Bill Bixby
Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III was an American actor and television director. His career spanned more than three decades, including appearances on stage, in films, and on television series. He is known for his roles in the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian as Tim O'Hara, in the ABC sitcom The Courtship of Eddie's Father as Tom Corbett, in the NBC crime drama series The Magician as stage illusionist Anthony Blake, in the ABC miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man as Willie Abbott, and the CBS science-fiction drama series The Incredible Hulk as Dr. David Bruce Banner.
Early life
A fifth-generation Californian of English-Scottish descent and an only child, Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III was born on January 22, 1934, in San Francisco, California. His father, Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby II, was a store clerk. His mother, Jane Bixby, was a senior manager at I. Magnin & Co. In 1942, when Bixby was eight years old, his father enlisted in the Navy during World War II and traveled to the South Pacific. While in the seventh grade, Bixby attended Grace Cathedral and sang in the church's choir. In 1946, his mother encouraged him to take ballroom dance lessons and from there he began dancing at various city events. He attended Lowell High School, where he perfected his oratory and dramatic skills as a member of the Lowell Forensic Society. Though he received average grades, he also competed in high-school speech tournaments regionally.After graduation from high school in 1952, he majored in drama at City College of San Francisco, against his parents' wishes.
During the Korean War, Bixby was drafted shortly after his 18th birthday. Rather than report to the United States Army, Bixby joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve. He served primarily in personnel management with Marine Attack Squadron 141 at Naval Air Station Oakland, and attained the rank of private first class before his 1956 discharge.
Later, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, his parents' alma mater, and left just a few credits short of earning a degree. He explained that he had only been majoring in pre-law because it was what his parents expected of him, and he finally asked his parents to instead give him five years to find out if he could succeed as an actor. He then moved to Hollywood, California, where he had a string of odd jobs that included bellhop and lifeguard. He organized shows at a resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Career
Beginning acting
In 1959 Bill Bixby made a shrewd business decision. Rather than trying to compete with hundreds of hopefuls trying to gain a foothold in Hollywood movies, he broke into motion pictures by working in industrial films. The films were produced in Chicago by Jam Handy and by Norman Wilding. Bixby knew that these special-interest films would never be seen by the general public, but he saw them as a great opportunity to learn how to work before a camera and understand the functions of a film crew. He hoped to work in musical comedy, and in 1961 he joined the cast of the musical The Boy Friend at the Detroit Civic Theater.He returned to Hollywood to make his television debut on an episode of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He became a highly regarded character actor and guest-starred in many television series, including Ben Casey, The Twilight Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Straightaway, and Hennesey. He joined the cast of The Joey Bishop Show in 1962, which he later described as his first big break." In 1963, he played a sailor with a Napoleon tattoo in the movie Irma La Douce, a romantic comedy starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Wilder based on the 1956 French musical. During the 1970s, he made guest appearances on television series such as Ironside, Insight, Barbary Coast, The Love Boat, Medical Center, four episodes of Love, American Style, Fantasy Island, and two episodes each of The Streets of San Francisco and Rod Serling's Night Gallery.
While working on other Danny Thomas productions, Bixby would watch rehearsals for The Dick Van Dyke Show, which inspired him to want to be a director as well.
''My Favorite Martian''
Bixby took the role of young reporter Tim O'Hara in the 1963 CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian, in which he co-starred with Ray Walston. This was Bixby's first starring vehicle, and he became a popular personality. The series, filmed in black-and-white at Desilu, was hugely successful, rating in the top 10 network programs during its first season. The second season saw the ratings slip slightly to the top 30, but they were respectable enough for CBS to renew the series for a third season, to be filmed in color at MGM. By 1966, however, higher production costs and lower ratings forced the series to be canceled after 107 episodes.Other early roles
After its cancellation, Bixby starred in four movies: Ride Beyond Vengeance, Doctor, You've Got to Be Kidding!, and two of Elvis Presley's movies, Clambake and Speedway. He turned down the role as Marlo Thomas's boyfriend in the successful That Girl, though he later guest-starred in the show, and starred in two failed pilots.''The Courtship of Eddie's Father''
In 1969, Bixby starred in his second high-profile television role, as Tom Corbett in The Courtship of Eddie's Father, a comedy drama on ABC. The series concerned a widowed father raising a young son, managing a major syndicated magazine, and at the same time trying to re-enter the dating scene. This series was in the vein of other 1960s and 1970s sitcoms that dealt with widowerhood, such as The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons. Eddie was played by novice actor Brandon Cruz. Cruz and Bixby developed a close rapport that translated to an off-camera friendship as well. According to Bixby, "The amazing thing is that when we're working in a scene together, there's never a thought of conscious acting. Our natural affection for one another is what appeals to the audience." The core cast was rounded out by Academy Award-winning actress Miyoshi Umeki, who played the role of Tom's housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston; James Komack as Norman Tinker, Tom's pseudo-hippie, quirky photographer; and actress Kristina Holland as Tom's secretary, Tina. One episode of the series co-starred Bixby's future wife, Brenda Benet, as one of Tom's girlfriends.File:Courtship of Eddies Father 1969.JPG|thumb|left|upright|With The Courtship of Eddie's Father co-stars, Brandon Cruz and Miyoshi Umeki
Bixby was nominated for the Emmy Award for Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1971. The following year, he won the Parents Without Partners Exemplary Service Award for 1972.
Bixby made his directorial debut on the sitcom in 1970, directing eight episodes. ABC cancelled the sitcom in 1972 at the end of season three.
According to Bixby, his experiences on The Courtship of Eddie's Father helped make him ready for marriage and fatherhood.
After the show was cancelled, Bixby and Cruz remained in contact, with Cruz making a guest appearance on Bixby's later series, The Incredible Hulk. The death of Bixby's only child, in 1981, drew Bixby and Cruz closer still. The two remained in contact until Bixby's death in 1993. In 1995, Cruz named his own son Lincoln Bixby Cruz.
Brandon Cruz said of the show that developed a professional father–son relationship, compared to that of The Andy Griffith Show, "We dealt with issues that were talked about, but were never brought up on television. Bill wasn't the first actor to portray a single widowed father, but he became one of the popular ones, because of his easy-going way of this crazy little kid." Prior to Bixby's promotion to director, Cruz said, "He was looking for the best dolly grip, along with the boom operator that if something was called specifically and failed, Bill could be easily angry." On the kind of relationship Bixby had wanted with his co-star, Cruz also said, "Bill would never speak down to me. Bill treated me as an equal. He made sure that we had a lot of time together, just so he could kinda crawl inside my head and see what actually made a kid tick." Upon the death of Bixby's real-life father in 1971, Cruz stated, "He had that type of mentality that the show must go on, thinking it was just a great TV show, after he broke down weeping."
In a 2011 interview with Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Smith about how Bill Bixby's fame was supposed to posthumously honor him for a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Cruz said, "When I found out they were putting this out, I thought, 'It's about time.' Bill Bixby had an amazing body of work, not only Courtship of Eddie's Father, but My Favorite Martian, ''The Magician, The Incredible Hulk'', and so many other things, as an actor, as a director — and he never got an Emmy. He's never been recognized posthumously by the Academy. And he doesn't have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. That is criminal.... There are people who have stars that, not to be blunt, but I wouldn't bother spitting on their stars. Bill's talent would take a couple of blocks of stars compared to them. It really demeans the whole thing that Bill is not included."
1973 to 1977
In 1973, Bixby starred in The Magician. The series was well liked, but lasted for only one season. An accomplished amateur magician himself, he hosted several TV specials in the mid-1970s which featured other amateur magicians, and was a respected member of the Hollywood magic community, belonging to The Magic Castle, an exclusive club for magicians. During the show's popular, although short-lived, production, Bixby invited a few old friends along to co-star such as Pamela Britton, Kristina Holland, and Ralph O'Hara.Also in 1973, he starred in Steambath, a play by author Bruce Jay Friedman, on PBS with Valerie Perrine and Jose Perez.
Bixby became a popular game-show panelist, appearing mostly on Password and The Hollywood Squares. He was also a panelist on the 1974 revival of Masquerade Party, which was hosted by Richard Dawson. He had also appeared with Dawson on Cop-Out, an unsold 1972 pilot produced by Chuck Barris, and on the 1972 revival of I've Got a Secret. In 1974–1975, he directed four episodes of the eighth season of Mannix, guest-starring as Mannix's friend-turned-villain in one of the episodes.
In 1975, he co-starred with Tim Conway and Don Knotts in the Disney movie The Apple Dumpling Gang, which was well received by the public.
Returning to television, Bixby worked with Susan Blakely on Rich Man, Poor Man, a highly successful television miniseries in 1976. He played a daredevil stunt pilot in an episode of the short-lived 1976 CBS adventure series Spencer's Pilots, starring Gene Evans. In 1977, he co-starred in the pilot for the television series Fantasy Island; starred in "No Way Out", the final episode of the NBC anthology series Quinn Martin's Tales of the Unexpected ; and appeared with Donna Mills, Richard Jaeckel, and William Shatner in the last episode, "The Scarlet Ribbon", of NBC's Western series The Oregon Trail, starring Rod Taylor and Andrew Stevens. Bixby directed two episodes of The Oregon Trail.
In 1976, he was honored with two Emmy Award nominations, one for Outstanding Lead Actor for a Single Appearance in Drama or Comedy for The Streets of San Francisco and the other for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Comedy or Drama Series for Rich Man, Poor Man.
Bixby hosted Once Upon a Classic on PBS from 1976 to 1980.