# Paul Stewart (actor)

Paul Stewart (born Paul Sternberg; March 13, 1908 – February 17, 1986) was an American character actor, director and producer who worked in theatre, radio, films and television. He frequently portrayed cynical and sinister characters throughout his career.
A friend and associate of Orson Welles for many years, Stewart helped Welles get his first job in radio and was associate producer of the celebrated radio program "The War of the Worlds", in which he also performed. One of the Mercury Theatre players who made their film debut in Welles's landmark film Citizen Kane, Stewart portrayed Kane's butler and valet, Raymond. He appeared in 50 films, and performed in or directed some 5,000 radio and television shows.

## Biography

Paul Stewart was born in Manhattan, New York, on March 13, 1908, as Paul Sternberg. His parents were Maurice D. Sternberg, a salesman and credit agent for a textile manufacturer, and Nathalie C. (née Nathanson) Sternberg; both were born in Minneapolis. Stewart attended public school and completed two years at Columbia University, studying law. He had received first place in the Belasco Theatre Tournament in 1925 and decided on an acting career.
Stewart began his stage career in New York as teenager. He made his Broadway debut in 1930, in Subway Express.$^{:16}$ He next appeared in the 1931 play, Two Seconds, adapted as a film the next year.
In 1932, after two additional Broadway credits, Stewart moved to Cincinnati and went to work at radio station WLW. There, in 1928, radio pioneer Fred Smith had created the program Newscasting, which in 1931 evolved into the popular national news series, The March of Time. For 13 months Stewart worked in all aspects of radio production at WLW – acting, announcing, directing, producing, writing and creating sound effects. When he returned to New York he was on The March of Time and a member of radio's elite corps of actors.
In 1934, Stewart introduced Orson Welles to director Knowles Entrikin, who gave Welles his first job on radio, on The American School of the Air.$^{:331}$ "I'd been turning up for auditions and never landing a job until I met Paul Stewart," Welles recalled. "He's a lovely man; for years he was one of the main pillars of our Mercury broadcasts. He can't be given too much credit."$^{:10}$
In March 1935 Stewart saw Welles's stage performance in Archibald MacLeish's verse play Panic, and recommended him to director Homer Fickett. Welles was auditioned and hired to join the repertory company that presented The March of Time.$^{:86}$
"It was like a stock company, whose members were the aristocrats of this relatively new profession of radio acting," wrote fellow actor Joseph Julian. At that time Julian had to content himself with being an indistinguishable voice in crowd scenes, envying this "hallowed circle" that included Stewart, Welles, Kenny Delmar, Arlene Francis, Gary Merrill, Agnes Moorehead, Jeanette Nolan, Everett Sloane, Richard Widmark,$^{:9}$ Art Carney, Ray Collins, Pedro de Cordoba, Ted de Corsia, Juano Hernandez, Nancy Kelly, John McIntire, Jack Smart and Dwight Weist. The March of Time was one of radio's most popular shows.$^{:12–13}$
Stewart was a founder of the American Federation of Radio Artists in August 1937, and one of its inaugural officers.$^{:21,24}$ He carried card number 39 in the union and was a frequent delegate at the national convention. He was also a board member of the Screen Actors Guild, and a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Stewart played various roles throughout Welles's memorable tenure as Lamont Cranston in The Shadow (September 1937 – September 1938).$^{:69}$
In 1938 Welles expanded the range of the Mercury Theatre from Broadway to network radio with his CBS series, The Mercury Theatre on the Air, and Stewart became his associate producer.$^{:390}$ In addition to playing a number of roles in the drama series and its sponsored continuation, The Campbell Playhouse, Stewart made significant contributions to the celebrated broadcast, "The War of the Worlds", as rehearsal director, actor and co-writer.$^{:343}$ Welles later said that Stewart deserved the largest share of the credit for the quality of "The War of the Worlds".$^{:195}$
On January 14, 1939, in Arlington, Virginia, Stewart married actress and singer Peg LaCentra (1910–1996), a vocalist with Artie Shaw's first orchestra who worked in radio, films and television. That September Welles called Stewart in New York.$^{:411}$$^{:254}$
"The telephone rang and I heard the unmistakable voice of Orson Welles, speaking from California," Stewart recalled:
   Well, when Orson said he had a part for you, you went. So I left New York to play my first role in a picture at 500 dollars a week, three weeks' guarantee. I was on Citizen Kane for 11 weeks. … My first shot was a close-up in which Orson wanted a special smoke effect from my cigarette. I was rigged with tube that went under my clothes and down my finger to the cigarette, but somehow the contraption wouldn't exude smoke. "I want long cigarettes – the Russian kind!" Orson ordered. Everyone waited while the prop man fetched some Russian cigarettes. Just before the scene Orson Welles warned me: "Your head is going to fill the screen at the Radio City Music Hall" – at that time Citizen Kane was booked for the Music Hall. Then he said in his gruff manner, "Turn 'em." But just before I started, he added quietly in his warm voice, "Good luck." I blew the first take. It was 30, 40 takes before I completed a shot that Orson liked – and I had only one line. That was almost 30 years ago, but even today I have people repeat it to me, including young students. The line was: "Rosebud … I'll tell you about Rosebud …"$^{:8–9}$
Stewart's most famous role is his screen debut as Raymond, the cynical butler in Citizen Kane (1941).$^{:195}$ Actress Ruth Warrick, who portrayed Kane's first wife, remembered Stewart saying to her at the film's New York premiere, "From this night on, wherever we go or whatever we do in our lives, we will always be identified with Citizen Kane."
On the stage, Stewart appeared in the Mercury Theatre's acclaimed production of Native Son, directed by Welles and produced by John Houseman at the St. James Theatre March 24 – June 28, 1941.
During World War II Stewart served with the New York-based Office of War Information (1941–1943) and narrated documentaries including The World at War (1942). He worked under John Houseman at the newly created Voice of America (1942–1943), broadcasting news, editorials and commentary from the U.S. press, and quotes from notable speeches, to audiences in Europe.$^{:39}$ When Houseman took his oath of allegiance as a U.S. citizen in March 1943, he chose Stewart to accompany him as his witness.$^{:87}$
Stewart was given leave to go to Hollywood to act in a few wartime films, including Mr. Lucky (1943), and worked as a barker in The Mercury Wonder Show, a magic-and-variety show produced by Welles and Joseph Cotten as a morale-boosting entertainment for U.S. soldiers.$^{:171}$ Because of his comprehensive radio experience, Stewart was called upon by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. to prepare radio programs used to promote the purchase of War Bonds during World War II. He produced and directed Welles's Fifth War Loan broadcast from the Hollywood Bowl June 14, 1944,$^{:384}$ and produced, directed and acted in a number of patriotic episodes of the Cavalcade of America radio series.
After the war Stewart went to work for David O. Selznick and Dore Schary as a writer, director and producer, and directed screen tests for Paramount Pictures. Stewart's many feature film credits as an actor include The Window, Champion, Twelve O'Clock High, Deadline – U.S.A., The Bad and the Beautiful, The Juggler, Kiss Me Deadly, King Creole, In Cold Blood, The Day of the Locust and W.C. Fields and Me, in which he portrayed Florenz Ziegfeld.
In 1950 Stewart took over the role of Doc in Joshua Logan's Broadway production of Mister Roberts, starring Henry Fonda.
A Democrat, he campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in the 1952 presidential election.
On television, Stewart's director credits include the syndicated series Top Secret (1954–1955), in which he costarred with the young Gena Rowlands, and a notable episode of The Twilight Zone, "Little Girl Lost" (1962). He was host, narrator and actor in the syndicated series Deadline (1959–1961) and appeared in episodes of The Ford Theatre Hour, Suspense, Playhouse 90, Alcoa Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Asphalt Jungle, Perry Mason, Dr. Kildare, Mannix, Mission Impossible, The Name of the Game ("L.A. 2017"), McMillan & Wife, Columbo, The Rockford Files, Lou Grant and Remington Steele, among many other TV series.
Orson Welles called upon Stewart to play a role in his film The Other Side of the Wind, shot in the 1970s and left unfinished until its release in 2018. When Welles died at his home in Hollywood on October 10, 1985, Stewart was the first of his friends to arrive.$^{:195,297}$
Stewart died at the age of 77 of heart failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on February 17, 1986, after a long illness.
He had suffered a heart attack in 1974 during the first two weeks' filming of Richard Brooks's Western, Bite the Bullet, in which he was replaced.
In the 1999 film RKO 281, Paul Stewart was portrayed by Adrian Schiller.

## Theatre credits

| Date | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1930 – May 1930 | Subway Express | Passenger | Liberty Theatre, New York |
| October 9 – November 1931 | Two Seconds | First Reporter, First Detective | Ritz Theatre, New York Directed by Alexander Leftwich |
| January 26 – February 1932 | East of Broadway | Willie Posner | Belmont Theatre, New York Directed by Lew Levenson |
| May 6 – May 1932 | Bulls, Bears and Asses | Merwin | Playhouse Theatre, New York Directed by Melville Burke |
| February 21 – March 1938 | Wine of Choice | Leo Traub | Guild Theatre, New York Directed by Herman Shumlin |
| March 24 – June 28, 1941 | Native Son | A Newspaper Man | St. James Theatre, New York Directed by Orson Welles |
| September 24–29, 1941 | Twilight Walk | — | Fulton Theatre, New York Directed by Paul Stewart |
| August–September 1943 | The Mercury Wonder Show | Barker | Hollywood, California Directed by Orson Welles$^{:377}$$^{:171}$ |
| May–December 1950 | Mister Roberts | Doc | Alvin Theatre, New York Directed by Joshua Logan |
| November 30, 1971 – January 8, 1972 | The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial | | Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Directed by Henry Fonda |

## Radio credits

Paul Stewart played in or directed 5,000 radio and TV shows, usually without credit.

### Actor

| Date | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1934–38 | The March of Time | Repertory cast | $^{:13}$ |
| April 17 – December 25, 1935 | The House of Glass | Whitey | |
| November 9, 1936 – June 25, 1937 | The Jack Pearl Show | Announcer | "The Jack Pearl Show". RadioGOLDINdex. Archived from the original on 2014-11-05. Retrieved 2014-11-04.</ref> |
| 1936–37 | Easy Aces | Johnny Sherwood | |
| September 26, 1937 – September 11, 1938 | The Shadow | Repertory cast | |
| 1938 | The Raleigh and Kool Cigarette Program | Announcer | |
| 1938– | Life Can Be Beautiful | Gyp Mendoza | |
| August 29, 1938 | The Mercury Theatre on the Air | Paul Dantès | "The Count of Monte Cristo"$^{:345}$$^{:51}$ |
| September 5, 1938 | The Mercury Theatre on the Air | Gogol | "The Man Who Was Thursday"$^{:345}$$^{:51}$ |
| October 30, 1938 | The Mercury Theatre on the Air | Studio announcer Third studio announcer | "The War of the Worlds"$^{:346}$ |
| 1939 – | Mr. District Attorney | | |
| March 10, 1939 | The Campbell Playhouse | Repertory cast | "The Glass Key"$^{:351}$ |
| May 5, 1939 | The Campbell Playhouse | | "Wickford Point"$^{:352}$ |
| May 20, 1939 | Arch Oboler's Plays | | "Crazytown" |
| May 25, 1939 | The Campbell Playhouse | | "Ah, Wilderness!"$^{:352}$ |
| September 17, 1939 | The Campbell Playhouse | | "American Cavalcade: The Things We Have"$^{:352}$ |
| January 9, 1940 | The Cavalcade of America | Repertory cast | "The Raven Wins Texas" |
| February 11, 1940 | The Campbell Playhouse | | "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"$^{:358}$ |
| April 6, 1941 | The Free Company | | "His Honor, the Mayor"$^{:362–363}$ |
| May 11, 1941 | Twenty-Six by Corwin | | "The Log of the R-77" |
| May 30, 1941 | Great Moments from Great Plays | | "The Butter and Egg Man"$^{:201}$ |
| June 22, 1941 | Twenty-Six by Corwin | | "Daybreak" |
| July 20, 1941 | Twenty-Six by Corwin | | "Double Concerto" |
| October 6, 1941 | The Orson Welles Show | | $^{:367}$ |
| November 3, 1941 | The Orson Welles Show | | "Wild Oranges"$^{:367}$ |
| 1942–43 | Voice of America | | Medium wave English-language news broadcasts to Europe$^{:39–40}$ |
| March 28, 1942 | This Is War | | "It's in the Works"$^{:501}$ |
| April 6, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Yellow Jack" |
| May 4, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "The Printer Was a Lady" |
| May 11, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "A Tooth for Paul Revere" |
| July 27, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Man of Design" |
| August 3, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "This Our Exile" |
| September 23, 1942 | Suspense | | "A Passage to Benares" |
| September 28, 1942 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Juarez: Thunder from the Mountains" |
| February 2, 1943 | Lights Out | | "Until Dead" |
| March 22, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Lifetide" |
| June 7, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "The Enemy is Listening" |
| June 14, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Make Way for the Lady" |
| June 21, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "The Unsinkable Marblehead" |
| August 17 – October 5, 1943 | Passport for Adams | | Eight 30-minute episodes |
| December 6, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Navy Doctor" |
| December 13, 1943 | The Cavalcade of America | | "Check Your Heart at Home" |
| 1943–1944 | Brave Tomorrow | Cast | |
| 1946– | The Fat Man | | |
| September 4, 1948 | Gang Busters | | "The Case of the Collector" |
| June 18, 1949 | NBC University Theater of the Air | | "What Makes Sammy Run?"$^{:347}$ |
| June 30, 1950 | The MGM Theater of the Air | | "Public Hero No. 1" |
| 1950–51 | Rogue's Gallery | Richard Rogue | 55 episodes |
| January 10, 1954 | NBC Star Playhouse | | "For Whom the Bell Tolls" |
| November 7, 1954 | You Were There | | "Eight By Three By Two" |
| August 21, 1955 | You Were There | | "The Way We Want It" |
| August 28, 1955 | You Were There | | "Once Upon a Time" |

### Director, producer

| Year | Title | Notes |
| July 11–December 4, 1938 | The Mercury Theatre on the Air | Associate producer, rehearsal director$^{:343}$ 22 episodes |
| December 9, 1938 – March 31, 1940 | The Campbell Playhouse | Associate producer, rehearsal director$^{:343}$ 56 episodes |
| 1943–44 | The Cavalcade of America | Producer and director of episodes including the following: "Navy Doctor", December 6, 1943 "Check Your Heart at Home", December 13, 1943 "U-Boat Prisoner", December 27, 1943 "Bullseye for Sammy", January 3, 1944 "Prelude to Glory", February 7, 1944 "The Purple Heart Comes to Free Meadows", February 21, 1944 "Junior Angel", February 28, 1944 "The Doctor Gets the Answer", September 11, 1944 "Spy on the Kilocycles", October 8, 1944 (director only) |
| June 14, 1944 | The Fifth War Loan Drive | Producer, director$^{:384}$ Because of his comprehensive radio experience, Stewart was called upon by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau Jr. to prepare radio programs used to promote the purchase of War Bonds during World War II |

## Film and television credits
### Actor

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1937 | Ever Since Eve | Cocktail Customer | Uncredited |
| 1940 | Citizen Kane trailer | Himself, Raymond | Short$^{:360}$ |
| 1941 | Citizen Kane | Raymond | Film debut |
| 1942 | Johnny Eager | Julio | |
| 1942 | The World at War | Narrator | First documentary released by the Office of War Information |
| 1943 | Mr. Lucky | Zepp | |
| 1949 | The Window | Joe Kellerson | |
| 1949 | The Ford Theatre Hour | Paul Lawton | TV series, "She Loves Me Not" |
| 1944 | Government Girl | Branch Owens | |
| 1948 | Berlin Express | Narrator | Voice, Uncredited |
| 1949 | Champion | Tommy Haley | |
| 1949 | The Window | Joe Kellerson | |
| 1949 | Illegal Entry | Zack Richards | |
| 1949 | Easy Living | Dan Argus | |
| 1949 | Twelve O'Clock High | Captain [Major] "Doc" Kaiser | |
| 1950 | Suspense | Sam Cragg | TV series, "1000 to One" |
| 1950 | Edge of Doom | Craig | |
| 1950 | Walk Softly, Stranger | Whitey Lake | |
| 1950 | The Prudential Family Playhouse | Max Wharton | TV series, "Over 21" |
| 1951 | Appointment with Danger | Earl Boettinger | |
| 1951 | Lights Out | | (TV)"The Man with the Astrakhan Hat" |
| 1951 | Faith Baldwin Romance Theatre | | TV series, "Success Story" |
| 1952 | Deadline – U.S.A. | Harry Thompson | |
| 1952 | Carbine Williams | "Dutch" Kruger | |
| 1952 | Loan Shark | Lou Donelli | |
| 1952 | We're Not Married! | Stone, Eve's lawyer | |
| 1952 | The Bad and the Beautiful | Syd Murphy | |
| 1953 | The Juggler | Detective Karni | |
| 1953 | The Joe Louis Story | Tad McGeehan | |
| 1954 | Prisoner of War | Captain Jack Hodges | |
| 1954 | Deep in My Heart | Bert Townsend | |
| 1954 | Inner Sanctum | | TV series, Three episodes |
| 1954–1955 | Top Secret | Professor Brand | TV series, 26-episode syndicated series costarring Gena Rowlands |
| 1955 | Kiss Me Deadly | Carl Evello | |
| 1955 | The Cobweb | Dr. Otto Wolff | |
| 1955 | Chicago Syndicate | Arnold Valenti | |
| 1955 | TV Reader's Digest | Larry Sears | TV series, "The Manufactured Clue" |
| 1955 | 1955 Motion Picture Theatre Celebration | Himself | |
| 1956 | Hell on Frisco Bay | Joe Lye | |
| 1956 | Playhouse 90 | Martin Hoeffer | TV series, "Confession" |
| 1956 | The Wild Party | Ben Davis | |
| 1957 | Top Secret Affair | Phil Bentley | |
| 1957 | The Joseph Cotten Show | Mr. Bari | TV series, "The Secret of Polanta" |
| 1958 | King Creole | Charlie Le Grand | |
| 1958 | Alcoa Theatre | Don Peters | TV series, "The First Star" |
| 1958 | No Warning | Stephen Chase | TV series, "Fingerprints" |
| 1959 | Beyond All Limits | Pendergast | |
| 1959–1961 | Deadline | Narrator, host | TV series, Syndicated newspaper anthology series |
| 1960 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Vincent Noonan | Season 5 Episode 23: "Craig's Will" |
| 1961 | The Asphalt Jungle | Alex Meridan | TV series, "The Kidnapping" |
| 1963 | A Child is Waiting | Goodman | |
| 1964 | Perry Mason | J.J. Pennington | TV series, "The Case of the Tragic Trophy" |
| 1964 | Dr. Kildare | Dr. Giuseppe Muretelli | TV series, "Rome Will Never Leave You" |
| 1965 | The Greatest Story Ever Told | Questor | |
| 1966 | Perry Mason | Cameron Burgess | TV series, "The Case of the Avenging Angel" |
| 1966–1967 | The Man Who Never Was | Paul Grant | TV series,$^{:462}$ |
| 1967 | In Cold Blood | Jensen, Reporter | |
| 1967–1969 | Moby Dick and Mighty Mightor | Mightor | TV series, Animated series |
| 1968 | Jigsaw | Simon Joshua | |
| 1968 | Mannix | Morgan Farrell | TV series, "Pressure Point" |
| 1969 | How to Commit Marriage | Willoughby, Attorney | |
| 1969 | Ironside | Paul Cambridge | TV series, "The Prophesy" |
| 1969 | Mission: Impossible | Jonas Stone | TV series, "Mastermind" |
| 1970 | Carter's Army | General Clark | TV movie, Also known as Black Brigade |
| 1970 | The Governor & J.J. | Dr. Ed Graham | TV series, "And the World Begat the Bleep" |
| 1970 | Gunsmoke | Sanders | TV series, "The Cage" |
| 1971 | The Silent Force | | TV series, "The Banker" |
| 1971 | The Name of the Game | Dr. Rubias | TV series, "L.A. 2017" |
| 1971 | City Beneath the Sea | Barton | TV, |
| 1971 | McMillan & Wife | Chief Andy Yeakel | TV series, "Husbands, Wives and Killers" |
| 1972 | Fabulous Trinity | Charles | |
| 1973 | Ironside | Ben Hopkins | TV series, "Ring of Prayer" |
| 1973 | The F.B.I. | Reese | TV series, "Rules of the Game" |
| 1973 | Columbo | Clifford Paris | TV series, "Double Shock" |
| 1974 | F for Fake | Special participant | $^{:442}$ |
| 1974 | Live A Little, Steal A Lot | Avery | Also known as Murph the Surf |
| 1974 | Cannon | Lester Cain | TV series, "The Hit Man" |
| 1975 | The Streets of San Francisco | Nick Lugo | TV series, "Letters from the Grave" |
| 1975 | Bite the Bullet | J.B. Parker | Uncredited |
| 1975 | The Day of the Locust | Helverston | |
| 1975 | Murph the Surf | Avery | |
| 1976 | W.C. Fields and Me | Flo Ziegfeld | |
| 1977 | The Rockford Files | Julius "Buddy" Richards | TV series, "Irving the Explainer" |
| 1977 | Opening Night | David Samuels | |
| 1978 | The Dain Curse | Old Man | TV, Miniseries |
| 1978 | Revenge of the Pink Panther | Julio Scallini | |
| 1978 | The Nativity | Zacharias | |
| 1979 | Lou Grant | Kenneth Homes | TV series, "Hollywood" |
| 1981 | S.O.B. | Harry Sandler | |
| 1981 | Nobody's Perfekt | Dr. Segal | |
| 1982 | Tempest | Phillip's father | |
| 1983 | Remington Steele | Joseph Barber | TV series, "Steele Knuckles and Glass Jaws" |
| 1985 | MacGyver | Dr. Carl Steubens | TV series, Series pilot |
| 2018 | The Other Side of the Wind | Matt Costello | Scenes filmed between 1970 and 1976 |

### Director, producer

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1954–1955 | Top Secret (TV series) | 15-minute syndicated series, also known as Top Secret U.S.A. "I also directed my own TV series in the East … We did 26 films in 25 days, so you can see I'm used to making deadlines" (Paul Stewart) |
| 1955 | Kings Row (TV series) | Three episodes |
| 1955–1956 | Warner Bros. Presents (TV series) | Three episodes |
| 1957 | Meet McGraw (TV series) | "The White Rose" |
| 1958 | Peter Gunn (TV series) | "The Leaper" |
| 1959–1960 | Hawaiian Eye (TV series) | "Secret of the Second Door" "Shipment from Kihei" "The Koa Man" "Stamped for Danger" |
| 1960 | M Squad (TV series) | Five episodes |
| 1960 | Philip Marlowe (TV series) | "Murder is a Grave Affair" |
| 1960–1961 | Michael Shayne (TV series) | Eight episodes; associate producer of the series |
| 1961–1962 | Checkmate (TV series) | Six episodes |
| 1962 | The Twilight Zone (TV series) | "Little Girl Lost" |