Clinton Sundberg

Clinton Sundberg

Sundberg in 1930.
Born Clinton Charles Sundberg
December 7, 1903
Appleton, Minnesota, U.S.
Died December 14, 1987 (aged 84)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
Cause of death
 heart failure
Occupation Actor
Years active 1934-1980

Clinton Charles Sundberg (December 7, 1903 - December 14, 1987) was a stage and film character actor.

Clinton Sundberg was born in Appleton, Minnesota on December 7, 1903, the son of Grace A. Coffey Sundberg. His birth year has been disputed with sources differing between 1903 and 1906. The Internet Movie Database and Internet Broadway Database claim 1903, while Allmovie states 1906, which is supported by The New York Times[1] and The Los Angeles Times[2] obituaries, which reported his age as 81. However the Social Security Death Index and the 1910 United States Census both confirm 1903.

Sundberg left teaching for acting and appeared in a number of Broadway plays. His most notable roles were Mr. Kraler in the original 1957 production of The Diary of Anne Frank and Mortimer Brewster (as a replacement) in the 1944 Arsenic and Old Lace.[1] He had numerous supporting roles in films of the 1940s and 1950s. He played Mike, the bartender who listens to Judy Garland's character's troubles in Easter Parade. One of Sundberg's most memorable roles was in the 1949 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film In the Good Old Summertime (which also starred Judy Garland and Van Johnson), in which he played the part of Rudy Hansen, a friendly co-worker and confidante of Johnson's character. He also played the hotel owner who hired Annie Oakley to enter the shooting contest against Frank Butler in Annie Get Your Gun.

Sundberg also made several television appearances, including two episodes of Perry Mason: "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito" in 1963 and "The Case of the Scarlet Scandal" in 1966. He also appeared in several television commercials.

In 1962, Sundberg was cast in the lead guest-starring role of Luther Boardman, a naive but troublesome newspaper publisher who comes to Laramie, Wyoming, to capture the story of "real West" gunfighters, in one of the last episodes, "The Man Behind the News", of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Lawman, starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop. Hal Baylor appears in the episode as the gunfighter Mort Peters, whom Boardman goads into a shootout with Troop.[3]

He died of heart failure in Santa Monica, California.

Partial filmography

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Clinton Sundberg, Actor, 81". The New York Times. December 25, 1987.
  2. ↑ "Actor Clinton Sundberg, 81". The Los Angeles Times. December 24, 1987.
  3. ↑ ""The Man Behind the New" (May 13, 1962)". Internet Movie Data Base. Retrieved June 14, 2013.

External links