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.
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.
Oakland plays Dr. Fred Richman, the psychiatrist, in
Psycho.
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?)
Claude Akins
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