Willard Waterman
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Willard Waterman (b. Willard Lewis Waterman, August 29, 1914 in Madison, Wisconsin; d. February 2, 1995 in Burlingame, California) was a character actor on movies, television and radio, remembered best for succeeding Harold Peary as the title character of The Great Gildersleeve at the height of that show's popularity.
Waterman landed such a plum role after Peary — unable to convince sponsor and show owner Kraft Cheese Company (as it was known then) to allow him an ownership stake in the show, and impressed with better capital-gains deals CBS was willing to offer performers in the high-tax late 1940s — decided to move from NBC to CBS during the latter's famous talent raids. Unfortunately for Peary, Kraft refused to move the show to CBS and hired Waterman to take over as the stentorian Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve.
There was no small irony involved. Waterman attended the University of Wisconsin in the 1930s, where he acted in student plays, and was a friend of Uta Hagen. He began his radio career in Chicago, where he met and replaced Peary on another show in the 1930s, Tom Mix, Ralston Sharpshooter. Not only did the two men become longtime friends but Waterman's own booming voice resembled Peary's almost exactly (Waterman even looked as though he could have been Peary's brother), though he refused to appropriate Peary's famous half-leering, half-embarrassed Gildersleeve laugh. Waterman stayed with Gildersleeve from 1950-1957, on radio and in an ill-fated television version syndicated in 1955.
At the same time he did Gildersleeve, Waterman had a recurring role as Mr. Merriweather in the short-lived but respected radio comedy vehicle for Ronald Colman and his wife Benita Hume, The Halls of Ivy. Waterman's pre-Gildersleeve radio career, in addition to Tom Mix, had included at least one starring vehicle, a short-lived situation comedy called Those Websters that premiered in 1945. He also had radio roles between the mid-1930s and 1950 on such shows as Chicago Theater of the Air (variety) and Harold Teen (comedy), and four soap operas: Girl Alone, The Guiding Light, Lonely Women, The Road of Life, Kay Fairchild, Stepmother.
Waterman's later career included supporting roles in numerous films and television shows, including appearances in such shows as Lawman, 77 Sunset Strip, The Dick Van Dyke Show, F Troop, and Vacation Playhouse. He was all but retired from acting after 1973, though in 1980 he appeared in the "Boss and Peterson" radio commercial for Sony, for which he received a Clio Award. [1]
