1913-03-22 ( 112 years old ) in Nashville, Tennessee, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James A. Westerfield (22 March 1913 – 20 September 1971) was an American actor of stage, film, and television.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife Dora Elizabeth Bailey, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan. (A news story in the June 12, 1949, issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls the information in the preceding sentence into question. It describes Westerfield as "the son of a famous producer-director" and says that he was "a youngster in Denver, Col.")
He became interested in theatre as a young man and in the 1930s joined Gilmor Brown's famed Pasadena Community Playhouse, appearing in dozens of plays. He played in numerous films following his debut in 1940, then went to New York City and appeared on Broadway, winning two New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for his supporting roles in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Detective Story. He then returned to Hollywood and made more than 40 more films. Westerfield maintained an interest in the theatre. He directed more than 50 musicals in a summer-musical tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and was the original stage director and producer for the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He directed three seasons of "Theatre Under the Stars" in Vancouver, British Columbia, and appeared in musical roles with the Detroit Civic Light Opera, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera.
On film, Westerfield had roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), On The Waterfront (1954), Lucy Gallant (1955), the 1957 Budd Boetticher-directed Western Decision at Sundown starring Randolph Scott, Cowboy (1958), a repeating role in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Man's Favorite Sport (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969).
Westerfield had many roles on television, including seven episodes as John Murrel from 1963 to 1964 on ABC's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Sheriff Bert Elmore in the 1957 episode, "The Case of the Angry Mourner." He also appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger in 1954 entitled "Texas Draw."
Westerfield's other appearances were on such series as The Rifleman, The Californians, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Alaskans, The Rebel, Straightaway, Going My Way, The Asphalt Jungle, Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, Daniel Boone, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gunsmoke. He played the circus leader, Dr. Marvello, in an episode of Lost in Space "Space Circus" (1966).
Westerfield as a young man was a roommate of fellow Pasadena Playhouse actor George Reeves. The two remained close friends until Reeves's death in 1959.
Westerfield was married to Alice G. Fay (an actress under the name Fay Tracey), who, along with his mother, survived him. Westerfield died from a heart attack in Woodlands Hills, California, at the age of fifty-eight.
Movies
Set This Town on Fire
1973-01-08
Dead Aim
1971-01-01
The Boy Who Stole the Elephant
1970-09-20
Bartleby
1969-10-10
The Love God?
1969-08-01
True Grit
1969-06-11
Smith!
1969-03-21
Now You See It, Now You Don't
1968-11-11
Blue
1968-05-09
Hang 'em High
1968-04-12
A Man Called Gannon
1968-03-08
Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round
1966-10-12
Scalplock
1966-04-10
The Further Adventures of Gallegher
1965-10-03
That Funny Feeling
1965-08-14
The Sons of Katie Elder
1965-06-23
Bikini Beach
1964-07-22
Man's Favorite Sport?
1964-01-31
Son of Flubber
1963-01-16
Birdman of Alcatraz
1962-07-04
Homicidal
1961-07-26
The Absent-Minded Professor
1961-03-16
The Plunderers
1960-11-05
Wild River
1960-05-26
The Hangman
1959-06-17
The Gunfight at Dodge City
1959-05-01
The Shaggy Dog
1959-03-19
Old Man
1958-11-20
The Proud Rebel
1958-07-01
Cowboy
1958-01-23
Decision at Sundown
1957-11-10
Jungle Heat
1957-07-22
The Helen Morgan Story
1957-05-16
Three Brave Men
1956-12-01
Away All Boats
1956-08-16
Man with the Gun
1955-11-05
Lucy Gallant
1955-10-20
The Scarlet Coat
1955-07-29
The Cobweb
1955-06-07
Chief Crazy Horse
1955-04-01
The Violent Men
1955-01-26
Three Hours to Kill
1954-11-04
The Human Jungle
1954-10-03
On the Waterfront
1954-06-22
The Bachelor Party
1953-10-11
The Whistle at Eaton Falls
1951-08-02
Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town
1950-04-01
Side Street
1950-03-23
The Chase
1946-11-16
Undercurrent
1946-11-11
Around the World
1943-11-27
The Pride of the Yankees
1942-07-14
The Magnificent Ambersons
1942-07-10
About Face
1942-04-16
Highway West
1941-08-07
The Howards of Virginia
1940-09-19
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