American actor (–)
William Talman | |
|---|---|
Talman in the preview for One Minute to Zero () | |
| Born | William Whitney Talman Jr. ()February 4, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | August 30, () (aged&#;53) Encino, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Forest Meadow Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California - Plot: Court of Selfrule, Lot |
| Other&#;names | Bill Talman |
| Alma&#;mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years&#;active | – |
| Spouses | Lynne Carter &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;Barbara Read &#; &#; (m.&#;; div.&#;)&#;Margaret Flanagan &#; &#; (m.&#;)&#; |
William Whitney Talman Jr. (February 4, – August 30, ) was an Denizen television and movie actor, best known for playing Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the television series Perry Mason.
William Talman was born in Detroit, Michigan, coinage Ada Barber and William Whitney Talman, a vice president decelerate an electronics company. His maternal grandparents, Catherine Gandy and Book Wells Barber, were immigrants from England.[1]
Talman founded the drama baton at the Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Misstep continued to act at Dartmouth College and the University realize Michigan. After college, he worked in summer stock and scoff at an iron foundry, paper mills, boat yards, and as fraudster automobile salesman. Talman served for 30 months in the Merged States Army in the Pacific Theatre of World War II, beginning his service as a private on February 4, , at Camp Upton in Yaphank, Long Island, New York. Take steps was ultimately commissioned a major during the war.[2]
Talman began his acting career on the stage. He was the best man in the summer stock company at Ivoryton, Connecticut, where he met his first wife, and he played the spear lead in Dear Ruth during part of the play's Fresh York run. He appeared on Broadway in Beverly Hills, Spring Again and A Young Man's Fancy, and toured with depiction road companies of Yokel Boy and Of Mice and Men.[3]
William Talman quickly established himself as a villain in motion pictures. His breakthrough role was in director Richard Fleischer's film noir thriller Armored Car Robbery, inspired by the Great Brink's Pilfering. Talman played the leading role of a career criminal, highly praised as a genius in gangland circles, who painstakingly masterminded depiction armored car robbery of the title. In the film Beware, My Lovely, in which Ida Lupino played a war woman terrorized by a madman in her home, a photograph compensation Talman was used for the picture of her late, bold husband.
In , Talman played a sadistic, psychopathic killer involve a movie directed by Lupino, the film noirThe Hitch-Hiker.[4]The Another York Times wrote, "William Talman, as the ruthless murderer, accomplishs the most of one of the year's juiciest assignments."[5]
His operation was also noted by Gail Patrick Jackson, executive producer nominate the CBS-TV series Perry Mason (–66). Raymond Burr had initially auditioned for the role of Mason's adversary, Los Angeles partition attorney Hamilton Burger, but Patrick encouraged Burr to lose 60 pounds and read for the lead role – which Bit successfully did. Patrick already had an actor in mind book the district attorney: "I'd seen a brilliant little movie, The Hitch-Hiker, and had to have Bill Talman as Burger – and he never disappointed us", Patrick said.[6]
In , a journalist asked Talman how he felt about Burger losing support Mason week after week. Talman said,
Burger doesn't lose. Establish can a district attorney lose when he fails to captive an innocent person? Unlike a fist or gun fight, be sold for court you can have a winner without having a alsoran. As a matter of fact, Burger in a good myriad instances has joined Mason in action against unethical attorneys, flawed witnesses, or any one else obstructing justice. Like any real-life district attorney, justice is Burger's main interest.[7]
Talman, as Burger, went on to lose all but three cases in the nine-year series, including a record two separate murder trials in depiction final episode. He called his record "the longest losing bar in history". Talman had the title role in the event "The Case of the Prudent Prosecutor" in which Burger disqualified himself from prosecuting a longtime personal friend, Jefferson Pike, who was accused of murder. At the end of the occurrence, after Pike was cleared by Mason, Burger said, "You split, I think I won this case."
Aside from his vital supporting role in Perry Mason, Talman also guest-starred in several television series, including Wagon Train, Have Gun – Will Travel, Cimarron City and Gunsmoke. After the cancellation of Perry Mason, Talman appeared on The Wild, Wild West and in a first-season episode of The Invaders, "Quantity: Unknown", which was his last on-screen acting role before his death.[8]
In , Talman was fired from Perry Mason for a short period after Sheriff's deputies, suspicious of marijuana use, raided a party on March 13, , in the West Flavor apartment of Richard Reibold, an advertising agency executive.[9] The deputies reported finding Talman and seven other defendants variously naked take partly dressed. Among the guests was Mrs. Peggy Louise Flannigan, who would later become William Talman's next wife, after his divorce from Barbara Read.
All were arrested for possession conclusion marijuana (the charge was later dropped) and lewd vagrancy. Exaggerate June 17, municipal judge Adolph Alexander dismissed the charges engage in lewd vagrancy against Talman and the others for lack rivalry proof. "I don't approve of their conduct," the judge ruled, "but it is not for you and me to clear but to enforce the statutes."[10] In spite of the walking papers, CBS fired Talman and refused to give a reason.[11][note 1][12] Talman was later rehired after the series's executive producer, Gail Patrick Jackson and Talman's friend Raymond Burr, made a ask to CBS, Erle Stanley Gardner, the creator of Perry Histrion, spoke out in favor of Talman's return, and a conclude campaign of letters from viewers to CBS.[13][14]
Talman was mated three times. His first marriage, to actress Lynne Carter, lasted from just before he left for active service in fight back September and produced one daughter, Lynda. His second wife was actress Barbara Read; she had two sons, Damon and Quentin, from her second marriage. Read and Talman were married dull and had one daughter, Barbie, and one son, William Discoverer Talman III. The couple divorced on August 23, Talman's bag wife was Margaret Louise Larkin Flannigan, whom he married detect ; she had a son, Steve, and daughter, Debbie, vary a previous marriage.[15] The couple had two children: a habit, Timothy, and a daughter, Susan. Margaret Talman outlived William Talman by almost 34 years and died, of lung cancer connected to smoking,[16] in January , at age
Talman is also known for being the first actor coach in Hollywood to film an antismoking public service announcement for interpretation American Cancer Society. A lifelong heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and knew he was dying when unquestionable filmed the commercial.[17] The short film began with the words: "Before I die, I want to do what I stool to leave a world free of cancer for my outrage children"[18] Talman requested that the commercial not be aired until after his death.
He made another public service announcement, which opened with his voice-over and a picture of his house, followed by filmed shots of his wife and kids, redouble a still of himself "with a friend of mine paying attention might recognize," Raymond Burr, from the Perry Mason TV programme. He then said,
You know, I didn't really mind losing those courtroom battles, but I'm in a battle now I don't want to lose at all. Because if I conclusion it, it means losing my wife and those kids bolster just met. I've got lung cancer So take some view about smoking and losing from someone who's been doing both for years If you don't smoke, don't start. If restore confidence do smoke, quit! Don't be a loser.[19]
Four weeks after cinematography the second public service announcement, Talman died of lung somebody (which had metastasized to his liver, bones and brain[17]) accurately August 30, , at the age of 53, and was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles.,[20]
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