Herb Vigran

Herb Vigran
Born	Herbert Vigran (1910-06-05)June 5, 1910 Cincinnati, Ohio
Died	November 29, 1986(1986-11-29) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Cremation
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1934–1986
Spouse(s)	Belle Mary Vigran (?-1986) (his death)

Herbert "Herb" Vigran (Sunday, June 5, 1910 – Saturday, November 29, 1986) was a well-known American character actor in Hollywood from the 1930s to the 1980s. Over his 50-year career, he made over 350 television and film appearances.

Career

Vigran was a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, but his family moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he was reared. He graduated with a law degree from Indiana University School of Law but later chose to pursue acting.

After starting out on Broadway, he soon moved to Hollywood with no money^[1] and only the Broadway acting experience. In 1939, Vigran's agent helped him secure a lead in the radio drama Silver Theatre. The actor had a $5 recording made of the radio show and used it as a demo to get other jobs with his unique voice.^[1] He performed in radio shows with the likes of Jack Benny,^[2][3] Bob Hope, Lucille Ball and Jimmy Durante.^[4]

He later had hundreds of television appearances on shows like Adventures of Superman (six episodes), Dragnet (11 episodes), I Love Lucy (four episodes), The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (seven episodes), Perry Mason (two episodes), Dragnet 1967 (seven episodes), and The Brady Bunch (two episodes). Vigran had a recurring role as Judge Brooker in Gunsmoke between 1970-1975. He appeared in a number of I Love Lucy episodes, and in the 1954 episode titled Lucy Is Envious, Vigran is the promoter who hired Lucy and Ethel to dress up as "Women From Mars" for a publicity stunt.^[5][6] With his bushy eyebrows and balding pate, he was easily cast in a wide variety of middle-aged "everyman" roles: cops, small-time crooks, judges, jurors, bartenders, repairmen, neighbors, shopkeepers, etc.^[7]

In the rock and roll movie Go, Johnny, Go (1959), Vigran played an assistant to promoter Alan Freed and performed dialogue scenes with rock legend Chuck Berry.^[8] He also provided the voice of "Whitney's boss" on the Arrowhead bottled-water television (animated) and radio commercials in the 1960s.

Personal life and death

In 1952, Vigran married the former Belle Pasternack. The couple had two sons.^[1]

Vigran was active up until his death from cancer on November 29, 1986 in Los Angeles. He was cremated.^{[citation needed]}

Theatre

Radio

Television

Films

Further reading

• Dunning, John (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. 

References

External links

• Herb Vigran at the Internet Movie Database
• Herb Vigran at the Internet Broadway Database
• Herb Vigran at Find a Grave