William Challee

William Challee
William John Challee (April 6, 1904 – March 11, 1989) was an American actor.
Biography
Challee was born in Chicago and was a student at Lake View High School.
Challee appeared on Broadway by 1926 and by 1931 in early Group Theatre productions. He married actress Ruth Nelson on August 2, 1931; they divorced on August 13, 1937. The two appeared in the 1947 film The Sea of Grass, in supporting roles, after they were divorced.
In 1937, Challee staged a suite of one-act plays at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, under the heading Plays of the Sea. The suite consisted of the Eugene O'Neill plays Bound East for Cardiff, In the Zone, The Long Voyage Home, and Moon of the Caribbees. They were produced by the Federal Theatre Project of the Works Progress Administration, running for 68 performances from October 29, 1937.
Challee was living in Chicago by 1940. By the middle 1940s, Challee was working in films in California, mainly in supporting and uncredited roles. Challee married dancer Ella Franklin Crawford on April 19, 1944, in Santa Monica.
Challee appeared in episodes of numerous television series, including a 1953 episode ("Stage for Mademoiselle") of The Lone Ranger and a 1957 episode ("The Case of the Runaway Corpse") of Perry Mason. In 1960, Challee appeared as Saunders on Laramie in the episode titled "Duel at Parkinson Town". In 1961, he appeared as Eli in the series finale of The Investigators, "The Dead End Man", as well as the 1961 episode "Meeting at the Mimbres" in the Western series Bat Masterson.
In 1962, Challee appeared (uncredited) as a prisoner on the TV Western The Virginian in the episode titled "The Brazen Bell".
That same year, he appeared on Gunsmoke as Feist, a crazed pioneer who lost his faculties and tries to kill Marshall Dillon in the episode “The Gallows”. Challee played the incapacitated family patriarch in the 1970 film Five Easy Pieces, whose illness brings his son (Jack Nicholson) home to the family estate.
In 1984, he married his long-time partner Joan Wheeler Ankrum. Together, in 1960, they opened the Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Challee was buried in Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto.
Broadway roles
Grand Street Follies [1927] (1927) (revue)
Red Rust (1929) as Lenov
House of Connelly (1931) as Jody and as a Serenader
Night Over Taos (1932) as second trapper
Success Story (1932) as Jeffery Haliburton
Men in White (1933) as Dr. Michaelson
Gold Eagle Guy (1934) as Pearly and as Ah Kee
Till the Day I Die (1935) as Edsel Peltz
Waiting For Lefty (1935) as Actor
Key Largo (1935) as Osceola Horn
Paradise Lost (1935) as homeless man
Case of Clyde Griffiths (1936) as working man
Johnny Johnson (1936) as Private Fairfax and as Doctor
Rocket to the Moon (1938) as a salesman
Awake and Sing! (1939) as Schlosser
Selected filmography
...One Third of a Nation... (1939) as Reporter (uncredited)
Destination Tokyo (1943) as Rocky the quartermaster (uncredited)
The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944) as Radio Man (uncredited)
Days of Glory (1944) as Ducrenko (uncredited)
The Seventh Cross (1944) as Fischer (uncredited)
None but the Lonely Heart (1944) as Knocker Jones (uncredited)
A Song to Remember (1945) as Titus (uncredited)
God Is My Co-Pilot (1945) as Joe (uncredited)
Counter-Attack (1945) as Paratrooper (uncredited)
Miss Susie Slagle's (1946) as Interne (uncredited)
Tokyo Rose (1946) as Mike Kovac
Deadline at Dawn (1946) as Ray – Newsstand Proprietor (uncredited)
From This Day Forward (1946) as Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Without Reservations (1946) as Corporal (uncredited)
Swamp Fire (1946) as barfly (uncredited)
Nocturne (1946) as police photographer Olsen (uncredited)
Boomerang (1947) as Whitney – Harvey's Assistant (uncredited)
The Sea of Grass (1947) as deputy sheriff (uncredited)
The Guilt of Janet Ames (1947) as Ambulance Surgeon (uncredited)
Desperate (1947) as Reynolds
Another Part of the Forest (1948) as Passenger on the Train (uncredited)
Tap Roots (1948) as Sergeant (uncredited)
Beyond Glory (1948) as Sergeant at Depot (uncredited)
Force of Evil (1948) as Gunman #1 (uncredited)
Reign of Terror (1949) as Bourdon (uncredited)
Port of New York (1949) as Leo Stasser
Outrage (1950) as Lee Wilkins
Gambling House (1950) as Parking Attendant (uncredited)
The Whip Hand (1951) as Guard (uncredited)
On Dangerous Ground (1951) as thug (uncredited)
The Big Trees (1952) as Brother Williams (uncredited)
This Woman Is Dangerous (1952) as Ned Shaw (uncredited)
The Glenn Miller Story (1954) as dispatch desk Sergeant (uncredited)
Man Without a Star (1955) as Brick Gooder (uncredited)
The Lone Ranger (1955, TV Series) as Bad-Eye
Chicago Syndicate (1955) as Dolan
The Desperados Are in Town (1956) as Tom Kesh
Calypso Heat Wave (1957) as Second Thug
Raintree County (1957) as spectator (uncredited)
Official Detective (1957, TV Series) as Hatch
Saddle the Wind (1958) as barfly (uncredited)
Twilight for the Gods (1958) as Sweeney
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1959) (Season 4 Episode 32: "Human Interest Story") as Barney Welch
The Sound and the Fury (1959) as roustabout (uncredited)
The Story on Page One (1959) as Lemke (uncredited)
Toby Tyler (1960) as Jailbird (uncredited)
Noose for a Gunman (1960) as Gorse
One Foot in Hell (1960) as Pete's Friend (uncredited)
The Plunderers (1960) as first citizen
Cimarron (1960) as barber (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1961) (Season 6 Episode 23: "Incident in a Small Jail") as Petrie
All Fall Down (1962) as third bum (uncredited)
War Hunt (1962) as Lt. Colonel
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1963) (Season 1 Episode 24: "The Star Juror") as Jess Bartholomew
The Hook (1963) as Schmidt
Seven Days in May (1964) as General Riley (uncredited)
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1965) (Season 3 Episode 14: "Final Performance") as Wint Davis
Nightmare in the Sun (1965) as old coot in a bar
Joy in the Morning (1965) as an old derelict (uncredited)
The Cincinnati Kid (1965) as an old man (uncredited)
Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966) as Tom – Station Agent
Five Easy Pieces (1970) as Nicholas Dupea
Zachariah (1971) as "The Old Man"
The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) as oldtimer (uncredited)
Irish Whiskey Rebellion (1972) as Timothy
Moonchild (1974) as Alchemist
From Noon till Three (1976) as piano player (uncredited) (final film role)
References
Sources
Los Angeles Times obituary – William Challee
New York Times obituary – Ruth Nelson
Answers.com -William Challee
External links
1904 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
Male actors from Illinois
Federal Theatre Project people