Edward Binns

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Edward Binns
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedDecember 4, 1990(1990-12-04) (aged 74)
, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1948–1988
Spouses
  • Marcia Legere
    (m. 1956; div. 1984)
  • (m. 1984)
Children1

Edward Binns (September 12, 1916 – December 4, 1990) was an American actor. He had a wide-spanning career in film and television, often portraying competent, hard working and purposeful characters in his various roles. He is best known for his work in such acclaimed films as 12 Angry Men (1957), North by Northwest (1959), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), Fail Safe (1964), The Americanization of Emily (1964), Patton (1970) and The Verdict (1982).

Early life

Binns was born in

née Bracken) and Edward Thomas Binns.[1] His family were Quakers.[2] He graduated from the Pennsylvania State University[3] in 1937.[4]

Career

Stage

Binns's theatrical career began shortly after his 1937 college graduation, when he participated in a repertory theatre in Cleveland. He followed that with a year as actor and director of the Pan-American Theatre in Mexico City. Next, he went to the University of Pennsylvania as an instructor, directing stock theater companies.[4]

One of the first members of the newly formed Actors Studio, Binns began studying with Elia Kazan in late 1947.[5] His Broadway credits include Command Decision (1947), Caligula (1959) and Ghosts (1982).[6]

Military service

Beginning in 1942, Binns served in the

China-Burma-India Theater.[4]

Film

After appearing in a number of Broadway plays, Binns began appearing in films in the early 1950s. Some of his roles included playing Juror No. 6 in Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957) and Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith in the Academy Award-winning film Patton (1970) starring George C. Scott.

Binns was featured as a police detective in

Fail-Safe (1964). His other films include Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), The Americanization of Emily (1964), The Plainsman (1966), Night Moves (1975) and The Verdict
(1982).

Television

Binns starred as Lieutenant Roy Brenner in Brenner, a crime drama on CBS (1959–1962).[7]

He also appeared in "more than 500 television programs, live, taped and film",

Thriller
.

Binns appeared as Colonel Robert Baldwin with June Allyson as his screen wife in the 1961 episode "Without Fear" of Allyson's CBS anthology series, The DuPont Show with June Allyson. Also that year he made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, first as Lloyd Castle in "The Case of the Angry Dead Man", then as Charles Griffin in "The Case of the Malicious Mariner", and in an episode of The Asphalt Jungle. He had a supporting rôle in The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series) as General Walters, in The Long Morrow and a leading part in the 1960 episode, I Shot an Arrow into the Air. He portrayed a marine biologist obsessed with a whale in the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea episode "The Ghost of Moby Dick".

Binns appeared in two episodes of ABC's The Untouchables as gunman Steve Ballard and in a later episode as a doctor and also in an episode of Combat!.

He was a cast member of CBS's

Robert Wagner. Binns also appeared in one episode of the ABC series A Man Called Shenandoah, with Robert Horton, as General Korshak on CBS's M*A*S*H, in an episode of NBC's The Brian Keith Show, an episode of The Rockford Files, and in three episodes of ABC's The Fugitive. He appeared in the season 5 finale (Jury of One) of Hawaii Five-O
in 1973.

Personal life

Binns married journalist Marcia Legere in December 1956. They had one daughter and divorced in 1984.[4] At the time of his death, he was married to actress Elizabeth Franz.[8]

Death

Binns died of a heart attack at the age of 74 while traveling from New York City to his home in Connecticut. His ashes were scattered at his residence.[9]

Partial filmography

Virginia Gregg and Binns in Portland Exposé (1957)
Binns (right) in Fail-Safe (1964)

References

External links