Whit Bissell - Career

Career

In a career that began in 1943 with the film Holy Matrimony, Bissell appeared in literally hundreds of films and television series episodes, including Sheriff of Cochise and Rod Cameron's syndicated City Detective (1955), The Brothers Brannagan (1960), and The DuPont Show with June Allyson (also 1960).

Viewers of 1950s low-budget science fiction, horror films and B movies know him as one of "those actors" (perhaps the actor) that always shows up somewhere in such movies. Some of the most well-known of these roles were as a mad scientist in the 1957 film I Was a Teenage Werewolf, as well as Professor Frankenstein in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957). He also played the doctor who treats Kevin McCarthy's character in the 1956 classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and in the original 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon. In 1957, Bissell played murderer Larry Sands in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Crooked Candle." He made three other appearances in the series, including the role of Max Pompey in the 1960 episode, "The Case of the Lavender Lipstick."

In 1960, he appeared in George Pal's production of The Time Machine, as Walter Kemp, one of the Time Traveler's dining friends. Thirty-three years later, in 1993 the documentary film Time Machine: The Journey Back, reunited Bissell with Rod Taylor and Alan Young from the original, he recreated his role as Walter in the opening sequence. It was Bissell's last acting performance. In 1957, he appeared in "The Man on the 35th Floor" of Fireside Theater, hosted by Jane Wyman, with fellow guest stars Macdonald Carey and Phyllis Avery.

Bissell was a regular for the third and fourth seasons of the television series Bachelor Father (1959–1961), costarring John Forsythe, Noreen Corcoran, and Sammee Tong. He appeared as a guest star in practically every dramatic television series that aired between the early 1950s and the mid 1970s, with more sporadic appearances after that. In 1959, he appeared on NBC's science fiction series The Man and the Challenge. In 1961, he guest starred in the episode "A Fool for a Client" on James Whitmore's The Law and Mr. Jones legal drama on ABC. He appeared three times on the long running TV western The Virginian in the 1960s.

His most prominent television role came when he co-starred as General Heywood Kirk in the 1966-1967 science-fiction television series The Time Tunnel. He often played silver-haired figures of authority, here as in many other roles (as described by Allmovie), "instantly establishing his standard screen characterization of fussy officiousness," leavened in many instances with a military bearing. Other examples of such authoritative roles as military or police officials, include appearances in The Caine Mutiny, The Manchurian Candidate, The Outer Limits, (1963) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966).

Bissell appeared in the classic episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" of Star Trek, footage of which was re-used in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations".

In 1978 and 1980, Bissell appeared in episodes of The Incredible Hulk, first in the second season episode "Kindred Spirits", and next (and lastly) in the second part of the fourth season two-parter "Prometheus". He played a different professor in both episodes.

Bissell's most-screened motion picture role is as the undertaker (who sees every man, no matter his race, as "just another future customer") in The Magnificent Seven (1960).

Bissell received a life career award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1994. He also served for many years on the board of directors of the Screen Actors Guild, as well as representing the actors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences board of governors.

Bissell died in 1996 in Woodland Hills, California from the effects of Parkinson's disease. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.