John Hoyt

John Hoyt was a veteran actor of film, television, and theater who portrayed Phil Boyce in first pilot, . Footage of his role as Boyce was later incorporated into the two-part episode and and the second season episode .
Hoyt filmed his scenes between Friday and Thursday , and on Monday and Tuesday , all at Desilu Culver Stage 16.
== Biography ==
Hoyt was born John McArthur Hoysradt in Bronxville, New York. A graduate of Yale, he worked as as a teacher of history and as well as a stand-up comedian before joining Orson Welles' Mercury Theater in 1937, performing with the company until World War II. After serving with the Army, he returned to acting at the end of the conflict and built a career around portraying "heavies". By the time of his retirement in 1987, he had built up nearly 250 screen credits.
He died of lung cancer in Santa Cruz, California, at the age of 85. It is believed his participation in the 1956 film The Conqueror led to his demise; 91 members of that film's cast and crew contracted cancer and 46 of those died of the disease, believed to be a result of filming near the nuclear weapon testing site in Nevada. (Bathsheba's Breast: Women, Cancer and History, )
== Career ==
=== Broadway ===
Hoyt made his debut on the Broadway stage in 1930 with a role in a play called Overture, which ran for forty-one performances. He performed in several more Broadway productions throughout the 1930s, including the musical Ziegfield Follies of 1936, The Masque of Kings (co-starring with Richard Hale), and Orson Welles' famous 1937 Mercury Theatre production of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, co-starring Norman Lloyd. Hoyt reprised his role of Decius Brutus from this play in the 1953 film adaptation of Julius Caesar starring Marlon Brando and also featuring Michael Ansara, Lawrence Dobkin, Richard Hale, and Ian Wolfe.
Hoyt's last known Broadway play was the musical Maggie in 1953, co-starring Original Series guest actor Keith Andes.
=== Film ===
Hoyt made his feature film debut with the third male lead in (1946, co-starring Original Series guest actor Richard Webb). In 1951, he co-starred with Richard Derr in . The same year, he made an uncredited appearance as Wilhelm Keitel in The Desert Fox (which also featured an uncredited Gil Perkins). Hoyt also had a supporting role in (1955, with Richard Kiley). Five years later, Hoyt was seen in , in which Jean Simmons, Peter Brocco, Dick Crockett, and Seamon Glass were also featured, as well as William Blackburn and Gary Lockwood in background roles. The film also featured costume design by William Ware Theiss. Yet another period piece set in the days of the Roman Empire in which Hoyt appeared was (1963).
In addition, Hoyt co-starred with actor Whit Bissell in several films: (1947, featuring Jeff Corey), (1951), (1955), (1955, co-starring Elisha Cook), and (1959, featuring George Takei). Hoyt and Bissell also appeared together on a number of television programs (see below).
His other many other film credits include (1948, with Celia Lovsky), Androcles and the Lion (1952, starring Jean Simmons), (1954, also starring Jean Simmons), (1954, with Arnold Moss, (1955, starring Joan Collins), (1956, starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz), (1956, with Celia Lovsky), (1957, with Paul Baxley, Anthony Caruso, and Elisha Cook), (1963, with Dick Miller), Gunpoint (1966, with Robert Pine, Warren Stevens, and Morgan Woodward), (1968, with Nehemiah Persoff), and (1979, with , Anthony De Longis, Lawrence Dobkin, Stanley Kamel, David Opatoshu, John Rubinstein, and Nehemiah Persoff). Hoyt co-starred with Arlene Martel (billed as Arline Sax) and Elisha Cook in a 1964 mystery film called The Glass Cage. Hoyt was also the executive producer of this film and he co-wrote the script.
In 1974, Hoyt made a surprising appearance in , as the title character's father. This film also starred William Dennis Hunt and featured behind-the-scenes work from Bjo Trimble, Greg Jein, and an uncredited Mike Minor. Hoyt's final film role was (1985, with Robert Joy, Timothy Carhart, Ann Magnuson, and Isabel Lorca).
=== Television ===
==== Guest appearances ====
Having already gained footing on stage and in film, Hoyt began to tackle television in the early 1950s. Many of his early TV work consisted of performances on live anthology programs such as The Philco Television Playhouse, Fireside Theatre, Cavalcade of America, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Climax!, The Ford Television Theatre, General Electric Theater, Studio One, and three episodes of Playhouse 90, including one with Skip Homeier and Richard Kiley. He also guest-starred on a great many popular Western shows throughout his career, including The Lone Ranger, (two episodes, one with Ken Lynch and another with Rex Holman), (three episodes, including one with Ken Lynch), (on which Bill Quinn was a regular), Riverboat (in an episode with Madlyn Rhue), Laramie (two episodes, one with Brian Keith and another with Frank Overton), , Death Valley Days, , (three episodes in 1961, including a two-parter with Michael Forest), (starring Robert Lansing and guest-starring Seymour Cassel and Michael Forest), The Big Valley (with Paul Comi, Nehemiah Persoff, and Paul Sorensen), The Wild Wild West, and multiple episodes of The Virginian (including one with Paul Carr, another with Perry Lopez, and a third with Robert Ellenstein).
Another western series Hoyt appeared on was Outlaws in 1960, appearing in a two-parter with William Shatner, who went on to replace Hoyt's castmate Jeffrey Hunter as the star of Star Trek. (The Outlaws episodes also featured and Ken Lynch.) Hoyt and "The Trouble with Tribbles" guest star Whit Bissell appeared together in an episode of another western, Laredo; yet another episode of that series featured Hoyt working alongside Barbara Luna and Arnold Moss. Hoyt and Bissell also appeared together in a 1957 episode of the western anthology series Zane Grey Theater; Hoyt went on to appear a few more times on that series, working with Bill Erwin and George D. Wallace in the process. He also appeared in two episodes of Bonanza, including a 1962 episode in which he played a vindictive judge who nearly hangs a physician who couldn't save the judge's wife. Coincidentally, the part of the physician was played by DeForest Kelley, who went on to succeed Hoyt in the role of chief medical officer of the . Interestingly enough, Hoyt also appeared in a 1959 episode of another Western, The Rifleman alongside Bill Quinn, who played David McCoy in . That episode also featured series regular Paul Fix, the man who immediately succeeded Hoyt as chief medical officer of the Enterprise. That same year, Hoyt also appeared with his future castmate from "The Cage", Meg Wyllie, in an episode of Peter Gunn. Reggie Nalder also appeared in that episode.
Other programs on which Hoyt appeared ranged from sitcoms like Make Room for Daddy, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, , Petticoat Junction, The Munsters, Get Smart, The Beverly Hillbillies, and The Flying Nun, to more serious shows such as Johnny Midnight which featured another future castmate from "The Cage", Majel Barrett, , The Untouchables, , I Spy, , and Ironside. He also appeared in multiple episodes of and . In addition, he had roles in two episodes of The Twilight Zone, including 1961's "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?", opposite Original Series guest actor Morgan Jones and guest actor Bill Erwin. 
He was also seen in three episodes of , each co-starring fellow Original Series alumni: "Don't Open Till Doomsday" with David Frankham, Anthony Jochim and Robert C. Johnson; "The Bellero Shield" with Sally Kellerman; and "I, Robot" with Marianna Hill, Peter Brocco, and Hoyt's castmate from "The Cage", Leonard Nimoy.
Hoyt's later genre credits include two guest spots on , on which Whit Bissell, James Darren, and Lee Meriwether were regulars, and two spots on the series (along with Morgan Woodward appearing in one episode), as well as appearances on the cult shows (starring John Fiedler, in an episode with Paul Baxley and Andrew Robinson) and Battlestar Galactica (with John Colicos, Anthony De Longis, Lance LeGault, and Bruce Wright, directed by Winrich Kolbe). In an episode of "The Six Million Dollar Man," Hoyt had a small part as a scientist with David Opatoshu as another scientist.
==== TV movies and mini-series ====
Hoyt was among several Trek alumni to have roles in the 1977 mini-series The Rhinemann Exchange. His fellow Trekkers on this series were René Auberjonois, Stephen Collins, Jeremy Kemp, and Kate Woodville. Hoyt was also cast in a handful of TV movies, including 1967's Winchester 73 (with Barbara Luna and Paul Fix) and 1972's Welcome Home, Johnny Bristol, which co-starred Brock Peters, Richard Evans, and Alan Bergmann.
==== Regular roles ====
In 1964, Hoyt was among the regulars of a sitcom series entitled Tom, Dick and Mary, but that show only lasted for twelve episodes. From 1972 through 1974, Hoyt played the role of Martin Peyton on Return to Peyton Place, which co-starred fellow Original Series veterans James Doohan, Julie Parrish, and Warren Stevens. Perhaps Hoyt's best-remembered TV role, however, was that of Grandpa Stanley Kanisky on the Nell Carter series Gimme a Break!. Hoyt joined the cast of this series in its second season in 1982 and stayed with it until its cancellation in 1987, after which he retired from acting. He passed away just four years later.
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