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James Westerfield

James Westerfield

Actor · 1913 – 1971 · 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.

Movies24

  • Movie7.8

    On the Waterfront

    1954 · 1.8K votes

  • Movie7.3

    True Grit

    1969 · 885 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Hang 'em High

    1968 · 887 votes

  • Movie7.0

    The Sons of Katie Elder

    1965 · 314 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Birdman of Alcatraz

    1962 · 353 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Man with the Gun

    1955 · 59 votes

  • Movie6.5
  • Movie7.3

    The Pride of the Yankees

    1942 · 148 votes

  • Movie7.0

    Man's Favorite Sport?

    1964 · 153 votes

  • Movie7.3

    The Magnificent Ambersons

    1942 · 494 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Undercurrent

    1946 · 53 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Proud Rebel

    1958 · 52 votes

  • Movie5.6
  • Movie6.3

    The Shaggy Dog

    1959 · 100 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Chief Crazy Horse

    1955 · 26 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Cowboy

    1958 · 74 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Violent Men

    1955 · 60 votes

  • Movie5.7

    The Cobweb

    1955 · 36 votes

  • Movie6.5

    The Hangman

    1959 · 39 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Wild River

    1960 · 107 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Away All Boats

    1956 · 24 votes

  • Movie5.1

    Three Hours to Kill

    1954 · 17 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Homicidal

    1961 · 89 votes

  • Movie5.9

    Blue

    1968 · 22 votes

Series24

  • TV7.7

    Perry Mason

    1957 · 139 votes

  • TV7.5

    Bonanza

    1959 · 500 votes

  • TV6.8

    Mannix

    1967 · 56 votes

  • TV7.0

    Maverick

    1957 · 43 votes

  • TV7.6

    The Andy Griffith Show

    1960 · 175 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Rifleman

    1958 · 54 votes

  • TV7.8

    Bewitched

    1964 · 764 votes

  • TV6.3

    Lassie

    1954 · 74 votes

  • TV5.4

    Studio One

    1948 · 13 votes

  • TV8.5

    The Twilight Zone

    1959 · 1.1K votes

  • TV6.6

    My Three Sons

    1960 · 41 votes

  • TV7.0

    Daniel Boone

    1964 · 34 votes

  • TV6.9

    The Beverly Hillbillies

    1962 · 139 votes

  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV6.2
  • TV7.6

    The Wild Wild West

    1965 · 86 votes

  • TV6.2

    The Big Valley

    1965 · 59 votes

  • TV6.6
  • TV7.2

    Rawhide

    1959 · 49 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Lucy Show

    1962 · 53 votes

  • TV7.1

    Wanted: Dead or Alive

    1958 · 38 votes

  • TV6.7

    Gunsmoke

    1955 · 119 votes

  • TV7.3

    Lost in Space

    1965 · 137 votes

  • TV7.2

    Green Acres

    1965 · 80 votes