RIP Orson Bean and Robert Conrad
Two actors best known for their work in the 1960’s passed away last week; neither was a major award-winning actor, but both were outstanding in their particular niche (whatever that might be).
Orson Bean is the kind of actor I have trouble describing to a millennial, someone who was ubiquitous on television in the 60’s and 70’s but not associated with any particular project. He voiced Bilbo Baggins in the Rankin-Bass 1977 animated version of The Hobbit, then later voiced both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in the 1980 sequel Return of the King (apparently taking on the entire trilogy was beyond Rankin-Bass’ resources). I am not familiar with the latter, but I own The Hobbit even though the transfer to VHS (this was before DVDs) is dim and the sound is sometimes hard to make out. The Rankin-Bass productions were never masterpieces of the animator’s art, so they relied heavily on the vocal talents of the actors. Bean’s soft cadence and folksy, light New England accent were a perfect match for Bilbo Baggins, the small Hobbit who played such a large role in the Tolkein fantasy series.
Bean’s other memorable role was as the nutty business owner Dr. Lester in Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze’s paean to utter insanity, Being John Malkovich. One of the keys to the success of the film was grounding its completely insane plot in the seeming realities of the real world. Orson Bean always had a slightly off-kilter demeanor, and Jonze used it perfectly.
I read one obit that said Bean was struck by a car after “darting” into traffic. When I am 91 years old I hope I am still able to “dart.”
Robert Conrad also had his own distinctive on-screen demeanor, one quite different from Orson Bean’s. One of Conrad’s best known bits was appearing in a commercial where he dared people to knock a battery off of his shoulder. He always came across as combative, physical, and intense.
Conrad was, of course, best known in the role of Jim West in the original series The Wild Wild West. The TV series has spawned two TV movie sequels and a big budget film version starring Will Smith, but for some reason all of these efforts treated the source material as a comedy. The movie, which is one of the biggest screen fiascoes of all time, probably ended any hope for a follow up basic accurately on the source material.
I read an obit for Conrad that said that Wild Wild West was Steampunk before Steampunk had been invented, which is a nice description. The series fused the remaining fondness for westerns left over from the 1950’s with the James Bond mania that swept the world in the 1960s. The series followed the adventures of two Secret Service agents named Jim West and Artemis Gordon as they foiled plots to take over the western US, or take over the entire US, or even take over the world. Gordon was an actor, a master of disguise, and a scientific genius; West was an ex-Civil War officer who could beat up as many as five men at a time and seduce any woman with a wink and a grin. The show was usually science fiction, but some episodes were straight westerns (Night f the Jack of Diamonds), some were fantasy (Night of the Lord of Limbo), and a couple were Gothic horror (Night of the Maneating House).
The show was known for its use of scientific gadget that were improbable in the 1870’s setting (it always amused me when a machine had blinking lights as this was well before Edison invented the light bulb). Conrad was vocal about doing his own stunts; he once went to swing from a chandelier, missed, and struck his head on the concrete floor nearly killing himself. Ross Martin, who played Gordon, said on a talk show, “He does all his own stunts, and I do all my own acting.”
For an actor with, shall we say, a somewhat limited range, Conrad had a long career. He later starred in the series Black Sheep Squadron (also known as Baa Baa Black Sheep) about pilots in the Pacific during World War II, for which he garnered a Golden Globes nomination for Best Actor in a Drama. He also starred in a number of other series all of which lasted no more than one season.
I think one of his most notable acting performance was as the guest murderer on the Columbo episode, An Exercise in Fatality. He played a character based on Jack LaLanne, a fitness guru named Milo Janus who owned a series of gyms from which he had been embezzling. Janus was unlike the typical Columbo murderer, who were usually urbane, intellectual jerks; Janus was physical and unpretentious. Conrad was 39 at the time but the character of Janus was 52, which upset Conrad at the time but was supposed to emphasize that Janus was in incredible shape. The script made good use of Conrad’s image as a physically fit tough guy, yet Conrad made the character smart enough to challenge Lt. Columbo.
RIP, Orson Bean and Robert Conrad. It’s hard to imagine two such different actors passing away on the same day.
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