| William Talman | |
|---|---|
William Talman in The Hitch-Hiker (1953). |
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| Born | William Whitney Talman, Jr. February 4, 1915 Detroit, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | August 30, 1968 (aged 53) Encino, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Film and television actor |
| Years active | 1959–1967 |
| Spouse | Lynne Carter (1942-1952) (divorced) 1 child Barbara Read (1953-1959) (divorced) 2 children Margaret Flanagan (1961-1968) (his death) 2 children |
William Whitney Talman, Jr. (February 4, 1915 – August 30, 1968) was an American television and movie actor, who played Los Angeles District Attorney Hamilton Burger in the long-running series Perry Mason.
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Talman was born in Detroit, Michigan to Ada Barber and William Whitney Talman, a vice president of an electronics company. His maternal grandparents, Catherine Gandy and James Wells Barber, were immigrants from England.[1]
He founded the drama club at the Cranbrook Schools in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He continued to act at Dartmouth College and the University of Michigan. After college he worked in summer stock and at an iron foundry, paper mills, boat yards, and as an automobile salesman.
He served for 30 months in the army in the Pacific in World War II, beginning his service as a private on February 4, 1942 at Camp Upton in Yaphank, (Long Island) New York. He was ultimately commissioned a major during the war.
Before his iconic television role, he worked on the Broadway stage and in movies. He played a sadistic psychopathic killer in Ida Lupino's 1953 film noir, The Hitch-Hiker.[2] The New York Times said of him: "William Talman, as the ruthless murderer, makes the most of one of the year's juiciest assignments."[3] But in the 1952 thriller Beware, My Lovely, about a war widow who is terrorized by a madman in her home, a photograph of Talman is used for the picture of her late, heroic husband.
Aside from his role in Perry Mason, he also guest-starred in various television series. He appeared in a first season episode of The Invaders, Quantity: Unknown. This would be his last on-screen acting role before his death.[4]
Originally Talman auditioned for the title role of Perry Mason and Raymond Burr auditioned for the role of Hamilton Burger. Perry Mason creator and author, Erle Stanley Gardner, however, was present and demanded that the actors switch parts. Burr was then given the title role and Talman got the role of Burger. Talman, as Burger, would go on to lose all but three cases in the nine-year series, including a record two separate murder trials in the final episode. He called his record "the longest losing streak in history".
William Talman was fired from Perry Mason for a short period in 1960. Sheriff's deputies, suspicious of marijuana use, raided a party on March 13, 1960, in a private home in Beverly Hills at which Talman was a guest.[5] The deputies reported finding Talman and other defendants in the nude. A morals charge was made against Talman (vagrancy charges and lewd conduct was made against others at the party), but municipal judge Adolph Alexander dismissed the charges against Talman and the others on June 18 for lack of proof. "I don’t approve of their conduct," the judge ruled, "but it is not for you and me to approve but to enforce the statutes."[6] Despite this Talman was fired by CBS who refused to give a reason.[7] Talman was rehired after producer Gail Jackson made a request of CBS.[8]
Talman was married three times. His first wife was the actress Lynne Carter – their marriage lasted from just before Talman left for active service in 1942 to September 1952 and produced one daughter, Lynda. His second wife was the actress Barbara Read. They had one daughter, Barbie, and one son, William Whitney Talman III. The couple divorced on August 23, 1960. His third wife was Margaret Flanagan whom he married in 1963. Margaret had a son (Steve) and daughter (Debbie) from a previous marriage. William and Margaret had two children: a son, Timothy, and a daughter, Susan. Widow Margaret Talman outlived Talman by 34 years, until her death in January 2002, at age 73.
Talman is also known for being the first actor in Hollywood to film an anti-smoking commercial for the American Cancer Society. A lifelong heavy smoker, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and knew he was dying when he filmed the commercial. The short film began with the words, "Before I die I want to do what I can to leave a world free of cancer for my six children ... " Talman requested that the commercial not be aired until after his death.
He had made another such commercial, which opened with his voice-over and a picture of his home, followed by filmed shots of his wife and kids, then a still of himself "with a friend of mine you might recognize," Raymond Burr, from the Perry Mason TV series. He then said, "You know, I didn't mind losing those courtroom battles, but I'm in a battle now I don't want to lose at all. Because if I lose it it means losing my wife and those kids you just met. I've got lung cancer...If you don't smoke, don't start. If you do smoke, quit! Don't be a loser."
Four weeks after filming the second ad, Talman died on August 30, 1968, at the age of 53, and was buried in the George Washington Section, 2nd Terrace, at Forest Lawn – Hollywood Hills Cemetery in Los Angeles. In January 2002, his widow Margaret Louise Talman joined him there, at the time of her death, at age 73.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1949 | Red, Hot and Blue | Bunny Harris | |
| 1949 | The Woman on Pier 13 | Bailey, younger henchman | |
| 1950 | The Kid From Texas | Minninger | |
| 1950 | Armored Car Robbery | Dave Purvis Martin Bell |
|
| 1951 | The Racket | Officer Bob Johnson | |
| 1952 | One Minute to Zero | Col. Joe Parker | |
| 1953 | The Hitch-Hiker | Emmett Myers | |
| 1953 | City That Never Sleeps | Hayes Stewart | |
| 1954 | Lux Video Theatre | Brad Ringer | Pick of the Litter |
| 1955 | Big House U.S.A. | William 'Machine Gun' Mason | |
| 1955 | Four Star Playhouse | Eddie | Eddie's Place |
| 1955 | Crashout | Luther Remsen alias Swanee Rawlins aka Reverend Remington |
|
| 1955 | Smoke Signal | Capt. Harper | |
| 1955 | Cavalcade of America | Wes Hardin | The Texas Rangers |
| 1955 | Two-Gun Lady | Marshal Dan Corbin | |
| 1955 | TV Reader's Digest | Old Master Detective | |
| 1955 | Science Fiction Theatre | Norman Conway | The Water Maker |
| 1955 | The Ford Television Theatre | Jock McLain | South of Selangor |
| 1956 | Screen Director's Playhouse | Barney | Number Five Checked Out |
| 1956 | Uranium Boom | Grady Mathews | |
| 1956 | The Man is Armed | Hackett | |
| 1956 | Telephone Time | Lew Reese | Scio, Ohio |
| 1956 | Telephone Time | Undetermined Role | The Sergeant Boyd Story |
| 1956 | I've Lived Before | writer | |
| 1956 | Climax! | The Louella Parsons Story | |
| 1956 | Climax! | Joe MacKenzie | Sit Down with Death |
| 1956 | Climax! | Stan | Dark Wall |
| 1957 | Joe Dakota | writer | |
| 1957 | The Persuader | Matt Bonham Mark Bonham |
|
| 1957 | Hell on Devil's island | Bayard | |
| 1957 | Trackdown | Blaine Sand | Like Father |
| 1957– 1966 |
Perry Mason | Hamilton Burger | 208 episodes |
| 1958 | Climax! | Gene | Scream in Silence |
| 1958 | Tombstone Territory | Logan Beatty | The Return of the Outlaw |
| 1958 | Wagon Train | Walt Archer | The Sarah Drummond Story |
| 1958 | Alcoa Theatre | Lt. Herman Brule | Disappearance |
| 1958 | Cimmaron City | Mr. Conway | To Become a Man |
| 1960 | Have Gun – Will Travel | George Jondill | The Shooting of Jessie May |
| 1961 | Have Gun – Will Travel | Sheriff | Long Way Home |
| 1963 | Stump the Stars | Himself | July 8, 1963 |
| 1963 | Gunsmoke | Race Fallon | Legends Don't Sleep |
| 1966 | The Wild Wild West | Sheriff | The Night of the Man-Eating House |
| 1967 | The Virginian | writer A Welcoming Town |
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| 1967 | The Ballad of Josie | District Attorney Charlie Lord | |
| 1967 | The Invaders | Colonel Frank Griffith | Quantity: Unknown |