Trek guest actors in maybe surprising roles

[Neopeius]

Decades is doing a three-day Twilight Zone binge for New Year's. Of particular note: Sunday at 1:00 p.m. EST, it's back-to-back Shat.

Sounds like a job for Pepto-Bismol...

The Have Gun... episode "The Long Hunt" featured Anthony Caruso as a Mexican tracker. They had a lot of Italian Mexicans and Indians back then!

On this week's American Bandstand, they had the cast of Rango including Guy Marks, who played the Indian sidekick. I leaned over to my daughter and said, "More like Guy Marcus, I'll wager." But I looked him up, and his real name was actually "Mario Scarpa".

One or the other...

 

[M'Sharak]

On this week's American Bandstand, they had the cast of Rango including Guy Marks, who played the Indian sidekick. I leaned over to my daughter and said, "More like Guy Marcus, I'll wager." But I looked him up, and his real name was actually "Mario Scarpa".

I remember being vaguely aware at the time that there was a show called Rango, but I don't think I ever saw it.

And Guy Marks sounds like quite a character -- the sort of extremely talented performer whom no industry executive knew quite what to do with, so it figures he'd be a regular on a series starring Tim Conway (which had only a short run, because the audience-at-large was never quite sure what to make of him, either.)

 

[Neopeius]

I remember being vaguely aware at the time that there was a show called Rango, but I don't think I ever saw it.

And Guy Marks sounds like quite a character -- the sort of extremely talented performer whom no industry executive knew quite what to do with, so it figures he'd be a regular on a series starring Tim Conway (which had only a short run, because the audience-at-large was never quite sure what to make of him, either.)

Right?! The sad thing is Tim Conway is actually quite talented, from much the same mold as Don Knotts. He's just best, like Knotts, as a second banana.

And no one saw Rango. Which is why no one remembers it. Recordings don't exist of it anymore either. It's just gone. But they played the theme on Bandstand as a "new hit" (sung by Frankie Laine!) So they were trying to make it something...

 

[M'Sharak]

Right?! The sad thing is Tim Conway is actually quite talented, from much the same mold as Don Knotts. He's just best, like Knotts, as a second banana.

Yeah, in the right niche -- playing klutzy exec officer to Borgnine's McHale or reducing Harvey Korman to a giggling mess every week on Carol Burnett, say -- Conway was weirdly brilliant. But, no matter how many times they tried, the studios never succeeded at fitting him into a leading-character slot.

 

[Christopher]

Yeah, in the right niche -- playing klutzy exec officer to Borgnine's McHale or reducing Harvey Korman to a giggling mess every week on Carol Burnett, say -- Conway was weirdly brilliant. But, no matter how many times they tried, the studios never succeeded at fitting him into a leading-character slot.

So why didn't they build a show around both him and Korman as a duo? Perhaps because Korman wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face long enough to get an episode in the can.

 

[FormerLurker]

In re: Don Knotts and Tim Conway;

It took the two of them combined to be the lead, at least at Disney. The Apple Dumpling Gang, for instance. I think The Reluctant Astronaut is the only time Disney put either of them as a solo lead.

 

[Neopeius]

So why didn't they build a show around both him and Korman as a duo? Perhaps because Korman wouldn't have been able to keep a straight face long enough to get an episode in the can.

They did -- 1980's Tim Conway Show brought Korman halfway through as a hail mary to save it. Didn't work.

In re: Don Knotts and Tim Conway;

It took the two of them combined to be the lead, at least at Disney. The Apple Dumpling Gang, for instance. I think The Reluctant Astronaut is the only time Disney put either of them as a solo lead.

Knotts got to be the lead in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (which I believe he left The Andy Griffith Show for) but yeah, his star faded fast.

I still remember the ads for it on KTLA:

Knotts: "Go, go where?"
Lady fish: "Why, to the spawning grounds!"

 

[The Old Mixer]

Look who I found playing opposite the just-departed Sidney Poitier in his history-making Oscar-winning role:

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[Forbin]

Malachi Throne, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, "The Retrurn of Blackbeard." Oy vey

 

[M'Sharak]

Malachi Throne, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, "The Retrurn of Blackbeard." Oy vey

There must have been something in the air that year.

Disney had Blackbeard's Ghost (based on a 1965 novel) released less than two months after that ep aired, and Blackbeard would also appear mid-1968 in an episode of Doctor Who.

 

[FormerLurker]

Knotts got to be the lead in The Incredible Mr. Limpet (which I believe he left The Andy Griffith Show for) but yeah, his star faded fast.

I still remember the ads for it on KTLA:

Knotts: "Go, go where?"
Lady fish: "Why, to the spawning grounds!"

Mr. Limpet was not a Disney film. It was made by Warner Brothers animation. They must have had a higher estimation of Don Knotts' drawing power.

 

[The Old Mixer]

I've never watched it myself, but thought it might be of interest that this coming week is the 50th anniversary of the Night Stalker TV movie that launched the series. Among the cast of the movie are Elisha Cook, Stanley Adams, and Barry Atwater.

 

[Forbin]

Sarah Marshall is the mother of a "Little Girl Lost" in that classic Twilight Zone episode.

And how the heck was Charles Aidman never on Star Trek?? He was in EVERYTHING back then!

 

[Forbin]

They did -- 1980's Tim Conway Show brought Korman halfway through as a hail mary to save it. Didn't work.

Conway co-starred with Joe Flynn in that show! I only remember it because they had an airplane (Beech 18, IIRC), and I'm a plane nut.

 

[Roundabout]

Another S2 Gunsmoke, Barry Atwater in "How To Kill A Woman." His face really changed in the '60s.

If you think Barry Atwater's face really changed in the '60s, get a load of his face in the early '70s.

Barry Atwater,The Night Stalker.

 

[Roundabout]

Barry Atwater wasn't the only guest actor who became a bloodsucker post TOS, though.

Blacula, portrayed by none other than William Marshall.


One other thing that Blacula had in common with The Night Stalker is that Elisha Cook had a bit role in both movies.

It seems like Elisha Cook has always looked like a craggy old man.

 

[Christopher]

It seems like Elisha Cook has always looked like a craggy old man.

Not really. In the '40s, he looked rather boyish:

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176879/mediaviewer/rm1682851840/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0176879/mediaviewer/rm2357045505/

 

[M'Sharak]

It seems like Elisha Cook has always looked like a craggy old man.

For a long time, but not quite always. He did, however, seem frequently to play characters who would not survive until the end of the story.

And I'm not so sure Barry Atwater's face really changed all that much. As was pointed out earlier in the thread, it was more that he was one of those actors who had a way of disappearing into a role. Without anything special in the way of makeup or prosthetics, he would so thoroughly become whatever character he was playing that you often wouldn't realize who it was you'd been watching until you saw his name in the credits.

 

[FormerLurker]

Re; Elisha Cook;

There are actors that were never young, but he wasn't one of them.

 

[MAGolding]

Sounds like a job for Pepto-Bismol...



On this week's American Bandstand, they had the cast of Rango including Guy Marks, who played the Indian sidekick. I leaned over to my daughter and said, "More like Guy Marcus, I'll wager." But I looked him up, and his real name was actually "Mario Scarpa".

One or the other...

Right?! The sad thing is Tim Conway is actually quite talented, from much the same mold as Don Knotts. He's just best, like Knotts, as a second banana.

And no one saw Rango. Which is why no one remembers it. Recordings don't exist of it anymore either. It's just gone. But they played the theme on Bandstand as a "new hit" (sung by Frankie Laine!) So they were trying to make it something...

Actually I saw some Rango episodes, and remember that Guy Marks's Indian character was named Pink Cloud, which I later learned was a pun on Red Cloud.