumna of Harvard University. She was married to real estate developer and conservationist Philip Yardley DeNormandie from 1973 until their 1987 divorce. They later remarried and had two children. Their second divorce was filed in 2017 and finalized in 2023; Rathborne initiated both divorces. Description above from the Wikipedia article Tina Rathborne, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Nola Haynes

Nola Haynes is an Actress and Dancer known for The Benny Hill Show (1969), Benny Hill: The Hill's Angels Years (2006) and American Playhouse (1980).

Robert Morse

Cast · Known for Mad Men

​From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.   Robert Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor and singer best known as the star of both the 1961 original Broadway production, for which he won a Tony Award, and the 1967 film adaptation of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and as Bertram Cooper in the critically acclaimed AMC dramatic series Mad Men (2007–2015). He won his second Tony Award for playing Truman Capote in the 1989 production of the one-man play Tru. He reprised his role of Capote in an airing of the play for American Playhouse in 1992, winning him a Primetime Emmy Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Morse, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Emiko Omori

Emiko Omori has traveled the globe for more than 30 years as a cinematographer for many award-winning documentaries. Omori taught filmmaking in California and Hawai‘i and was the San Francisco Bay Area's first Asian American female news cameraperson. Omori has produced several nationally acclaimed documentaries including: Tattoo City, a documentary about the art of Japanese-style full body tattooing by artist D.E. Hardy; Hot Summer Winds, a drama based on two short stories by Nisei writer Hisaye Yamamoto that was showcased on American Playhouse; Rabbit in the Moon, a feature-length documentary that combines the internees' powerful stories with evocative images resulting in a film that is part documentary, part memoir and part essay. Rabbit in the Moon was broadcast on P.O.V. and received the Best Documentary Cinematography Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival and won an Emmy.

Jonathan Hogan

Jonathan Hogan was born on June 13, 1951 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is an actor and composer, known for A Rainy Day in New York (2019), American Playhouse (1980) and Getting to Know You (1999).

Bill Blair

Bill is the Guinness World record holder in the category 'most special effect make-up characters portrayed in a career' the new record number set May 6, 2011 is 202. Born and raised in Kent Ohio, Bill graduated Kent State University, in 1977 with a degree in Telecommunications. But during college, Bill realized that he wanted something else. He embarked on a music career, and in the early 1980's he toured, as the leader of a band called Expression. In 1982, after recovering from a serious injury, he moved to Chicago and shifted to a career in entertainment. His first bit-part in a movie came in 1982 in an American Playhouse film titled "The Killing Floor". By the following summer, Bill was landing featured bit-parts and stand-in work on several films. He got his first speaking role, in 1984, in the TV movie "The Impostor". Later 1984, Dallas, TX. Over the next five years, he kept busy with print ads and industrial shows, and played his first alien character. He portrayed Mr. Spock in an industrial film at the Dallas Convention Center for the Oracle Software Company. January 1990 - Los Angeles, Florida - 1992 - job entertaining at the Busch Gardens water park called Adventure Land. January 1993 - Los Angeles. His first experience as an alien on television was in Alien Nation. It started when he met makeup designer Richard Snell, while filming Demolition Man. This led Bill to his first work on the TV movies of "Alien Nation". Since then, he has become one of those few elite actors that seem to specialize in playing aliens, monsters, and other various creatures from other worlds and of this world long ago. It was from there, that he found himself working on the hit series Babylon 5 and shortly thereafter on Star Trek:Deep Space Nine. 1998 - Bill worked on the season premiere episode of Sliders, and more in 1999. Since then, Bill has worked on many TV series, including Star Trek: Voyager, Enterprise, The X-Files, The Invisible Man, Drew Carey, The District, Crossing Jordan, King of Queens, Will and Grace, Yes, Dear!, Friends, Desperate Housewives, Criminal Minds, and as a regular on "The Division" and the HBO Series Carnivale, Saving Grace, Justified, Raising Hope, iCarly, The Defenders, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, Mad Men, Modern Family, Mistresses, 2 Broke Girls, and many more. Bill has appeared in Blades of Glory, The Artist, The Muppets, Nightcrawler, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, ARGO and more. In print, Bill was a featured zombie in the book "The Brain Eater's Bible", released in 2011. As one of a special group of actors that has worked extensively on sci-fi, and fantasy/horror shows, Bill has many behind-the-scenes stories to share about what it took to become this extraordinary type of actor. Additionally, Bill has written a book titled "The Professionals Talent Handbook: The Guide to Getting Started" and he has appeared on the pages of TV Guide (July 5, 1997), and in the August 1998 issue of Galactic Alliance. Interviews with Bill can be found in such publications as the International Star Trek Magazine, Explorer, Pen & Quill, Autograph Times, TV Zone and the New York Post..

J. Dinan Myrtetus

J. Dinan Myrtetus was born on 22 September 1935 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an actor, known for The Lost Boys (1987), American Playhouse (1980) and Suburbia (1983)

Frank Galati

Frank Joseph Galati was born on November 29, 1943 in Highland Park, Illinois, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for The Accidental Tourist (1988), American Playhouse (1980) and The Party Animal (1984). Galati married his longtime partner, Peter Amster, in 2017. Later in life, they resided between Sarasota, Florida, and Beaver Island on Lake Michigan. He died on January 2, 2023 in Sarasota, Florida, USA, complications from cancer.

The Philco Television Playhouse

1948

The Philco Television Playhouse is an American anthology series that was broadcast live on NBC from 1948 to 1955. Produced by Fred Coe, the series was sponsored by Philco. It was one of the most respected dramatic shows of the Golden Age of Television, winning a 1954 Peabody Award and receiving eight Emmy nominations between 1951 and 1956.

Joel Polis

Cast · Known for The Thing

An American television, film and stage actor. He has appeared in over one hundred television programs and films during his career. Polis' first film role was the character 'Fuchs' in the science fiction film The Thing. He appeared in numerous television series including Cheers, Alien Nation, Northern Exposure, Star Trek: Voyager, Roseanne, Seinfeld, Chicago Hope, Boston Legal and CSI. He appeared in a recurring role on the television series Cheers as the mischievous Gary, owner of the rival bar, Gary's Olde Towne Tavern. Polis's theater credits include performances at the Astor Place Theatre, Hartford Stage, Old Globe Theater, South Coast Repertory, Mark Taper Forum, Odyssey Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Lillian Theater and the Pasadena Playhouse.

William Marshall

William Marshall was an American actor, director, and opera singer. He is best known for his title role in Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream as well as his role on Pee-wee's Playhouse. Marshall made his Broadway debut in 1944 in Carmen Jones. In 1950, he understudied Boris Karloff as Captain Hook in the Broadway production of Peter Pan. He played the leading role of De Lawd in the 1951 revival of The Green Pastures, a role he repeated in 1958 in a BBC telecast of the play. He performed in several Shakespearean plays on the stage in the U. S. and Europe, including the title role in at least six productions of Othello. Harold Hobson of the London Sunday Times praised Marshall’s portrayal as "the best Othello of our time." In 1968, Marshall joined the Center Theatre Group at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles to play Othello in a jazz musical version, Catch My Soul, with Jerry Lee Lewis as Iago. Marshall portrayed Paul Robeson and Frederick Douglass on stage. He researched Douglass' life extensively, and in 1983 produced and played the lead role in Frederick Douglass: Slave and Statesman. Marshall's career on screen began in the 1952 film Lydia Bailey as a Haitian leader. He followed that with a prominent role as Glycon, comrade and fellow gladiator to Victor Mature in the 1954 film Demetrius and the Gladiators. His demeanor, voice and stature gave him a wide range, though he was ill-suited for the subservient roles that many black actors of his generation were most frequently offered. He was a leader of the Mau-Mau uprising in Something of Value, and Attorney General Edward Brooke in The Boston Strangler. He probably received the most notice for his role in the vampire film Blacula and its sequel Scream Blacula Scream. In later years, Marshall played the King of Cartoons on Pee-wee's Playhouse. Despite blacklisting because of his supposed communist connections, Marshall managed to continue appearing in both television and films. He appeared on the British spy series Danger Man in episodes titled "Deadline" and "The Galloping Major". He also won two local Emmys for producing and performing in a PBS production, As Adam Early in the Morning, a theatre piece originally performed on stage. He also was featured in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour titled, "The Jar", with actors Pat Buttram and George Lindsey. In addition to acting and producing, Marshall taught acting at various universities including the University of California, Irvine, and the Mufandi Institute, an African-American arts and music institution in the Watts section of Los Angeles. He did similar work at Chicago's ETA Creative Arts Foundation, which in 1992 named Marshall one of its Epic Men of the 20th century. Marshall died June 11, 2003, from complications arising from Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. Marshall was considered by many to be a much underrated actor and one who never got his due. Some have remarked that Marshall should have had a much more successful and larger screen career, even saying that Marshall would have been a perfect choice for the role of Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian.

Anna Ouyang Moench

Writer · Known for Severance

Anna Ouyang Moench is an American playwright and screenwriter. She has written plays such as Birds of North America and Man of God, and her plays have been directed in numerous venues across the United States, including the Odyssey Theatre, the Geffen Playhouse, and Theatre Mu. In television, Moench has written for the award-winning Apple TV+ sci-fi series Severance and is an executive producer on the second season of A24's Beef. She also serves as showrunner for Mr. & Mrs. Smith, starting with its second season. Description above from the Wikipedia article Anna Ouyang Moench, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Oscar Rudolph

Director · Known for Batman

Oscar Rudolph was an American director and actor with a prolific career in television. He directed episodes for numerous popular TV series, including Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958), Twist Around the Clock (1961), and Playhouse 90 (1956). Rudolph's work spanned various genres, showcasing his versatility and adaptability in the evolving television landscape. His contributions to television direction left a lasting impact on the industry.

Michael Monks

Michael Monks is an American actor, director, and producer born in Indiana, who grew up in Colorado. He graduated from Colorado State University with a degree in Industrial Construction Management before studying acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. He previously worked as a project engineer before transitioning to full-time acting in the early 1990s. His best-known television role is George Vogelman on The Practice (1997–1999). His notable film credits include What's Love Got to Do with It (1993, with Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne), Air Force One (1997, with Harrison Ford), Hard Rain (1998, with George Clooney and Nicolas Cage), Harsh Times (2005, with Charlize Theron and Forest Whitaker), Street Kings (2008, with Whitaker and Kevin Bacon), End of Watch (2012, with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña), Sabotage (2014, with Arnold Schwarzenegger), and Doctor Sleep (2019, dir. Mike Flanagan, with Ewan McGregor).

Terri Garber

Terri Garber is an American television and film actress, best known for her role as Ashton Main, Southern Belle vixen, in the three-part miniseries, North and South (North & South: Book 1, North & South (1985), North & South: Book 2, Love & War (1986), and North & South: Book 3, Heaven & Hell (1994)). Garber grew up in Miami, Florida, the youngest of three children. Their father was a lawyer, and their mother owned a cooking school. Garber began acting in professional theater at the age of 16 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. She booked a commercial that made her a member of the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) and decided to move to New York to pursue television, film, and theater. Once in New York, she landed her first big role in the 1982 television series Texas (1980), which launched her career. She moved to Los Angeles to do series pilots, and booked "North and South". After "North and South", she worked on many other daytime and nighttime soaps, including Dynasty, Santa Barbara, General Hospital, and As the World Turns. She also guest-starred in many drama series and feature films. Garber married her high school drama teacher, William Roudebush, in 2013. Her daughter Molly Hager, by her first husband Chris Hager, is a successful Broadway actress.

Allyce Beasley

Allyce Beasley (née Tannenberg) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as rhyming, love-struck receptionist Agnes DiPesto in the television series Moonlighting. From 2001 to 2007, she was the announcer on Playhouse Disney, a morning lineup of programming for toddlers on Disney Channel. She appeared briefly as a guidance counselor in the comedy film Legally Blonde and played Coach's daughter, Lisa Pantusso, on Cheers. She also announced the safety video during The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood and Florida.

Andrea Bianchi

Andrea Bianchi is an American Theater, Film and TV Actress. She was born was born in Tarrytown NY and grew up in Riverside, CT. She is known for Only Murders In the Building, Chicago Fire, YOU, Power Book II:Ghost, FBI:Most Wanted, Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, As The World Turns, Disney +. And extensive theater credits include New York: 59 East 59th(Smart Blonde) Westside Arts Theater (Curvy Widow) Manhattan Theater Club (Italian- American Reconciliation) Transport Group (Being Audrey) York, Primary Stages (Lusting After Pipinos Wife) American Place (Cocoanuts) Regional: (George Street Playhouse, Guthrie, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Eugene O'Neill Music Theater Conference, Syracuse Stage, Maltz Jupiter, Barter, Riverside, Premiere Stages etc.)Named Best Actress NJ theater season for three years by Peter Felicia of the Star Ledger. She has been married to writer/director/producer John Wooten since October 26, 1996. They have a son, Jack. She is an active animal shelter volunteer and yogi.

Steve Witting

Cast · Known for Batman Returns

Steve Witting is an American actor and director who first found fame while starring in the popular 1980s comedy series Valerie. He has since gone on to star in several other TV series and films, including Batman Returns, Hoffa and Shutter Island. He made his directorial debut in 1991 when he directed an episode of Step by Step. Witting also played the main role in a full motion video game for the Sega Mega CD called Wirehead.He played a role in The Wolf of Wallstreet. Witting began acting by joining Richmond Hill High School drama club in Queens where he was encouraged by Alfred Christie, a teacher who ran Hampton Playhouse in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. In 1977 a seventeen-year-old Witting moved to New Hampshire to work at the Hampton Playhouse as an apprentice. During this time Witting met his future wife, Renee Rogers, who was also a Hampton Playhouse apprentice. Many summers throughout his career Witting returned to the Hampton Playhouse as either an actor or director until the Playhouse was demolished in 2001.

Zach Hanner

Zach Hanner is an American actor, stage director and writer born in Mt. Airy, North Carolina in June 1969. He spent his formative years growing up in nearby Pilot Mountain. After attending the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point, he knew that the stage would be a lifelong passion. At the age of 10, he landed the lead role in the Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" and, soon after, portrayed the role of Dill in "To Kill A Mockingbird," both shows staged at the Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mt. Airy, Griffith's hometown. Hanner also developed a love for music, taking piano lessons, playing drums in the school band and studying voice for many years, eventually earning a spot in the esteemed choral ensemble at the North Carolina Governor's School in 1985. Having eschewed the stage for the basketball court throughout high school, he rediscovered his love for performing while attending the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. He threw himself in to theater headlong, studying with amazing professors Paul Ferguson and Randall Hill in UNC's Performance Studies department, eventually receiving his Bachelor's degree.

Rex Reason

Rex Reason was an American actor born on November 30, 1928, in Berlin, Germany, to American parents. He grew up in Los Angeles and initially had no acting aspirations, but his mother encouraged both him and his brother Rhodes Reason to pursue acting careers. Reason's acting journey began when he played the lead in "Seventh Heaven" at Glendale's Hoover High School. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army at 17, serving from 1946 to 1948. After his discharge, he enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse and became involved in little theater. His film career started with a leading role in "Storm Over Tibet" (1952). Reason then signed with Universal-International in 1953, where he appeared in several notable films. He is perhaps best known for his role as Dr. Cal Meacham in the science fiction classic "This Island Earth" (1955). Reason's career also included television work. He starred in two series: the syndicated western "Man Without a Gun" (1957-1959) and the ABC/Warner Bros. drama "The Roaring Twenties" (1960-1962). Known for his tall stature (6'2"), handsome looks, and distinctive baritone voice, Reason left the entertainment industry in the early 1960s to pursue a career in real estate. He was married three times and had two children from his first marriage. Rex Reason passed away on November 19, 2015, in Walnut, California, at the age of 86 due to bladder cancer.

Joshua Bryant

Joshua Bryant is an American actor, director, author, and speaker who is the founder of the Taos Talking Pictures Film Festival in Taos, New Mexico. Bryant was born in Norfolk, Virginia. After attending the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theater Arts and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and serving for three years in the Signal Corps, he began a career in the theater that eventually led to his starring, guest-starring in several television shows. Bryant's movie credits have included acting roles in films and television movies, such as The Curious Female (1970), Black Noon (1971), Enter the Devil (1972), A Scream in the Streets (1973), The Morning After (1974), Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974), Framed (1975), The Night That Panicked America (1975), Maneaters Are Loose! (1978), Salem's Lot (1979), First Monday in October (1981), Gone Are the Dayes (1984), The Education of Allison Tate (1986), and Project Eliminator (1991) He was also active in television, including guest roles on Columbo, Little House on the Prairie, M*A*S*H (three episodes), The Rockford Files (four episodes) and Barnaby Jones (four episodes). For four years, Bryant hosted the syndicated series, Game Warden Wildlife Journal.

Robert Rockwell

Robert Rockwell was an American stage, film, radio and television actor. He is best known for playing the handsome, but awkward biology teacher Philip Boynton in the radio and television sitcom Our Miss Brooks opposite Eve Arden. A native of Lake Bluff, Illinois, Rockwell studied at the Pasadena Playhouse, from which he obtained a master's degree. During World War II he enlisted in the US Navy for four years serving in Washington D.C. Dramatic roles often eluded him, however, after beginning his career as a contract player for Republic Studios he appeared, over his almost 50-year acting career, in more than 350 television episodes and, on stage, opposite José Ferrer in the 1946 Broadway production of Cyrano de Bergerac, and with Ginger Rogers during the 1960s in a San Diego production of Whitfield Cook's play A More Perfect Union. He appeared in the first Superman television show episode as Clark Kent's father, Jor-El in 1952. He appeared in a 1959 Perry Mason episode "The case of the Deadly Toy" as love interest to the defendant Claire Allison as Dick Benedict. He starred in the 1961 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Misguided Missile" as an Air Force officer court-martialled on a murder charge. He later starred in the 1962 Perry Mason episodes "The Case of the Lurid Letter" as Everett Rixby, a high school principal, and the murderer Cole B. Troy in "The Case of the Shapely Shadow". He also appeared as Ed Purvis in the 1965 episode Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Candy Queen". Rockwell starred in his own ABC western-themed television series, The Man from Blackhawk in the 1959-1960 season. Rockwell was cast as the Blackhawk Insurance Company's key investigator, Sam Logan, who is assigned to weed out fraud in the payment of claims. He also played Sam Thompson in Thompson's Ghost, Tom Bennett in The Bill Cosby Show[4]:106 and Officer Russo in Adam-12. In 1967 he played a littering tourist in the Lassie episode "Lassie's Litter Bit", an iconic episode which earned a trip for Lassie to the White House to shake hands with then First Lady "Ladybird" Johnson who had used the famous collie in her Keep America Beautiful Campaign. Rockwell was a founding member of the California Artists Radio Theatre. He played standard leads in a couple of anti-Communist-era features, including Republic's The Red Menace, in which he is cast as a returning veteran of World War II, who is duped by communists. Later in his career, he appeared on episodes of Petticoat Junction, Growing Pains, and Beverly Hills, 90210. His appearances in commercials and voiceovers totaled more than 200, most notably as the armchair grandfather treating his grandson to a piece of candy in the 1995 version of the Werthers Original candy spot.

Herschel Daugherty

Director · Known for Wagon Train

Herschel Daugherty was an American television and film director, as well as an occasional actor, recognized for his extensive work in television from the 1950s through the 1970s. After graduating from Whittier College in 1934, he attended the Pasadena Playhouse School of the Theater, where he later served as an associate director. Daugherty began his career as a dialogue director at Warner Brothers in 1942 before transitioning to television directing. He directed episodes for numerous series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Star Trek, and The Six Million Dollar Man. Daugherty's ability to handle various genres and his collaborative approach with actors made him a respected figure in the industry.