Whit Bissell


Whitner Nutting Bissell was an American character actor.

Early life

Born in New York City, Bissell was the son of surgeon Dr. J. Dougal Bissell and Helen Nutting Bissell. He was educated at the Allen-Stevenson School and the Dalton School in New York City. He was related to Daniel Bissell, who was awarded the Badge of Military Merit, the predecessor of the Purple Heart, by George Washington.
He trained with the Carolina Playmakers, a theatrical organization associated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he majored in drama and English.

Career

Bissell had a number of roles in Broadway theatre, including the Air Force show Winged Victory, when he was an airman serving in the United States Army Air Forces.
In a film career that began with Holy Matrimony, Bissell appeared in hundreds of films and television episodes as a prominent character actor. Regularly cast in low-budget science fiction and horror films, his roles include a mad scientist in the film I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Professor Frankenstein in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein.
He played the attending psychiatrist who treats the protagonist, Dr. Miles Bennell, played by Kevin McCarthy, in Invasion of the Body Snatchers and appeared in Creature from the Black Lagoon.
Bissell appeared as a guest star in many television drama series between the early 1950s and the mid-1970s, with more sporadic appearances after that. He guest-starred in a couple of episodes of The Lone Ranger. He appeared on other syndicated series, including Sheriff of Cochise, Whirlybirds, Peyton Place and The Brothers Brannagan. He was cast in the religion series Crossroads and Going My Way, and in the NBC education drama series Mr. Novak.
Bissell played murderer Larry Sands on CBS's Perry Mason, along with Max Pompey in "The Case of the Lavender Lipstick", Laurence Barlow in "The Case of the Nautical Knot" and Dennison Groody in "The Case of the Carefree Coronary". He appeared in an episode of Mr. Adams and Eve in 1957 and of Peter Gunn in 1958. He played different roles in multiple episodes of the ABC series The Rifleman, and as Sinclair Bruder in "The Great Guy" on Father Knows Best.
Bissell portrayed the undertaker in the film The Magnificent Seven.
In 1960, Bissell had appeared in George Pal's production of The Time Machine, as Walter Kemp, one of the Time Traveller's dining friends. He also appeared in a 1978 TV movie adapting the H. G. Wells novel for a more modern setting. Bissell's Time Tunnel co-star John Zaremba also appeared in the telemovie. Thirty-three years later, in 1993 the documentary film Time Machine: The Journey Back, Bissell recreated his 1960 role as Walter in the opening sequence. It was Bissell's last acting performance.
From 1959 to 1961, Bissell was a regular for the third and fourth seasons of the television series Bachelor Father, costarring John Forsythe, Noreen Corcoran, and Sammee Tong. He appeared in an episode of Straightaway in 1961. He was cast three times on the NBC Western series The Virginian.
Bissell played General Heywood Kirk in 30 episodes in the 1966–1967 season of the science-fiction television series The Time Tunnel. He often played silver-haired figures of authority, here as in many other roles, "instantly establishing his standard screen characterization of fussy officiousness", leavened in many instances with a military bearing. Other examples of such authoritative roles as military or police officials, include appearances in The Caine Mutiny, The Magnificent Seven, The Manchurian Candidate, Hud, The Outer Limits, Hogan's Heroes, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Soylent Green. Bissell also appeared in the Barnaby Jones episode, "Murder in the Doll's House".
Bissell appeared in the classic episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" of Star Trek, footage of which was re-used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nines "Trials and Tribble-ations".
In 1978 and 1980, Bissell appeared in two episodes of The Incredible Hulk, first in the second-season episode "Kindred Spirits" as Professor Williams, and later as Professor John Zeiderman in the second part of the fourth season two-parter "Prometheus".
Bissell was a guest of honor at New York City's Tele-Fantasy Con 1975 on August 1 - 3, along with celebrities Noel Neill, Jim Danforth and Joseph Stefano, and spent the weekend meeting his fans and signing hundreds of autographs free of charge. He also received a life career award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 1994. He also served for many years on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, and represented the actors' branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors.

Personal life

Bissell was married three times and had three daughters and a stepson, Brian Forster. Forster was the second actor to play the role of Chris Partridge on The Partridge Family TV series.
Wives:
  • Adrienne Marden ; 2 children
  • Dilys Mary Shan Jukes ; 1 child
  • Jennifer Raine

    Death

Bissell died on March 5, 1996 at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

Broadway roles

  • The Star-Wagon as Park
  • The American Way as Karl
  • Two On An Island Frederic Winthorp
  • Cafe Crown as Walter
  • Winged Victory as Lieutenant Jules Hudson

    Selected filmography

  • The Sea Hawk as Gate Guard at Palace Entrance
  • Holy Matrimony as Harry Leek
  • Destination Tokyo as Yo Yo
  • Winged Victory as Lieutenant Hudson
  • The Horn Blows at Midnight as Heavenly Piccolo Player
  • Cluny Brown as Archie, Dowager's Son
  • Somewhere in the Night as John
  • It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog as Chester Frye
  • The Sea of Grass as Ted, the Clerk
  • Brute Force as Tom Lister
  • Night Song as Party Guest
  • A Double Life as Dr. Stauffer
  • The Senator Was Indiscreet as Oakes
  • Another Part of the Forest as Jugger
  • Raw Deal as Murderer
  • Canon City as Richard Heilman
  • That Lady in Ermine as Giulio
  • He Walked by Night as Paul Reeves
  • Chicken Every Sunday as Mr. Robinson / Robby
  • The Crime Doctor's Diary as Pete Bellem
  • Anna Lucasta as Stanley
  • Tokyo Joe as Captain Winnow
  • And Baby Makes Three as Party Guest
  • Side Street as Harold Simpson
  • When Willie Comes Marching Home as Lieutenant M.J. Hanley, Psychiatrist
  • Perfect Strangers as Mr. Lister, Defense Attorney
  • Convicted as States Attorney Owens
  • A Life of Her Own as Rental Agent
  • Wyoming Mail as Sam
  • The Killer That Stalked New York as Sid Bennet
  • The Du Pont Story as Dr. Wallace Carothers
  • For Heaven's Sake as Doctor
  • The Great Missouri Raid as Bob Ford
  • The Red Badge of Courage as Wounded Officer
  • Tales of Robin Hood as Will Stutely
  • Sealed Cargo as Schuster
  • Night into Morning as Monument Salesman
  • Lost Continent as Stanley Briggs
  • The Family Secret as Joe Elsner
  • Red Mountain as Miles
  • Boots Malone as Lou Dyer
  • Hoodlum Empire as Filby, The Pickpocket
  • Skirts Ahoy! as Mr. Yarbrough
  • The Sellout as Wilfred Jackson
  • The Turning Point as Buck
  • Devil's Canyon as Virgil Gates
  • It Should Happen to You as Robert Grau
  • Creature from the Black Lagoon as Dr. Edwin Thompson
  • Riot in Cell Block 11 as Snader
  • The Shanghai Story as Paul Grant
  • The Caine Mutiny as Navy Psychiatrist Lieutenant Commander Dickson
  • Three Hours to Kill as Deke
  • Target Earth as Tom, Chief Research Scientist
  • Masterson of Kansas as Joe the Poker Player winning against Doc Holliday
  • The Atomic Kid as Dr. Edgar Pangborn
  • The Big Combo as Doctor
  • Not as a Stranger as Dr. Dietrich
  • The Naked Street as District Attorney Blaker
  • The Desperate Hours as FBI Agent Carson
  • Trial as Sam Wiltse
  • Shack Out on 101 as Eddie
  • At Gunpoint as Clem Clark
  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers as Dr. Hill
  • The Proud Ones as Mr. Sam Bolton
  • Dakota Incident as Mark Chester
  • Man from Del Rio as Breezy Morgan
  • as General Custer
  • Sneak Preview
  • The Young Stranger as Grubbs, Theater Manager
  • Gunfight at the O.K. Corral as John P. Clum
  • I Was a Teenage Werewolf as Dr. Alfred Brandon
  • Johnny Tremain as Josiah Quincy
  • The Wayward Girl as Ira Molson
  • The Tall Stranger as Adam Judson
  • Mr. Adams and Eve as Manager
  • I Was a Teenage Frankenstein as Professor Frankenstein
  • Have Gun Will Travel as Mr. Jonas, store owner
  • Perry Mason
  • * as Larry Sands
  • * as Max Pompey
  • * as Laurence Barlow
  • * as Dennison Groody
  • Gang War as Mark
  • Colgate Theatre
  • The Defiant Ones as Lou Gans
  • The Black Orchid as Mr. Harmon
  • Monster on the Campus as Dr. Oliver Cole
  • No Name on the Bullet as Pierce
  • Warlock as Petrix
  • Never So Few as Captain Alofson, Psychiatrist
  • The Untouchables as Pat Danning
  • The Time Machine as Walter Kemp
  • The Magnificent Seven as Chamlee the Undertaker
  • The Tom Ewell Show as Harry Burton
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mr. Bliss
  • Birdman of Alcatraz as Dr. Ellis
  • Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man as Ludstrum
  • The Manchurian Candidate as Medical Officer
  • The Virginian
  • * as Burns
  • * as Andrew Cass
  • * as Whit Parsons
  • Spencer's Mountain as Dr. Campbell
  • Hud as Mr. Burris
  • The Alfred Hitchcock Hour as Adam Driscott
  • Seven Days in May as Senator Frederick Prentice
  • Advance to the Rear as Captain Queeg
  • Where Love Has Gone as Professor Bell
  • The Hallelujah Trail as Hobbs
  • Fluffy as Dr. Braden
  • I Dream of Jeannie as Horace Sedgwick
  • The Time Tunnel as Lieutenant General Heywood Kirk
  • A Covenant with Death as Bruce Donnelly
  • The Invaders as Colonel Harris
  • Star Trek: The Original Series as Station Manager Lurry
  • 5 Card Stud as Dr. Cooper
  • Once You Kiss a Stranger as Dr. Haggis
  • Airport as Mr. Davidson
  • Justin Morgan Had a Horse as Mr. Mays
  • The Salzburg Connection as Jim Newhart
  • Pete 'n' Tillie as Minister
  • Soylent Green as Governor Santini
  • Barnaby Jones as Mr. Bantree
  • Cannon as Warden Sheppard
  • Psychic Killer as Dr. Paul Taylor
  • Flood! as Dr. Ted Horne
  • The Lincoln Conspiracy as Senator John Conness
  • The Last of the Mohicans as General Webb
  • Casey's Shadow as Dr. Williamson
  • The Time Machine as Ralph Branly