Carol Keyser
Who was the spouse of William Windom (actor) from 1947 to 1955?
William Windom ( actor ) William Windom ( September 28 , 1923 – August 16 , 2012 ) was an American actor . He played a wide variety of roles in both film and television during a near 60-year career , but is perhaps best known for his role as cartoonist John Monroe in the short-lived comedy My World and Welcome to It ( 1969–1970 ) winning him a Primetime Emmy Award , and his recurring role as Dr . Seth Hazlitt starring alongside Angela Lansbury in Murder , She Wrote ( 1984-1996 ) . Windom was also known for his prolific work in television appearing in such shows as Star Trek , The Twilight Zone , Columbo , Gunsmoke , , Magnum , P.I. , Newhart , and L.A . Law . He also provided the voice for Uncle Chuck in DiC Entertainments animated series Sonic the Hedgehog ( 1993-1994 ) Windom also appeared in feature films such as the Academy Award-winning To Kill a Mockingbird ( 1962 ) , The Detective ( 1968 ) , and Escape from the Planet of the Apes ( 1971 ) and in several John Hughes films , Planes , Trains and Automobiles ( 1987 ) , Shes Having a Baby ( 1988 ) , and Uncle Buck ( 1989 ) , and Clint Eastwoods True Crime ( 1999 ) . Early life . Windom was born in Manhattan , New York , the son of Isobel Wells ( née Peckham ) and Paul Windom , an architect . He was the great-grandson of the United States Secretary of the Treasury of the same name , whom the actor physically resembled . He attended Williams College before enlisting in the U.S . Army . He participated in the Army Specialized Training Program where he studied at The Citadel , Antioch College and the University of Kentucky . Windom then became a paratrooper with Company B , 1st Battalion 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment , 82nd Airborne Division . While stationed in Frankfurt during the Allied occupation of Germany he enrolled in Biarritz American University in France and became involved in drama . Career . During his early screen career in the 1950s , Windom appeared in TV series including Omnibus and Robert Montgomery Presents , and continued his guest-starring roles in series during the 1960s such as the Five Characters in Search of an Exit 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone , that he claimed was his West Coast television debut . He played The Major , one of the five characters who are in an unidentified place , which is revealed at the end of the episode . He reported some years later that Richard Widmark was originally offered the role , but when Widmark learned that the pay was only to be $1,000 for the week , he turned it down . Actress Susan Harrison , who played The Ballerina , got first billing , while Windom got second . Windom said that Murray Matheson , who played The Clown , should have received billing ahead of both of them . His first leading role in television came in the sitcom The Farmers Daughter ( 1963–1966 ) - a series about a young Minnesota woman ( played by Inger Stevens ) who becomes the housekeeper for a widowed congressman ( Windom ) - which ran for three seasons . Windoms first role in film was alongside Gregory Peck in the Oscar-winning To Kill a Mockingbird ( 1962 ) as Horace Gilmer - the prosecutor of Tom Robinson ( Brock Peters ) - to Pecks defence lawyer Atticus Finch . He continued in American television appearances including The Donna Reed Show , Gunsmoke and ( playing Commodore Matt Decker , commander of the doomed USS Constellation in the popular 1967 episode , a role he would reprise nearly 40 years later for ) . He played a recurring role ( 3 episodes ) in The Invaders in 1967 . In 1968 , Windom starred alongside Peter Falk and Gene Barry in the TV movie Prescription : Murder , the pilot for the TV series Columbo . He would guest star in another edition of the series ( entitled Short Fuse ) in 1972 . In 1971 he played a supporting role along side Jimmy Stewart , George Kennedy and Kurt Russell in the Columbia production Fools Parade . Windom starred with Frank Sinatra in the film The Detective ( 1968 ) , playing a homophobic killer , a role that received great reviews from The New York Times . The following year , he had the lead role as cartoonist John Monroe in the sitcom My World and Welcome to It . Although the series only aired for one season , he won the 1970 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series . After the cancellation of the series , Windom toured the country for a time in a one-man Thurber show . After the run was completed , he filmed the pilot for a new series Is There a Doctor in the House ? with Rosemary Forsyth . The pilot was written with both actors in mind for the two starring roles , and while it was well received by the critics and in viewership ratings in both its first run and a re-run in the summer of 1971 , it was not picked up for a series . After a host of roles in film , TV movies and guest appearances in TV series during the 1970s and 1980s , Windom joined the series Murder , She Wrote in 1985 as Dr . Seth Hazlitt . His initial appearance was in October 1985 . ( He had previously appeared as a guest star playing another character in April 1985. ) The producers enjoyed his work , and consequently invited him to return at the beginning of the second season to take on the role permanently . Windom briefly left the show in 1990 to work on the first television version of Parenthood ( based on the 1989 film of the same name ) , playing the role of patriarch Frank Buckman ( played by Jason Robards in the film and , later , Craig T . Nelson in the second TV version ) . The show was ultimately canceled after 12 episodes and Windom returned to Murder , She Wrote as a semi-regular for the remainder of the run of that series . In all , Windom appeared in 53 episodes of Murder , She Wrote , second only to the shows main star , Angela Lansbury . Windom continued to appear in film and TV guest roles during the 1990s and 2000s , with appearances in the films Sommersby ( 1993 ) , Miracle on 34th Street ( 1994 ) , and Clint Eastwoods True Crime ( 1999 ) , and episodes of series including Ally McBeal ( 2000 ) and The District ( 2001 ) , before making his final acting appearance in the 2005 drama Yesterdays Dreams . Personal life . William Windom would say he was married more than once , because saying he was married 5 times made him sound fickle . None of the marriages ended due to fidelity issues . Bill married his first wife , Carol Keyser , in New York in August 1947 . They worked together and he also worked for her father selling insurance for 3 years . They divorced in December 1955 . He didnt walk down the aisle again until 1958 with actress Barbara Joyce . They married in Edgartown , MA . She was 6 years older than Bill . However , he soon moved to California and remained there for work . Bill said the marriage lasted just 3 years but the divorce was not finalized until 1963 . A few weeks later , he married his third wife Barbara Clare . She was the granddaughter of MGM founder Louis B . Mayer and 11 years Bills junior . Bill became stepfather to Barbaras two daughters from a previous marriage . His first child , Rachel , was born in 1964 . Bill and Barbara divorced in 1968 . In August 1969 he married his fourth wife Jacqulyn D . Hopkins , 19 years his junior . They had two daughters , Heather Juliet in 1970 and Hope Teresa in 1973 . In 1974 , Bill met Patricia ( Fehrle ) Tunder while shooting a TV movie ; she was working for the production company . Almost a year later , he filed for divorce from Jacqulyn in July 1975 . Bill and Patricia , 12 years his junior , married the end of 1975 on New Years Eve . In 1978 Bill welcomed his final child , a son named Rebel Russell . Windom was a tournament chess player , a sailor , a tennis player and a life member of the USCF . Death . Windom died on August 16 , 2012 , at the age of 88 at his home in Woodacre , California from congestive heart failure . He was survived by his wife , Patricia Tunder Windom , four of his children – Rachel , Heather Juliet , Hope Teresa and Rebel Russell – two stepdaughters , Maggie and Debora , three granddaughters and one grandson . External links . - The William Windom Tribute Site