# Tom Ewell

Tom Ewell (born Samuel Yewell Tompkins, April 29, 1909 – September 12, 1994) was an American film, stage and television actor, and producer. His most successful and most identifiable role was that of Richard Sherman in The Seven Year Itch, a character he played in the Broadway production (1952–1954) and reprised for the 1955 film adaptation. He received a Tony Award for his work in the play and a Golden Globe Award for his performance in the film. Although Ewell preferred acting on stage, he accepted several other screen roles in light comedies of the 1950s, most notably The Girl Can't Help It (1956). He appeared in the film version of the musical State Fair (1962) and in a small number of additional ones released between the early 1960s and 1980s.

## Early life

Ewell was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, the son of Martine (née Yewell) and Samuel William Tompkins. His family expected him to follow in their footsteps as lawyers or whiskey and tobacco dealers, but Ewell decided to pursue acting instead. He began acting in summer stock in 1928 with Don Ameche before moving to New York City in 1931. He enrolled in the Actors Studio.

## Career

He made his Broadway debut in 1934 and his film debut in 1940, and for several years, he played comic supporting roles. His acting career was interrupted during World War II when he served in the United States Navy.
After World War II, Ewell attracted attention with a strong performance in the film Adam's Rib (1949), and he began to receive Hollywood roles more frequently. Ewell continued acting in summer stock through the 1940s: He starred opposite June Lockhart in Lawrence Riley's biographical play Kin Hubbard in 1951, the story of one of America's greatest humorists and cartoonists, Kin Hubbard. With this play, he made his debut as a producer. In 1947, he won a Clarence Derwent Award for his portrayal of Fred Taylor in the original Broadway cast of John Loves Mary.
His most successful and, arguably, most identifiable role came in 1952, when he joined the Broadway production of The Seven Year Itch as protagonist Richard Sherman. With Vanessa Brown as "The Girl", Ewell played the part more than 950 times over three years, as he indicated in a mystery guest appearance on the June 12, 1955, airing of What's My Line? to promote the 1955 film adaptation. He earned both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for portraying Sherman.
He enjoyed other film successes, including The Lieutenant Wore Skirts with Sheree North and The Girl Can't Help It (both 1956) opposite Jayne Mansfield. In The Girl Can't Help It, Julie London appears as a mirage to Tom Miller (Ewell) singing her signature song, "Cry Me a River". He played Abel Frake in the 1962 version of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical State Fair. In 1956, at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, he co-starred with Bert Lahr in the U.S. premiere of Waiting for Godot.
However, as his film and theater careers seemed to have reached their peaks, he turned his attention to television. Over several years, he played guest roles in numerous series, and received an Emmy Award nomination for his continuing role in Baretta. His final acting performance was in a 1986 episode of Murder, She Wrote.
From September 1960 to May 1961, Ewell starred in his own television series, in the self-titled The Tom Ewell Show, which lasted for one season.
In 1970, Ewell played Hoy Valentine in The Men From Shiloh (the rebranded name of The Virginian) in the episode titled "With Love, Bullets and Valentines". In the mid-1970s, Ewell enjoyed popular success with a recurring role as retired veteran policeman Billy Truman in the 1970s Emmy-winning TV series Baretta. Ewell appeared in 36 episodes of the television-cop series, which starred Robert Blake as Detective Tony Baretta, until its end in 1978. In 1979, he was a guest star on the television series Taxi. Ewell also co-starred from 1981 to 1982 as the drunken town doctor in the short-lived television series Best of the West.

## Personal life and death

On March 18, 1946, he married Judy Abbott, daughter of Broadway director George Abbott; the short-lived marriage ended in divorce a year later. Ewell then married Marjorie Sanborn on May 5, 1948; they had a son, Taylor.
Ewell died of undisclosed causes at the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital on September 12, 1994. His widow, Marjorie, said he had suffered a long series of illnesses. Ewell was also survived by his son, Taylor (born November 2, 1954), and by his mother, Martine Yewell Tompkins (1889–1998), who lived in Curdsville, Kentucky, where she died at age 109.

## Legacy

In 2003, Ewell was inducted into the Owensboro High School Hall of Fame.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1940 | They Knew What They Wanted | New Hired Hand | Uncredited |
| 1941 | Back in the Saddle | Fight Spectator | Uncredited |
| 1941 | Desert Bandit | Ordway - Texas Ranger | |
| 1947 | Babies, They're Wonderful | Harold | Short Film |
| 1948 | Mr. Groundling Takes the Air | Mr. Groundling | Short Film |
| 1949 | Adam's Rib | Warren Attinger | |
| 1949 | Southward Ho Ho! | Tom | Short Film |
| 1949 | The Football Fan | Tom - The Football Fan | Short Film |
| 1949 | Caribbean Capers | Tom the Tourist | Short Film |
| 1950 | A Life of Her Own | Tom Caraway | |
| 1950 | American Guerrilla in the Philippines | Jim Mitchell | |
| 1950 | Mr. Music | Haggerty | |
| 1950 | How Green Is My Spinach | Man in Audience | Uncredited (Short Film) |
| 1950 | The Rhumba Seat | Tom | Short Film |
| 1951 | Up Front | Willie | |
| 1952 | Finders Keepers | Tiger Kipps | |
| 1952 | Lost in Alaska | Nugget Joe McDermott | |
| 1952 | Back at the Front | Willie | |
| 1955 | The Seven Year Itch | Richard Sherman | |
| 1956 | The Lieutenant Wore Skirts | Gregory Whitcomb | |
| 1956 | The Great American Pastime | Bruce Hallerton | |
| 1956 | The Girl Can't Help It | Tom Miller | |
| 1958 | A Nice Little Bank That Should Be Robbed | Max Rutgers | |
| 1962 | Tender Is the Night | Abe North | |
| 1962 | State Fair | Abel Frake | |
| 1968 | Columbia Musical Travelark: Wonders of Kentucky | Colonel Tom | Short Film |
| 1970 | Suppose They Gave a War and Nobody Came | Billy Joe Davis | |
| 1972 | To Find a Man | Dr. Hargrove | |
| 1972 | They Only Kill Their Masters | Walter | |
| 1974 | The Great Gatsby | Mourner | Uncredited |
| 1979 | Butterflies in Heat | Hadley Crabtree | |
| 1983 | Easy Money | Scrappleton | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1948 | Kraft Theatre | Stephen Brewster | "Suppressed Desires" |
| 1948–49 | Actors Studio | Himself | 4 episodes |
| 1949 | NBC Presents | himself | 2 episodes |
| 1951 | The Billy Rose Show | Himself | "Whirling of Life" |
| 1951 | Danger | unknown role | "The Night of March Fifteenth" |
| 1951 | Search for Tomorrow | Sheriff Bill Lang | unknown episode(s) |
| 1951 | Studio One in Hollywood | Willie Mason | "Mighty Like a Rogue" |
| 1951 | Lights Out | Charlie Drome | "The Deal" |
| 1951 | Cosmopolitan Theatre | unknown role | "Mr. Pratt and the Triple Horror Bill" |
| 1952 | Robert Montgomery Presents | unknown role | "See No Evil" |
| 1955 | Playwrights '56 | William Bingham | "Daisy, Daisy" |
| 1955 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Albert Pelham | Season 1 Episode 10: "The Case of Mr. Pelham" |
| 1956 | The Alcoa Hour | Earl Carleton | "Man on Fire" |
| 1959 | The United States Steel Hour | Barney Henderson | "The Square Egghead" |
| 1959 | General Electric Theatre | John Emmet Owens | "The Day of the Hanging" |
| 1960–61 | The Tom Ewell Show | Tom Potter | series regular (32 episodes) |
| 1962 | The Sound and the Fidelity | unknown role | TV movie |
| 1963 | The Dick Powell Theatre | Congressman Albert Higgins | "The Honorable Albert Higgins" |
| 1964 | Wagon Train | Hector Heatherton | "The Hector Heatherton Story" |
| 1965 | Burke's Law | Leander Clement | "Who Killed Nobody Somehow?" |
| 1966 | Summer Fun | unknown role | "Kwimper of New Jersey" |
| 1970 | The Governor & J.J. | Uncle Charley | "Charley's Back in Town" |
| 1970 | The Virginian | Hoy Valentine | "With Love, Bullets and Valentines" |
| 1971 | The Name of the Game | District Attorney Simpson | "A Sister from Napoli" |
| 1971 | Alias Smith and Jones | Deputy Treadwell | "The Root of It All" |
| 1973 | The New Temperatures Rising Show | Harry Butler | "Diagnosis: Who Knows?" |
| 1974 | The Wide World of Mystery | Lebow | "The Spy Who Returned from the Dead" |
| 1975 | Promise Him Anything | Judge | TV movie |
| 1975–78 | Baretta | Billy Truman | series regular (44 episodes) |
| 1978 | Fantasy Island | Burt "Fingers" Lonegan | "The Over the Hill Caper / Proof! You're a Movie Star" |
| 1979 | The Return of Mod Squad | Cook | TV movie |
| 1979 | Eischied | Super | 2 episodes |
| 1979 | Taxi | Dr. Richmond | "Nardo Loses Her Marbles" |
| 1979 | Flying High | Williams | "Eye Opener" |
| 1981–82 | Best of the West | Doc Kullens | series regular (22 episodes) |
| 1982 | Terror at Alcatraz | Johnson | TV movie |
| 1982 | Trapper John, M.D. | Earl Tendermeyer | "The Good Life" |
| 1986 | Murder, She Wrote | Josh Corbin | "Trial by Error" |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1934 | They Shall Not Die | Red, Young Man | |
| 1934 | Geraniums is My Window | Denver | |
| 1934–35 | The First Legion | Novices and Choir | |
| 1935–36 | Let Freedom Ring | Small Hardy | Young Frank Martin at 21 |
| 1936 | Ethan Frome | Dennis Eady | |
| 1936–37 | Stage Door | Larry Westscott | |
| 1938–39 | The Merchant of Yonkers | Cornelius Hackl | |
| 1939 | Family Portrait | Simon | |
| 1939–1940 | Key Largo | Gage (replacement) | replaced Crahan Denton |
| 1941 | Liberty Jones | Dick Brown | |
| 1941–42 | Sunny River | Daniel Marshall | |
| 1946 | Apple of His Eye | Glen Stover | |
| 1947–48 | John Loves Mary | Fred Taylor | |
| 1948–49 | Small Wonder | unknown | |
| 1952–55 | The Seven Year Itch | Richard Sherman | |
| 1957–58 | The Tunnel of Love | Augie Poole | |
| 1958 | Patate | Leon Rollo | |
| 1960 | A Thurber Carnival | Grant / He / Anderson / The Pet Counselor / James Thurber / Narrator / Walter Mitty | |
| 1965 | Xmas in Las Vegas | Edward T. Wellspot | |

### Accolades

| Year | Association | Category | Nominated Work | Results |
| 1947 | Clarence Derwent Awards | Best Supporting Male (USA) | — | Won |
| 1953 | Tony Award | Best Actor in a Play | The Seven Year Itch | Won |
| 1956 | Golden Globe Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy | The Seven Year Itch | Won |
| 1977 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Drama Series | Baretta | Nominated |