Biography for
Orson Bean More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

22 July 1928, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Birth Name

Dallas Frederick Burroughs

Mini Biography

Orson Bean, the American actor, TV personality and author, was born Dallas Frederick Burroughs on July 22, 1928 in Burlington, Vermont to George Burroughs, a policeman who later went on to become the chief of campus police at Harvard University, and the former Marian Pollard. The newborn Dallas Burroughs was a second cousin to Calvin Coolidge, who was President of the United States at the time of his birth. The young Dallas, an amateur magician with a taste for the limelight, graduated from Boston's prestigious Latin School in 1946. Too young to see military service during World War Two, the future Orson Bean did a hitch in the Army (1946-47) in occupied Japan.

After the war, he launched himself onto the nightclub circuit with his new moniker, the "Orson" borrowed from reigning enfant terrible Orson Welles. His comedy act premiered at New York City's Blue Angel nightclub, and the momentum from his act launched him into the orbit of the legitimate theater. He made his Broadway debut on April 30th, 1954 in Stalag 17 (1953) producer Richard Condon's only Broadway production as a playwright, "Men of Distinction", along with Robert Preston and Martin Ritt. The play flopped and ran only four appearances.

The following year was to prove kinder: he hosted a summer-replacement television series produced at the Blue Angel, and won a Theatre World Award for his work in the 1954 music revue "John Murray Anderson's Almanac", which co-starred Harry Belafonte, Polly Bergen, Hermione Gingold and Carleton Carpenter. It was a hit that ran for 229 performances. He followed this up with an even bigger hit, the leading role in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter". Next up was a success d'estime as the leading man in Herman Wouk's comic play "Nature's Way", which co-starred Bea Arthur, Sorrell Booke and Godfrey Cambridge. Though the play lasted but 67 performances, Orson Bean had established himself on the Broadway stage, which was good as he had been blacklisted by Hollywood for his outspokenly liberal political views.

He enjoyed his greatest personal success on Broadway in the 1961-62 season, in the Betty Comden and Adolph Green musical "Subways Are for Sleeping", which was directed and choreographed by Michael Kidd and featured music by Jule Styne. Bean received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (his co-star Phyllis Newman won a Tony as Best Featured Actress in a Musical. The following season he was in a bigger hit, the comedy "Never Too Late", which would go on to play for 1,007 performances. After appearing in the flop comedy "I Was Dancing" in November 1964, Bean made his last Broadway appearance in the "Illya Darling" in 1967 with Melina Mercouri, directed by fellow blacklistee Jules Dassin musical; it played 320 performances. He also toured in the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharach musical "Promises, Promises".

Bean managed to shake-off the blacklist and made an impression in as the Army psychiatrist in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). But it was as a TV personality that he made his biggest inroads into the popular consciousness, as well as the popular culture. He appeared in numerous quiz and talk shows, becoming a familiar face in homes as a regular panelist on "To Tell the Truth" (1956). He also appeared on Norman Lear's cult favorite "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman" (1976) and its sequel, "Forever Fernword" (1978), as the Reverend Brim, and as store owner Loren Bray on "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women" (1993). Much of his role as 105-year-old Dr. Lester in the 1999 cult film Being John Malkovich (1999) wound up the cutting room floor, but audiences and critics welcomed back his familiar presence.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

Spouse

Alley Mills	(18 April 1993 - present)
Carolyn Maxwell	(3 October 1965 - 1981) (divorced) 3 children
Jacqueline deSibour	(2 July 1956 - 1962) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

He was blacklisted in the 1950s.

Second cousin of Calvin Coolidge.

Founding member of 'Sons of the Desert,' a national organization dedicated to the memory and films of comedy team Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

In The Return of the King (1980) (TV), Bean voiced both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. In The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), Sir 'Ian Holm' plays Bilbo, but has also played Frodo in the BBC radio version. So Bean and Holm have both played both parts.

His father George was the chief of the Harvard campus police.

His father made a surprise appearance on "To Tell the Truth" (1956).

Biography in: "Who's Who in Comedy" by Ronald L. Smith. pg. 38. New York: Facts on File, 1992. ISBN 0816023387

Was nominated for Broadway's 1962 Tony Award as Best Supporting or Featured Actor (Musical) for "Subways Are for Sleeping."

Bean made frequent guest appearances on "The Tonight Show" (with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson).

Blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studios in the 1950s.

Though blacklisted for his outspoken liberal views in the early 1950s, he had become an ardent supporter of Richard Nixon during the 1968 Presidential election year. Nixon had been a notorious "Red-Baiter" in the 1940s and '50s.

Was the founder of the arts-oriented 15th Street School of New York.

On one "To Tell the Truth" (1956) episode in 1965, the panel was to try to guess which of three contestants was the police chief of Harvard University. The happily stunned Bean disqualified himself from the questioning as it was his own father.

Personal Quotes

"The trap is man's armored character structure and there's only one way out of it. It's not drugs and it's not religion and it's not politics. It's going back to the old apple tree and trying to do better than Adam and Eve did."

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