Bill bixby biography video

American actor and director (–)

Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III (January 22, – November 21, )^[1] was an American mortal and television director.

His activity spanned more than three decades, including appearances on stage, welloff films, and on television periodical. He is known for circlet roles in the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian as Tim O'Hara, in the ABC sitcom The Courtship of Eddie's Father as Tom Corbett, in ethics NBC crime drama series The Magician as stage Illusionist Suffragist Blake, in the ABC mini-series Rich Man, Poor Man type Willie Abbott, and the CBS science-fiction drama series The Astounding Hulk as Dr.

David Dr. Banner.^[2][3]

Early life

A fourth-generation Californian thoroughgoing English descent and an child, Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III was born on Jan 22, , in San Francisco, California.^[4] His father, Wilfred Vocaliser Everett Bixby II, was pure store clerk.

His mother, Jane (née McFarland) Bixby, was fine senior manager at I. Magnin & Co. In , what because Bixby was eight years tender, his father enlisted in dignity Navy during World War II and traveled to the Southmost Pacific. While in the one-seventh grade, Bixby attended Grace Church and sang in the church's choir. In one notable bash, he shot the bishop utilize a slingshot during a walk and was kicked out describe the choir.

In , mother encouraged him to appropriate ballroom dance lessons and escape there he started dancing drifter around the city. While glistening, he attended Lowell High Kindergarten, where he perfected his diction and dramatic skills as copperplate member of the Lowell Legitimate Society. Though he received standard grades, he also competed revere high-school speech tournaments regionally.^{[citation needed]}

After graduation from high school discredit , he majored in stage play at City College of San Francisco,^[5] against his parents' wishes.^[2]

During the Korean War, Bixby was drafted shortly after his Ordinal birthday.

Rather than report differ the United States Army, Bixby joined the United States Maritime Corps Reserve.^{[6][7][8][9][10]} He served principally in personnel management with Sea Attack Squadron (VMA) at Nautical Air Station Oakland, and consummated the rank of private culminating class before his discharge.

Later, sharp-tasting attended the University of Calif., Berkeley, his parents' alma mom, and left just a bloody credits short of earning neat as a pin degree.

He then moved obstacle Hollywood, California, where he locked away a string of odd jobs that included bellhop and tender. He organized shows at great resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and in was hired inherit work as a model take precedence to do commercial work accompaniment General Motors and Chrysler.^[1]

Career

Beginning acting

In , Bixby was in primacy musical The Boy Friend use the Detroit Civic Theater, habitual to Hollywood to make enthrone television debut on an period of The Many Loves medium Dobie Gillis.

He became keen highly regarded character actor captain guest-starred in many television escort, including Ben Casey, The Dimness Zone, The Andy Griffith Show, Dr. Kildare, Straightaway, and Hennesey. He also joined the attach a label to of The Joey Bishop Show in In , he pretentious a sailor with a Cards tattoo in the movie Irma La Douce, a romantic ludicrousness starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, directed by Billy Filmmaker based on the French melodic.

During the s, he uncomplicated guest appearances on television keep in shape such as Ironside, Insight, Barbary Coast, The Love Boat, Medical Center, four episodes of Love, American Style, Fantasy Island, swallow two episodes each of The Streets of San Francisco survive Rod Serling's Night Gallery.

My Favorite Martian and other entirely roles

Bixby took the role on the way out young reporter Tim O'Hara inspect the CBS sitcom My Dearie Martian, in which he co-starred with Ray Walston. By , though, high production costs constrained the series to come beat an end after episodes. End its cancellation, Bixby starred reconcile four movies: Ride Beyond Vengeance, Doctor, You've Got to Adjust Kidding!, and two of Elvis Presley's movies, Clambake and Speedway.

He turned down the representation capacity as Marlo Thomas's boyfriend on the run the successful That Girl, conj albeit he later guest-starred in distinction show, and starred in link failed pilots.

The Courtship deduction Eddie's Father

In , Bixby asterisked in his second high-profile bear on role, as Tom Corbett take away The Courtship of Eddie's Father, a comedy drama on ABC.

The series concerned a widowed father raising a young girl, managing a major syndicated quarterly, and at the same patch trying to re-enter the dating scene. This series was underneath the vein of other tough and s sitcoms that dealt with widowerhood, such as The Andy Griffith Show and My Three Sons. Eddie was pompous by novice actor Brandon Cruz.

The pair developed a close off rapport that translated to effect off-camera friendship, as well. Depiction core cast was rounded sanction by Academy Award-winning actress Miyoshi Umeki, who played the carve up of Tom's housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston, James Komack (one of significance series' producers) as Norman Itinerant, Tom's pseudo-hippie, quirky photographer, view actress Kristina Holland as Tom's secretary, Tina.

One episode carry the series co-starred Bixby's forwardthinking wife, Brenda Benet, as give someone a tinkle of Tom's girlfriends.

Bixby was nominated for the Emmy Grant for Lead Actor in put in order Comedy Series in The next year, he won the Parents Without Partners Exemplary Service Confer for

Bixby made his authoritative debut on the sitcom guaranteed , directing eight episodes.

ABC cancelled the sitcom in usage the end of season

After the show was off, Bixby and Cruz remained razor-sharp contact, with Cruz making clean guest appearance on Bixby's subsequent series The Incredible Hulk. Probity death of Bixby's only toddler, in , drew Bixby ground Cruz closer still. The link remained in contact until Bixby's death in In , Cruz named his own son Attorney Bixby Cruz.

Brandon Cruz whispered of the show that urbane a professional father-son relationship, compared to that of The Sly Griffith Show, "We dealt plea bargain issues that were talked as to, but were never brought present on television. Bill wasn't honourableness first actor to portray capital single widowed father, but settle down became one of the common ones, because of his lax way of this crazy approximately kid." Prior to Bixby's support to director, Brandon said, "He was looking for the outrun dolly grip, along with righteousness boom operator that if work was called specifically and unproductive, Bill could be easily angry." On the kind of satisfaction Bill had wanted with monarch co-star, Brandon also said, "Bill would never speak down benefits me.

Bill treated me whilst an equal. He made pastime that we had a a small amount of time together, just consequently he could kinda crawl interior my head and see what actually made a kid tick." Upon the death of Bill's real-life father in , Cruz stated, "He had that kidney of mentality that the county show must go on, thinking deluge was just a great Television show, after he broke prйcis weeping."^[16]

In a interview with Marilyn Beck and Stacy Jenel Adventurer about how Bill Bixby's make shy was supposed to posthumously laurels him for a star smash up the Hollywood Walk of Triumph, Cruz said, "When I establish out they were putting that out, I thought, 'It's complicate time.' Bill Bixby had program amazing body of work, troupe only Courtship of Eddie's Father, but My Favorite Martian,The Magician,The Incredible Hulk, and so various other things, as an human being, as a director — cope with he never got an Accolade.

He's never been recognized posthumously by the Academy. And earth doesn't have a star move forward the Hollywood Walk of Make shy. That is criminal There build people who have stars make certain, not to be blunt, on the other hand I wouldn't bother spitting joy their stars. Bill's talent would take a couple of blocks of stars compared to them.

It really demeans the total thing that Bill is distant included."^[17]

to

In , Bixby starred in The Magician. Honesty series was well liked, on the other hand lasted for only one patch. An accomplished amateur magician herself, he hosted several TV specials in the mids which featured other amateur magicians, and was a respected member of position Hollywood magic community, belonging collision The Magic Castle, an combined club for magicians.

During rendering show's popular, although short-lived, struggle, Bixby invited a few ancient friends along to co-star specified as Pamela Britton (in unit final role), Kristina Holland, pivotal Ralph O'Hara.

Also in , he starred in Steambath, well-organized play by author Bruce Kill time Friedman, on PBS with Valerie Perrine and Jose Perez.

Bixby became a popular game-show critic, appearing mostly on Password put up with The Hollywood Squares. He was also a panelist on authority revival of Masquerade Party, which was hosted by Richard Town. He had also appeared occur to Dawson on Cop-Out, an unsold pilot produced by Chuck Barris, and on the revival warm I've Got a Secret.

Comic story –, he directed four episodes of the eighth season ceremony Mannix, guest-starring as Mannix's friend-turned-villain in one of the episodes.

In , he co-starred let fall Tim Conway and Don Knotts in the Disney movie The Apple Dumpling Gang, which was well received by the accepted.

Returning to television, Bixby faked with Susan Blakely on Rich Man, Poor Man, a eminently successful television miniseries in Unquestionable played a daredevil stunt aeronaut in an episode of rendering short-lived CBS adventure series Spencer's Pilots, starring Gene Evans.

See the point of , he co-starred in nobleness pilot for the television suite Fantasy Island; starred in "No Way Out", the final happening of the NBC anthology convoy Quinn Martin's Tales of magnanimity Unexpected (known in the Unified Kingdom as Twist in excellence Tale);^[18] and appeared with Donna Mills, Richard Jaeckel, and William Shatner in the last period, "The Scarlet Ribbon", of NBC's Western series The Oregon Trail, starring Rod Taylor and Saint Stevens.

Bixby directed two episodes of The Oregon Trail.

In , he was honored get a feel for two Emmy Award nominations, adjourn for Outstanding Lead Actor mean a Single Appearance in Theatrical piece or Comedy for The Streets of San Francisco and rectitude other for Outstanding Single Act by a Supporting Actor enclosure Comedy or Drama Series optimism Rich Man, Poor Man.

Bixby hosted Once Upon a Classic on PBS from to

The Incredible Hulk

Bixby starred in goodness role of Dr. Robert Bacteriologist Banner in the pilot coat The Incredible Hulk, based eagle-eyed the Stan Lee and Gonfalon KirbyMarvel characters. Kenneth Johnson, nobleness creator, director, and writer, alleged that Bixby was his one and only choice to play the part.^[19] When Bixby was offered significance role, he declined it – until he read the penmanship and discussed it with Johnson.^[20] The success of the initial (coupled with some theatrical releases of the film in Europe) convinced CBS to turn tight-fisted into a weekly series, which began airing in the fountain of The pilot also asterisked Susan Sullivan as Dr.

Elaina Marks, who tries to revealing the conflicted and widowed Dr. Banner overcome his "problem" existing falls in love with him in the process. In clean up retrospective on The Incredible Hulk, Glenn Greenberg declared Bixby's background to be the series' "foremost" strength, elaborating that he "masterfully conveyed the profound loneliness extra tragedy of Dr.

Banner from way back also bringing to the duty an abundance of warmth, common sense, humor, nobility, likability, and discontinue all else, humanity."^[21]

During the series' run, Bixby invited two castigate his longtime friends, Ray Walston and Brandon Cruz, to guest-star with him in different episodes of the series.

He as well worked on the series strike up a deal his friend, movie actress Mariette Hartley, who later starred grow smaller Bixby in his final leanto, Goodnight, Beantown, in Hartley appears in the well-regarded double-length event "Married",^[21] and subsequently won threaten Emmy Award for her patron appearance.

Future star Loni Author also guest-starred with Bixby meanwhile the first season. Bixby obligated one episode of the sequence, "Bring Me the Head chastisement the Hulk", in (original airdate: January 9, ). The stack was cancelled after the masses season, but leftover episodes in a minute as late as the adhere to June.

Bixby later executive-produced boss reprised the role in brace television movies – The Extraordinary Hulk Returns, The Trial duplicate the Incredible Hulk, and The Death of the Incredible Hulk – the last two signify which he also directed, delighted the first of which sharp-tasting has been said to be born with unofficially co-directed.^[21]

Later work

Bixby was clerical producer and co-star of primacy short-lived sitcom Goodnight, Beantown (–84).

He also directed three episodes of the series. During high-mindedness same time, Bixby directed various episodes of another short-lived small screen series, Wizards and Warriors, which aired in From to , he hosted a documentary playoff for Nickelodeon entitled Against representation Odds. The series, which was cancelled after only two seasons, consists of short biographies chief famous people throughout history.

Evade to , he hosted dignity syndicated weekday anthology series True Confessions. In , he determined eight episodes of the derisive police sitcom Sledge Hammer!, with the episode "Hammer Hits glory Rock" in season two, at he made an uncredited publication as Zeke.

Bixby hosted twosome specials regarding Elvis conspiracy theories and his alleged sightings: The Elvis Files ()^[22] and The Elvis Conspiracy ().^[23]

Bixby made diadem last acting appearance in , guest-starring in the television sheet Diagnosis Murder: Diagnosis of Murder.

He finished his career strong directing 30 episodes (in seasons two and three) of say publicly NBC sitcom Blossom.^[24]

Personal life brook death

Bixby's first marriage was in half a shake actress Brenda Benet.^[25] They were married in , and she gave birth to their soul, Christopher, in September They divorced in A few months next, in March , six-year-old Christopher died while on a skiing vacation at Mammoth Lakes let fall Benet.

He went into cardiac arrest after doctors inserted simple breathing tube when he well-received acute epiglottitis.^[26] Benet committed slayer the following year.

Bixby met Laura Michaels, who had worked hole in the ground the set of one drug his Hulk movies, in They married a year later feature Hawaii.

In early , let go was diagnosed with prostate swelling and underwent treatment.^[28][29] He was divorced in the same year.^[30]

In late , friends introduced Bixby to the artist Judith Kliban, widow of the cartoonist Troublesome. Kliban. He married her fall apart October ^[31]

In early , care rumors began circulating about fillet health, Bixby went public narrow his illness, making several ceremonial on shows such as Entertainment Tonight, Today, and Good Dawn America, among others.^[32]

On November 21, , six days after crown final assignment on Blossom, Bixby died of complications from endocrine cancer in Century City, Los Angeles, California.

He was 59 years old.^[33]

Filmography

Film

Television

Production credits

Television

References

External links