James Westerfield

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.

On the Waterfront

7.9

The Twilight Zone

8.4

True Grit

7.4

Hang 'em High

6.8

Bewitched

7.9

Bonanza

7.5

The Magnificent Ambersons

7.3

Birdman of Alcatraz

7.5

The Sons of Katie Elder

7.0

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

7.7

The Absent-Minded Professor

6.5

The Time Tunnel

7.6

The Andy Griffith Show

7.6

Man's Favorite Sport?

7.0

The Pride of the Yankees

7.4

Perry Mason

7.7

The Beverly Hillbillies

6.9

Lost in Space

7.1

Gunsmoke

6.6

Wild River

7.3

The Shaggy Dog

6.1

Homicidal

6.5

Decision at Sundown

6.3

The Wild Wild West

7.6

Son of Flubber

5.9

Lassie

6.1

The Chase

6.2

Green Acres

7.3

Cowboy

6.3

The Big Valley

6.1

Man with the Gun

6.2

Mannix

6.7

Undercurrent

5.8

The Violent Men

6.4

The Rifleman

7.1

Rawhide

7.1

The Lucy Show

7.1

The Proud Rebel

6.0

Maverick

6.8

Side Street

6.6

My Three Sons

6.5

Wanted: Dead or Alive

6.9

The Cobweb

5.8

The Hangman

6.2

Daniel Boone

6.9

Bikini Beach

5.7

Chief Crazy Horse

5.6

The Gunfight at Dodge City

5.6

That Funny Feeling

5.9

Away All Boats

5.1

Thriller

6.4

The Love God?

6.0

Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round

5.1

Blue

5.2

Three Hours to Kill

4.9

The Plunderers

5.8

Bat Masterson

6.3

Smith!

5.6

Studio One

4.7

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town

6.1

The Howards of Virginia

6.4

The Human Jungle

5.3

Dead Aim

3.2

The Scarlet Coat

6.4

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

5.5

Trackdown

6.4

The Rebel

5.3

Johnny Ringo

5.7

Lucy Gallant

7.0

The Tall Man

6.3

The 20th Century Fox Hour

5.2

The Philco Television Playhouse

6.0

State Trooper

5.0

Highway West

5.8

A Man Called Gannon

4.5

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

6.2

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse

5.3

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

6.2

Jungle Heat

4.3

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters

5.3

General Electric Theater

6.0

Going My Way

5.7

The Outcasts

5.3

The Adventures of Jim Bowie

3.7

The Dakotas

5.7

Mayberry R.F.D.

5.7

Three Brave Men

4.8

About Face

5.5

Around the World

5.0

Judd for the Defense

7.5

The Alaskans

5.5

Law of the Plainsman

6.0

The Texan

5.5

Tightrope

5.5

Scalplock

6.5

The Boy Who Stole the Elephant

4.0

Profiles in Courage

5.0

Inner Sanctum

7.0

The Walter Winchell File

5.0

The Asphalt Jungle

5.0

The Bachelor Party

0.0

The Further Adventures of Gallegher

0.0

Now You See It, Now You Don't

0.0

The Helen Morgan Story

0.0

Set This Town on Fire

0.0

Old Man

0.0

Bartleby

0.0

The Great Adventure

0.0

Straightaway

0.0

Crime Photographer

0.0