Orson Bean
Birthday:
Birthplace:
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"My name is Orson Bean. Harvard '47, Yale Nothing." Actually, that oft-repeated introduction is a double deception: actor Orson Bean didn't go to Harvard, and his name isn't really Orson Bean. As a boy magician, Dallas Frederick Burrows borrowed the first half of his stage name from another prestidigitator of note, Orson Welles. Bean made his legitimate stage bow in 1945, then worked up a nightclub comedy act which premiered in New York at the now-defunct Blue Angel (in 1954, he hosted a summer-replacement TV series emanating from this celebrated nightspot). Landing on Broadway in the 1953 production Men of Distinction, Bean won a Theatre World Award for his work in the 1954 revue John Murray Anderson's Almanac, and Critics' Circle Awards for his performances in Mister Roberts and Say Darling. His later stage credits included Broadway's Subways are for Sleeping (1962) and Never too Late (1964) not to mention his extensive tours in the Neil Simon-Burt Bacharah musical Promises, Promises. In films from 1955, Bean's best-received screen performance was as the testifying army physician in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). An inescapable presence on TV, Bean has participated in virtually every quiz show known to man, from the familiar (To Tell the Truth, I've Got a Secret) to the obscure (Laugh Line). He was also a regular as the ineffectual Reverend Brim on the Norman Lear syndicated series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman (1977) and Forever Fernword (1978), and more recently was seen on a weekly basis as cranky general store owner Loren Bray on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Women (1993- ). Outside of his showbiz activities, Bean has proven a difficult subject to categorize: blacklisted for his outspoken liberal views in the early 1950s, he was an ardent supporter of Richard M. Nixon in 1968. A man of many interests, Orson Bean was the founder of the arts-oriented 15th Street School of New York, the author of the oddball 1971 volume Me and the Orgon, and one of the charter members of The Sons of the Desert, the famed Laurel & Hardy appreciation society.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
51% | Equalizer 2 |
|
— | 2018 |
No Score Yet | A Golden Christmas 3 |
|
— | 2012 |
0% | Hating Breitbart |
|
$81.9k | 2012 |
No Score Yet | Ashley's Ashes |
|
— | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Safe Harbor |
|
— | 2010 |
No Score Yet | Safe Harbor |
|
— | 2009 |
No Score Yet | Mattie Fresno and the Holoflux Universe |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Crossroads |
|
— | 2006 |
75% | Alien Autopsy |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | The Lather Effect |
|
— | 2006 |
No Score Yet | Soccer Dog: European Cup |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Frank McKlusky, C.I. |
|
— | 2002 |
No Score Yet | Burning Down the House |
|
— | 2001 |
No Score Yet | The Gristle |
|
— | 2001 |
93% | Being John Malkovich |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Movie |
|
— | 1999 |
No Score Yet | Instant Karma |
|
— | 1990 |
No Score Yet | Final Judgment |
|
— | 1989 |
82% | Innerspace |
|
— | 1987 |
No Score Yet | The Movie Maker |
|
— | 1986 |
67% | The Return of the King |
|
— | 1980 |
69% | The Hobbit |
|
— | 1978 |
No Score Yet | Skateboard |
|
— | 1977 |
No Score Yet | Lola (Twinky) |
|
— | 1972 |
No Score Yet | The Star Wagon |
|
— | 1967 |
100% | Anatomy of a Murder |
|
— | 1959 |
No Score Yet | Playhouse 90 - Charley's Aunt |
|
— | 1957 |
No Score Yet | How to Be Very, Very Popular |
|
— | 1955 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
90% |
Superstore
2015
|
|
|
64% |
The Guest Book
2017-2018
|
|
|
85% |
Modern Family
2009-2020
|
|
|
72% |
Desperate Housewives
2004-2012
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Hot in Cleveland
2010-2015
|
|
|
55% |
The Women's Murder Club
2007-2008
|
|
|
83% |
How I Met Your Mother
2005-2014
|
|
|
65% |
Two and a Half Men
2003-2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Cold Case
2003-2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Becker
1998-2004
|
|
|
61% |
Ally McBeal
1997-2002
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Family Law
1999-2002
|
|
|
16% |
Normal, Ohio
2000
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The King of Queens
1998-2007
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Will & Grace
1998-2006
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
1993-1998
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Murder, She Wrote
1984-1996
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Facts of Life
1979-1988
|
|
|
82% |
The Twilight Zone
1959-1964
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
1976-1977
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Playhouse 90
|
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Quotes from Orson Bean's Characters
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