Tod Andrews


Tod Andrews was an American stage, screen, and television actor.

Early years

Tod Andrews was born as Theodore Edwin Anderson in El Paso, Texas, to Henry and Lydia Anderson, who wed in Pima, Arizona, on November 18, 1913.
Tod and his sister, Gertrude Anderson Pierucci, were raised in southern California; both suffered untimely deaths, predeceasing their mother, Lydia. Andrews graduated from Los Angeles High School and Washington State College.

Career

Stage

Andrews began his career as Michael Ames at the Pasadena Playhouse and moved to New York City to appear onstage. Andrews acted with the Margo Jones Company in New York City from 1944 to 1948, when he was spotted by Joshua Logan. When Henry Fonda left the title role in Mister Roberts, Logan gave Andrews the part in the road production.
On Broadway, Andrews played in Summer and Smoke and A Girl Can Tell. Billed as Michael Ames, he was in Quiet, Please!, My Sister Eileen, Storm Operation, Mrs. Kimball Presents, Public Relations, and That Old Devil.

Film

He returned to films in 1965, appearing as Captain Tuthill in Otto Preminger's World War II action blockbuster In Harm's Way. In 1968, Andrews appeared on film in Ted Post's Hang 'Em High as a defense attorney. Two years later, he worked again with Post in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as James Franciscus's dying commanding officer, Colonel 'Skipper' Maddox. His final screen appearance was as a doctor in 1973's The Baby, also directed by Post.

Television

Andrews' television performances included a starring role from 1957 to 1958 in the syndicated series of the American Civil War, The Gray Ghost, based on the heroic Confederate Colonel John Singleton Mosby. In 1959, he starred in the 13-episode Counterthrust, a syndicated series "in which he played a secret agent in the Far East battling Communism". Andrews made a screen test for the Perry Mason 1950s TV series playing Perry Mason opposite Raymond Burr as Hamilton Burger. This and other screen tests for that show were released on the Perry Mason 50th Anniversary 3-DVD set from 2008.
Andrews was cast as Captain Lynn Parker in the 1960 episode, "Yankee Confederate," on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Parker is assigned by General Ulysses Grant to infiltrate a Confederate spy ring masterminded by Belle Waverly. He was cast in two episodes of the CBS sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show and in the 1962 series finale, "The Hoax," of the ABC adventure series, Straightaway, starring Brian Kelly and John Ashley. In 1962, he portrayed the part of Holt in the episode "The Devil and the Deep Blue" on CBS's Rawhide. In 1964, he appeared in "The Bewitchin' Pool", the last original broadcast episode of The Twilight Zone. In 1973, Andrews played U.S. President in the made-for-TV political thriller, The President's Plane is Missing.

Recognition

Andrews won a Theatre World Award in 1949 for his work in Summer and Smoke.

Personal life

Andrews was married three times, to Gloria Eleanor Folland, Alice Kirby Hooker, and Karolyn Rainwater. The first two marriages ended in divorce, and he was married to Rainwater when he died.

Suicide attempt

In early August 1961 Tod Andrews was hospitalized following a suicide attempt. According to an AP article published August 6, 1961, Andrews was hospitalized at Lenox Hill Hospital after an overdose of sleeping pills. It was reported that he had phoned a friend to say he was going to kill himself and was subsequently found slumped in a chair in the apartment of a female friend. He was hospitalized on a Saturday in critical condition but taken off the critical list later the same day. On August 15, 1961, an article by Dorothy Kilgallen in Voice of Broadway noted that friends of Andrews were "still mystified about his headlined suicide attempt” as only hours earlier he had apparently been "having a cheerful time at Danny's Hideaway" talking about the "great year he had coming up on Broadway and in TV and announced his engagement to Valerie Veigal".

Death

Andrews died of a heart attack on November 7, 1972, in Los Angeles, two days before his 58th birthday. He was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.

Filmography

Film

  • Dive Bomber as Telephone Man
  • International Squadron as Michele Edmé
  • They Died with Their Boots On as Cadet Brown
  • The Body Disappears as Bill
  • Dangerously They Live as Dr. Craig
  • Captains of the Clouds as Student Pilot
  • Bullet Scars as Joe Madison
  • The Male Animal as Student
  • I Was Framed as Ken Marshall
  • Murder in the Big House as Dapper Dan Malloy
  • Spy Ship as Gordon Morrel
  • Now, Voyager as Dr. Dan Regan
  • Truck Busters as Dave Todd
  • Action in the North Atlantic as Ahearn
  • Heaven Can Wait as Jack Van Cleve
  • Voodoo Man as Ralph Dawson
  • Return of the Ape Man as Steve Rogers
  • The Last Ride as Fritz Hummel
  • Outrage as Rev. Bruce Ferguson
  • Between Heaven and Hell as Lt. Ray Mosby
  • From Hell It Came as Dr. William Arnold
  • In Harm's Way as Captain Tuthill
  • Hang 'Em High as Defense Attorney
  • Beneath the Planet of the Apes as Skipper
  • The Baby as Doctor
  • ''The President's Plane Is Missing''

    Television

  • The Gray Ghost as Maj. John Mosby/The Gray Ghost
  • One Step Beyond as Lt. Cmdr. Stacey
  • Checkmate as George Harris/Dr. James Low
  • Death Valley Days as Captain Lynn Parker/William C. Ralston
  • 77 Sunset Strip as Jim Breck
  • Gunsmoke as Myles Cody
  • Frontier Circus as Jeff Andrews
  • The Andy Griffith Show as Ralph Case/Mr. Franklin
  • Rawhide as Holt
  • The Twilight Zone as Gil Sharewood
  • The F.B.I. as Ed Franklin
  • Bright Promise as Dean Henry Pierce #1
  • The Bold Ones: The Lawyers as Ted Hollister
  • Ironside as Man
  • Ghost Story as Andrew Burgess
  • Banacek as Graves