Orson Bean

**Orson Bean** (born Dallas Frederick Burrows, 22 July 1928) is an American film, television, and stage actor, as well as a comedian, writer, and producer. He was a panelist in several incarnations of *Match Game*:

* Match Game (1973)
* Match Game PM

## Early Life

Orson was born in Burlington, Vermont, the son of Marian Ainsworth (née Pollard) and George Frederick Burrows. His father was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a fund-raiser for the Scottsboro Boys' defense, and a twenty-year member of the campus police of Harvard College. Among his other relatives is Calvin Coolidge, who was president of the United States at the time of his birth and was his third cousin twice removed. Bean graduated from the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Between 1946 and the end of 1947, he served eighteen months in the United States Army. While stationed in postwar Japan, he developed and refined a magic act during his off-duty hours.

Following his military service, Bean began working in small venues as a stage magician before transitioning in the early 1950s to stand-up comedy. He studied theatre at HB Studio. It was during that time that he stopped using his birth name professionally and adopted the stage name Orson Bean. In an interview on *The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson* in 1974, Bean recounted the source of his new name. He credited its origin to a piano player named Val at "Hurley's Log Cabin", a restaurant and nightclub in Boston, Massachusetts, where he had once performed. According to Bean, every evening before he went on stage at the nightclub, Val would suggest to him a silly name to use when introducing himself to the audience. One night, for example, the piano player suggested "Roger Duck", but the young comedian got very few laughs after using that name in his performance. On another night, the musician suggested "Orson Bean", and the comedian received a great response from the audience, a reaction so favorable that it resulted in a job offer that same evening from a local theatrical booking agent. Given his success on that occasion, Bean decided to keep using the odd-sounding but memorable name.

## Career

In 1952, Bean made a guest appearance on NBC Radio's weekly hot-jazz series *The Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street*. His vocal mannerisms were ideal for the mock-serious tone of the show, and he became the show's master of ceremonies ("Dr. Orson Bean") for its final season. Bean was a frequent guest on *The Tonight Show* (with both Jack Paar and Johnny Carson), and appeared on game shows originating from New York. He was a regular panelist on *To Tell the Truth* in versions from the late 1950s through 1991. On 5 July 1965, his father appeared as a subject of the panel and he had to disqualify himself from participating. He appeared on *Super Password*, among other game shows. He hosted a pilot for a revamped version of *Concentration* in 1985, which was picked up later on in 1987 as *Classic Concentration* with Alex Trebek.

Although Bean was placed on the Hollywood blacklist for attending Communist Party meetings while dating a member, he continued to work through the 1950s and 60s. He played the title character in the 1960 *Twilight Zone* episode "Mr. Bevis". In 1961, for the CBS anthology series *The DuPont Show with June Allyson*, he starred as John Monroe in "The Secret Life of James Thurber", based on the works of the American humorist James Thurber.

On Broadway he starred in the original cast of *Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?* in 1955. Then, in 1961, he was featured in *Subways Are for Sleeping*, for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actor in a Musical, as well as performing in *Never Too Late* the following year. In 1964, he produced the Off-Off-Broadway musical *Home Movies*, which won an Obie Award, and the same year appeared in the Broadway production *I Was Dancing*. He also voiced and sang the role of Charlie Brown on MGM's original 1966 concept album of the musical *You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown* and starred in *Illya Darling*, the 1967 musical adaptation of the film *Never on Sunday*.

Bean was a regular in both *Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman* and its spin-off *Fernwood 2Nite*. He also portrayed the shrewd businessman and storekeeper Loren Bray on the television series *Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman* throughout its six-year run on CBS in the 1990s. He played John Goodman's homophobic father on the sitcom *Normal, Ohio*. He played the main characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1977 and 1980 Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's *The Hobbit*, and *The Return of the King*. He also played Dr. Lester in Spike Jonze's 1999 film, *Being John Malkovich*.

Bean appeared as a patient in the final two episodes of *7th Heaven's* seventh season in 2003. In 2005, Bean appeared in the sitcom *Two and a Half Men* in an episode titled "Does This Smell Funny to You?", playing a former playboy whose conquests included actresses Tuesday Weld and Anne Francis. He appeared in the 2007 *How I Met Your Mother* episode "Slapsgiving" as Robin Scherbatsky's 41-year-old boyfriend, Bob. In 2009 he was cast in the recurring role of Roy Bender, a steak salesman, who is Karen McCluskey's love interest on the ABC series *Desperate Housewives*. At the age of 87, Bean in 2016 appeared in "Playdates", an episode of the American TV sitcom *Modern Family*. He appeared in a 2017 episode of *Teachers* (TV Land, season 2, episode 11, "Dosey Don't"). He appeared as the elderly Holocaust survivor in the 2018 film *The Equalizer 2*.