Who Are Those Guys #3

May 13, 2011

While we’re on the subject of Peyton Place, perhaps it’s time to bring back an occasional feature of this blog.  That’s right, it’s time again for “Who Are Those Guys?” in which you, the reader, help put a name to the faces of some of television’s many uncredited small-part actors.

Peyton Place presents a particularly thorny knot of unidentified bit players.  Because the show’s regular cast was so large, guest stars were almost always out of luck when it came time to make up an episode’s end titles.

Among the familiar faces who passed through Peyton Place without screen credit are Milton Selzer, Dabbs Greer, Virginia Gregg, Myron Healey, Hari Rhodes, Don Collier, Jack Dodson, Bert Remsen, Greg Morris, Virginia Vincent, Don Hanmer, John Zaremba, Byron Morrow, Curt Conway, Gilbert Green, Maxine Stuart, Peter Hobbs, Bartlett Robinson, Paul Newlan, Amzie Strickland, Irene Tedrow, Val Avery, John Lasell, George Chandler, Eleanor Audley, Bill Zuckert, James Anderson, Charles Irving, Alberta Nelson, S. John Launer, Hugh Sanders, Meg Wyllie, Naomi Stevens, Ed Peck, William Sargent, William Wintersole, Rusty Lane, Owen Bush, Paul Sorensen, Walter Mathews, Ed Prentiss, Steven Marlo, Melinda Plowman, Nichelle Nichols, and a young Richard Dreyfuss.

Some of these unfortunate actors made multiple appearances without ever breaking into the credit roll.  Jim Boles and then Star Trek’s James Doohan were semi-regulars for a while, playing successive chauffeurs to town patriarch Martin Peyton.  Russ Meyer chum Stuart Lancaster – the leering old man from Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – popped up now and then over the years as Jerry, the printer, in Elliot Carson’s newspaper office.

All of the actors mentioned above are folks I spotted while watching the show.  But there are many more that I couldn’t identify.  Let’s take a look at just two.

During episodes 52 through 55, Norman Harrington (Christopher Connelly) gets beaten up by a couple of teenaged punks in a storyline that eventually gets him a girlfriend (Patricia Morrow as Rita Jacks).  One of the two toughs is played by an uncredited Mickey Dolenz, a year before he became one of The Monkees.  Does anyone recognize the other punk (below, left, with Dolenz)?

 

During episodes 77 through 80, Betty’s high school pal Janet Sinclair enters the maternity ward of the Peyton Hospital.  The unmarried Betty (Barbara Parkins) has just found out that she’s pregnant with Rodney’s (Ryan O’Neal) child, so the point of the Janet Sinclair arc is basically to rub salt in her wounds.  Janet is played by Bonnie Beecher (unbilled, naturally, and pictured below), an ingenue who appeared on The Twilight Zone and Star Trek before leaving acting to marry Wavy Gravy.

 

However, I can’t figure out who plays Janet’s husband Bob in two brief scenes.  Here he is, between O’Neal and Parkins:

 

Submit your answers in the comments!

15 Responses to “Who Are Those Guys #3”

  1. Fantomex Says:

    I believe that Robert Blake is the person in between O’Neal and Parkins.

  2. Stephen Bowie Says:

    Fantomex, that guy does indeed look a bit like Robert Blake, but it’s not him.

    Keep in mind, the subjects of these “Who Are Those Guys?” are all going to be pretty obscure, or else some nerd like me would already have ID’d them.

  3. sz Says:

    I think the actor next to Mickey Dolenz is an actor named Don Chastain. I was watching an episode of Hawaii Five-O recently and the actor in the photo resembles him.


  4. The “thug” next to Dolenz looks to me like a young William H. Macy.

  5. Christophe Vetter Says:

    Hello! could it be possible to give the characters name played by the list of players included in your very intersting article?
    Another question, does Fox has (or had) a cast list for those actresses and actors, as I suppose there were contracts?
    Thank you for your article and your wonderful blog!
    Christophe, a french fan of “Peyton Place”!

  6. gregory hines Says:

    a great article. as a fan of the show from the very beginning, i’ve been facinated by those actors in smaller roles. watching the DVD’s last week i came across my friend Tom Troupe as “Harry Fletcher in 2 episodes from 1965 in scenes with Leslie Nielsen as “Kenneth Markham”.

  7. gregory hines Says:

    i think Don Collier played the salesman that was periodically trying to date Dorothy Malone’s Constance

  8. Terry Johnson Says:

    I don’t think that it is Don Chastain. It does resemble William H. Macy.

    • gregory hines Says:

      i believe the other guy with Mickey Dolenz in Stephen Young, who went onto star for Paul Monash in JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE 1967-69

      • Stephen Bowie Says:

        Oh — now that’s interesting. Now why didn’t I think of Stephen Young? Makes perfect sense, and does look like him. I’ll have to compare some video.

        (William H. Macy would’ve been about 14 or 15 at the time, so he can safely be ruled out.)


  9. Glad to have found this website being a tv/movie adficiando I’m so happy to see these character actors get the recognition that the “Stars” generally get…it’s great seeing each one get some kind of mention because they’re all integral to the picture or show they’re in…thank you for giving us a venue to access tv history & the actors who may Not have made it “big” but we’re essential in the making of a great or even not so great film or TV show!

  10. Carol Crawley Says:

    Thomas Hayden Church

  11. gregory hines Says:

    it would not be Thomas Hayden Church (Born Jun 17, 1960)
    …but it is not Stephen Young (as I previously guessed)

  12. MC Antil Says:

    I’m thinking the actor playing the husband is Michael Callan. Looks a lot like him.

  13. Tony Says:

    Here’s another toughie: who played Francis the lady at the desk of the Colonial Post Inn in Episode 142 of PP (AKA S2 E28)?


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