Simon Oakland Bio

Come take a peek at our guest star forum. Here you will find bios on many of our Bonanza guest stars. We offer guest star pictures of the day and regular guest star discussions.

Moderator: CowgirlAtHeart

Locked
User avatar
PMIsABonanzaLover
Wrangler
Wrangler
Posts: 10199
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:52 pm
Badges: 51
Who is your favorite Bonanza character?: Adam
Location: Alabama

Group Member Easter 2013 Olympics 2012 Guest Star Party 2012
Behind The Scenes Postcards From The Past SPOOK-tacular Halloween 2012 Valentine's Day 2012
Summer 2012 Summer 2013 Spring Fling Saint Patrick's Day 2012
Letters to Santa 2012 Fun with 12s Christmas 2012 Thanksgiving Recipe 2012

View all badges

Simon Oakland Bio

Post by PMIsABonanzaLover »

Simon Oakland

Simon Oakland guest starred as William Poole in “Thunder Man,” Frank Scott and Mel Barnes in “Justice Deferred,” and Judge Seth Tabor in “The Clarion” on Bonanza.

Image
:thanks Tracy!
Oakland plays the creepy killer in "Thunder Man."
Oakland was born on August 28, 1915, in Brooklyn, New York. He went to Tilden High School, and later attended Columbia University. He originally started his career playing the violin, as he was a musical prodigy and wanted to be a concert violinist. Before WWII, he conducted a band that played on the radio. Oakland then joined the army and met his future wife, an army nurse named Lois. Together they had a daughter named Barbara. Oakland served actively in the Philippines during the war, and afterwards went back to New York to study theater.

Oakland decided to turn to acting in the late 1940s. He had a few roles on Broadway, and then he made his film debut in I Want to Live! in 1958. After that, he appeared with minor but memorable roles in Psycho, West Side Story, Bullitt, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Toma, and Perry Mason. He was famous for playing rough and tough men.

Image
Oakland plays Dr. Fred Richman, the psychiatrist, in Psycho.

Image
Oakland plays Schrank in West Side Story.
And just for fun, here is the very entertaining trailer for I Want to Live!
[youtube]fMUmX7B5gOk [/youtube]

On August 29, 1983, Oakland died from cancer in Cathedral City, California. He was cremated. His wife Lois also died that same year.

Fun fact: Simon Oakland is almost always confused with Claude Akins. (See the resemblance?)
Image
Claude Akins
Image
Simon Oakland
Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0643000/bio
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Oakland
http://www.tvrage.com/person/id-19602/Simon+Oakland

This topic has 10 replies

You must be a registered member and logged in to view the replies in this topic.


Register Login
 
Locked

Return to “Bonanza Guest Stars”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 9 guests