H. M. Wynant
H. M. Wynant (born Chaim Winant; February 12, 1927)[1] is an American film and television actor.
H.M. Wynant | |
|---|---|
| Born | Chaim Winant 12 February 1927 |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1955-present |
Biography
Wynant was born, in Detroit, Michigan. He made his feature film debut as an Indian in Samuel Fuller's Run of the Arrow (1957). In the 1958 Walt Disney film Tonka, Wynant played Yellow Bull, a Sioux Indian, who was the cousin of White Bull, played by Sal Mineo, and is killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, also known as "Custer's Last Stand."
Among his many other film credits are Run Silent, Run Deep (1958), The Slender Thread (1965), Track of Thunder (1967), The Helicopter Spies (1967), Marlowe (1969), Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973), Hangar 18 (1980), Earthbound (1981), and Solar Crisis (1990). He played a villain who fought Elvis Presley in the 1963 film, It Happened at the World's Fair.
Among his many television credits are appearances on shows such as Playhouse 90, Sugarfoot, Hawaiian Eye, Combat!, The Wild Wild West, Perry Mason, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Frontier Circus, Get Smart, Hawaii Five-O, Hogan's Heroes, Bat Masterson in a 1958 episode where he again played a renegade Indian chief, Mission: Impossible, Quincy, and Dallas. Wynant made ten guest appearances on Perry Mason, including three as Deputy District Attorney Sampson during the 1960–1961 season. In his first appearance on the show in 1958 he played defendant Daniel Conway in "The Case of the Daring Decoy." In 1960, he played the killer in "The Case of the Singing Skirt," and in 1963 he played murder victim Tobin Wade in "The Case of the Decadent Dean" -- thus becoming one of only eleven actors to perform all three roles (victim, defendant and killer) in Perry Mason episodes. One of his more memorable appearances was as traveler David Ellington in the Twilight Zone episode "The Howling Man".
Wynant was cast as General Philip Sheridan in the 1961 episode, "The Red Petticoat", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Sheridan's friendship with Indian scout Kahlu (Allen Jaffe) (1928-1989) is questioned after a number of ambushes result in dead troopers. Sheridan sticks to his instincts and defends his ally against the enraged residents of the fort.[2]
He was also cast in other media such as the Twilight Zone radio dramas, in episodes such as "The Trade-ins", "Death's Head revisited" and "Of late, I think of Cliffordville".
In recent years, he has been a member of Larry Blamire's stock company, playing authoritative figures in several of Blamire's features and shorts, such as a Pentagon general in The Lost Skeleton Returns Again and a weird psychiatrist in Dark and Stormy Night.
He returned to the big screen in 2011 in Footprints for which he was nominated as Best Supporting Actor at the Method Fest Independent Film Festival.
References
- "TV-Movie Actor Uses Initials". The Evening Sun. Maryland, Baltimore. North America Newspaper Alliance. April 25, 1957. p. 39. Retrieved July 10, 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
- "The Red Petticoat on Death Valley Days". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
