Parley Baer

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Parley Baer
Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
DiedNovember 22, 2002(2002-11-22) (aged 88)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting placeForest Lawn Memorial Park - Hollywood Hills Cemetery
OccupationActor
Years active1940–1997
Spouse
Ernestine Clarke
​
​
(m. 1946; died 2000)​
Children2
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service/branch United States Army Air Forces
Years of service1942–1946[1]
Rank Captain
Battles/warsWorld War II
Awards
World War II Victory Medal

Parley Edward Baer (August 5, 1914 – November 22, 2002) was an American actor in radio and later in television and film.[2] Despite dozens of appearances in television series and theatrical films, he remains best known as the original "Chester" in the radio version of Gunsmoke, and as the Mayor of Mayberry (Roy Stoner) in The Andy Griffith Show.

Early life, family and education

Parley Edward Baer was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. He studied drama at the University of Utah.[3]

Career

Baer had a

KSL
.

Circus

Early in his career, Baer was a circus ringmaster and publicist. He left those roles for military service in World War II. In the 1950s, he had a job training wild animals at Jungleland USA in Thousand Oaks, California. Still later, he served as a docent at the Los Angeles Zoo.[2]

Military

Baer was commissioned as an officer in the

service stars.[1][2]

Radio

Baer in the 1930s served on radio as director of special events for KSL.

Lux Radio Theater, The Six Shooter, and Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar
, to name a few.

In 1952, he began playing Chester, the trusty jailhouse assistant to

situation comedy The Harold Peary Show, as Doc Clemens on Rogers of the Gazette, and as additional characters on Fort Laramie and The Adventures of Philip Marlowe
.

Other recurring roles included Eb the farm hand on Granby's Green Acres (the radio predecessor to television's Green Acres), Gramps on The Truitts, and Rene the manservant on a radio version of The Count of Monte Cristo. His later radio work included playing Reginald Duffield and Uncle Joe Finneman on the Focus on the Family series Adventures in Odyssey in the 1980s and 1990s.

Radio playwright and director

Simon Legree in the 1969 KCET television reading of his 1938 radio play The Plot to Overthrow Christmas
.

Films and television

As an on-camera performer, Baer was recognizable by his distinctive voice, his paunchy appearance, and his balding head. Often he portrayed fussy, bossy, and/or obstinate officials or neighbors. Extended television roles included blustering, by-the-book Mayor Stoner on The Andy Griffith Show, the neighbor Darby on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, frequent guest appearances on The Addams Family as insurance man and city commissioner Arthur J. Henson, and in the late 1990s, Miles Dugan on The Young and the Restless. He also appeared as a telephone executive on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.

Baer guest-starred in the 1950s on

crime drama Johnny Midnight with Edmond O'Brien, and on the NBC children's western series, Fury with Peter Graves and Bobby Diamond. He made six guest appearances on Perry Mason during the last five seasons of the CBS
legal drama, including the role of Edward Farraday in the 1962 episode, "The Case of the Captain's Coins," and Willard Hupp in the 1963 episode, "The Case of the Bouncing Boomerang".

He also appeared on the ABC sitcom

The Roaring 20s, on NBC's crime drama Dan Raven starring Skip Homeier, and on the NBC family drama, National Velvet. Baer was cast twice on Walter Brennan's sitcom, The Real McCoys. He also guest-starred on the CBS sitcoms Dennis the Menace with Jay North, The Tom Ewell Show with Tom Ewell, and Angel, starring Annie Fargé. In the latter, he carried the lead as Dr. Mathews in the single episode "The Dentist", with Maudie Prickett
as his dental secretary.

In 1961, Baer guest-starred on

Target: The Corruptors in the episode "Journey into Mourning". He was cast as hotel owner Mr. Kringelein in the 1962 film, Gypsy, opposite Natalie Wood and Rosalind Russell
.

In 1963, Baer appeared with Charles Aidman and Karl Swenson in the three-part episode "Security Risk", a story of international blackmail and intrigue, on the CBS anthology series, GE True, hosted by Jack Webb.[citation needed]

In 1964, Baer was cast as a sheriff in an episode of Mickey Rooney's short-lived Mickey sitcom, and as a scientist in an Outer Limits episode, "Behold, Eck!" He was seen in four episodes of Hogan's Heroes and eight episodes of Bewitched in various roles as advertising clients of McMann and Tate.

Baer was cast as

Pikes Peak Gold Rush, in the 1965 episode "The Great Turkey War" of the syndicated series, Death Valley Days.[5]

In 1967, Baer appeared as General Whitfield on the I Dream of Jeannie episode, "Fly Me to the Moon".

Baer made two appearances on Petticoat Junction. In the 1966 episode, "Jury at the Shady Rest", he was Bailiff Tucker. Then, in the 1969 episode, "The Glen Tinker Caper", he was Judge Madison.

Later guest appearances included Three for the Road, Three's Company (as a cooking competition judge), The San Pedro Beach Bums, The A-Team, Star Trek: Voyager, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Dukes of Hazzard, Night Court, Newhart, Little House on the Prairie, The Golden Girls, Hazel, and Mad About You. He also played the role of the minister who married J. R. and Sue Ellen Ewing for their second marriage on Dallas. He also made guest appearances on F Troop.

Baer's film roles included parts in several

Senate majority leader). Baer had a featured role in the 1958 war drama The Young Lions, portraying a German officer and friend of Marlon Brando
.

Baer was especially proud of his brief appearance in the film, White Dog, a powerful story about racism. Baer plays a character seen at first as a kindly grandfather, only to reveal himself as a hateful bigot who has trained the title character to attack black skin. Baer remarked, "Often racism, like true evil, presents itself with a smile and a handshake".

Some 10 years earlier, Baer played a closet racist in a Christmas episode of Bewitched. The episode "Sisters at Heart" aired on ABC on December 24, 1970, in which he played the role of Mr. Brockway, the owner of a toy-manufacturing firm.[6][7]

Commercials

Baer voiced

old-time radio
conventions in his later years. In the 1980s he dressed in old-time garb as "Mr. S", one of the company founders, in commercials for S&W Fine Foods.

Personal life and death

In 1946, Baer met and married circus aerialist and bareback rider Ernestine Clarke. They were together for 54 years until her death on August 5, 2000, in

Tarzana, California.[2][8]

Baer was a long-term member of St. Nicholas

Encino, California
, where he served in many capacities, including head usher.

In 1969, Baer gave the eulogy at the funeral of The Andy Griffith Show castmate Howard McNear. McNear had portrayed Mayberry's Floyd the Barber and Baer had played Mayor Roy Stoner. McNear also portrayed Doc Adams in the radio version of Gunsmoke, often interacting with Baer's character, Chester Proudfoot.

On November 11, 2002, following another

Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital. Eleven days later, at the age of 88, he died there.[3]

Filmography

Listen to

References

  1. ^ a b Baer, Parley Edward, Capt – USAAF Veteran airforce.togetherweserved.com. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
  2. ^
    Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  3. ^ a b Oliver, Myrna (November 24, 2002). "Parley Baer, 88; 64-Year Career Spanned Radio, TV, Movies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  4. Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  5. ^ "The Great Turkey War". IMDb. October 7, 1965. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
  6. ^ Pilato (2001), p. 216.
  7. ^ Metz (2007), p. 64.
  8. Telegraph.co.uk. Open access icon

Bibliography

External links

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