Jack Orrison

Jack Orrison (October 12, 1909 – November 21, 1988) was an actor who worked in radio, television and films. He is best known for his roles in The Plainclothesman[1] and I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Orrison was born in Victor, Colorado, but moved to New York City to become a radio actor. A 1942 Billboard article stated that he was one of the American Federation of Radio Artists members who had entered military service.[2]

Jack Orrison
BornOctober 12, 1909
Victor, Colorado
DiedNovember 21, 1988(1988-11-21) (aged 79)
Los Angeles, California

Acting career

Orrison's post-war acting work included an episode of the 1948 radio series Call the Police.[3]

From 1949 to 1954 Orrison played Sergeant Brady in The Plainclothesman on the DuMont Television Network. This was a police procedural drama, seen through the eyes of an unnamed lieutenant. With exception to one flashback segment, the lieutenant was never seen, leaving Orrison's Sergeant Brady as the only character viewers saw each week.[4]

From 1949 to 1951 he appeared on six episodes of DuMont's Captain Video and His Video Rangers as Commissioner of Public Safety Bell.[5]

Orrison continued to work in radio, and from 1955 to 1957 he was heard on six episodes of X Minus One.[6] He was on episodes of John Steele, Adventurer (1949) and Gang Busters (1955).

Film roles include Detective in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Haskins in Wolf Larsen (1958),[7] Officer Schultz in I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958),[8] Osborne in Never Steal Anything Small (1959), Police Clerk in Al Capone (1959),[9] Editor in The Second Time Around (1961), Dr. Creston in Wild in the Country (1961),[10] and Bartender in Move Over, Darling (1963).[11]

Orrison played William Vedder in the 1959 Hawaiian Eye episode Cloud Over Koala;[12] Shopkeeper in the 1961 Gunsmoke episode The Squaw;[13] Warren Bullard in the unsold TV pilot Down Home, shown in 1965 on the CBS summer series Vacation Playhouse;[14] and Mr. Butcher in the 1967 The Wild Wild West episode The Night of the Bogus Bandits.

Death

Orrison died on November 21, 1988 in Los Angeles, California. He was 79 years old.

References
  1. Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 – Present (Seventh Edition), Ballantine Books, 1999, pages 809 and 810
  2. Radio Actors; Amateurs Flock to Nets for Jobs; See No Shortage, Billboard, April 4, 1942 New York
  3. Billboard, June 12, 1948, page 12
  4. David Weinsten, The Forgotten Network DuMont and the Birth of American Television, Temple University Press, 2004, pages138 to 146.
  5. http://ctva.biz/US/SciFi/CaptainVideo.htm
  6. Martin Grams, Radio Drama: A Comprehensive Chronicle of American Network Programs, 1932 - 1962, page 526, McFarland, 2000
  7. Thomas S. Hischak, American Literature on Stage and Screen, page 209, McFarland, 2014
  8. R. G. Young, The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies, page 301, Applause, 2000
  9. Alan Gevinson, Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911 - 1960, page 57, University of California Press, 1997
  10. James L. Neibaur The Elvis Movies, page 71, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014
  11. John Howard Reid, Cinemascope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge, page 170, Lulu, 2006
  12. Gianakos, Larry, Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1959-1975, Volume 2, page 255, Scarecrow Press, 1978
  13. Lentz, Harris M., Television Westerns Episode Guide: All United States Series, 1949 - 1996, page 174, McFarland & Company, 1997
  14. Vincent Terrace, Encyclopedia of Television Pilots: 2,470 Films Broadcast 1937-2019, page 665, McFarland, 2019
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