William Conrad

About William Conrad

Who is it?: Actor, Director, Producer
Birth Day: September 27, 1920
Birth Place:  Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Occupation: Actor, director, producer, voice actor
Years active: 1945–1993
Spouse(s): June Nelson (married 1943–1957) Susan Randall (married 1957–1979) Lewis Tipton Stringer Huntley (married 1980–1994)
Children: 1

William Conrad

William Conrad was born on September 27, 1920 in  Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is Actor, Director, Producer. William Conrad became a television star relatively late in his career. In fact, the former Army Air Corps World War II fighter pilot began his screen career playing heavies. He was Max, one of The Killers (1946) hired to finish off Burt Lancaster in his dingy lodgings. He was the corrupt state inspector Turck working for the syndicate in The Racket (1951). He was a mobster in Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), the murderous gunslinger Tallman in Johnny Concho (1956) and sleazy nightclub owner Louie Castro who claimed to be 60% legitimate in Cry Danger (1951).When not essaying outright villainy Bill played characters like the tough fight promoter Quinn in Body and Soul (1947) or the doom-laden province commissioner in The Naked Jungle (1954). The portly, balding, crumple-faced, self-confessed gourmand had an ever-present weight problem (at one time 118 kg) which proved to be a natural obstacle to progressing to more substantial leading film roles. That, however, didn't hinder a very successful career in radio. In fact, Bill himself estimated that he had played in excess of 7,000 radio parts. Even if that was an exaggeration, his gravelly, resonant voice was certainly heard on countless broadcasts from "Buck Rogers" to "The Bullwinkle Show", from impersonating Marshall Matt Dillon on "Gunsmoke" (before James Arness got the part on screen) to narrating the adventures of Richard Kimball in the television program The Fugitive (1963). In one episode of the anthology series Suspense (1949) in 1956, he voiced each and every part.Since his corpulence effectively precluded playing strapping characters like Matt Dillon, Bill began to concentrate on directing and producing by the early 1960's. This, ironically, included episodes of "Gunsmoke". In 1963 he contributed to saving 77 Sunset Strip (1958) for yet another season. Later in the decade he produced and directed several films for Warner Brothers, including the thriller Brainstorm (1965) with Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis. In 1971 he returned to acting and became the unlikely star of the Quinn Martin production Cannon (1971), for which he is chiefly remembered. Bill imbued the tough-talking, no-nonsense character of Frank Cannon with enough humanity and wit to make the series compelling but, despite the show's popularity, he made his views clear in a 1976 Times interview that he found himself poorly served by the scripts he had been given. A planned sequel, The Return of Frank Cannon (1980) failed to get beyond the movie-length pilot, but the actor's popularity resulted in another starring role in Jake and the Fatman (1987) as District Attorney McCabe, co-starring with Joe Penny) and a brief run as eccentric detective Nero Wolfe (1981). A self-effacing man with a good sense of humor and never afraid to speak his mind, Bill Conrad died of heart failure in February 1994. He was elected to the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and (posthumously) to the Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.
William Conrad is a member of Actor

Does William Conrad Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, William Conrad has been died on February 11, 1994(1994-02-11) (aged 73)\nLos Angeles, California, U.S..

🎂 William Conrad - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When William Conrad die, William Conrad was 73 years old.

Popular As William Conrad
Occupation Actor
Age 73 years old
Zodiac Sign Libra
Born September 27, 1920 ( Louisville, Kentucky, United States)
Birthday September 27
Town/City  Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Nationality United States

🌙 Zodiac

William Conrad’s zodiac sign is Libra. According to astrologers, People born under the sign of Libra are peaceful, fair, and they hate being alone. Partnership is very important for them, as their mirror and someone giving them the ability to be the mirror themselves. These individuals are fascinated by balance and symmetry, they are in a constant chase for justice and equality, realizing through life that the only thing that should be truly important to themselves in their own inner core of personality. This is someone ready to do nearly anything to avoid conflict, keeping the peace whenever possible

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

William Conrad was born in the Year of the Monkey. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Monkey thrive on having fun. They’re energetic, upbeat, and good at listening but lack self-control. They like being active and stimulated and enjoy pleasing self before pleasing others. They’re heart-breakers, not good at long-term relationships, morals are weak. Compatible with Rat or Dragon.

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Biography/Timeline

1920

William Conrad (also known as John william Conrad) was born John william Cann, Jr., on September 27, 1920, in Louisville, Kentucky. His parents, John william Cann and Ida Mae Upchurch Cann, owned a movie theatre, and Conrad grew up watching movies. The family moved to Southern California when Conrad was in high school. He majored in drama and literature at Fullerton College, in Orange County, California, and began his career as an announcer, Writer, and Director for Los Angeles radio station KMPC.

1940

William Conrad estimated that he played more than 7,500 roles during his radio career. At KMPC, the 22-year-old Conrad produced and acted in The Hermit's Cave (circa 1940–44), the Los Angeles incarnation of a popular syndicated horror anthology series created at WJR Detroit.

1941

As a token of appreciation from Jack L. Warner, head of Warner Bros., Conrad received one of the two original lead-metal falcon statues used in the classic film The Maltese Falcon (1941). The falcon sat on a bookshelf in Conrad's house from the 1960s. Standing 11.5 in (29.2 cm) high and weighing 45 lb (20.4 kg), the figurine had been slashed during the making of the film by Sydney Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman, leaving deep cuts in its bronze patina. After Conrad's death, the statue was consigned by his widow Tippy Conrad to Christie's, which estimated it would bring $30,000 to $50,000 at auction. In December 1994, Christie's sold the falcon for $398,500. In 1996, the purchaser, Ronald Winston of Harry Winston, Inc., resold the prop to an unknown European collector "at an enormous profit"—for as much as $1 million.

1943

Conrad served as a fighter pilot in World War II. On the day he was commissioned in 1943 at Luke Field, he married June Nelson (1920–1977) of Los Angeles. He left the United States Army Air Corps with the rank of captain and as a producer-director of the Armed Forces Radio Service.

1944

He was among the supporting cast for the espionage drama The Man Called X (1944–48); the syndicated dramatic anthology Favorite Story (1946–49); the adventure dramas The Count of Monte Cristo (Mutual 1947–48), The Voyage of the Scarlet Queen (Mutual 1947–48), The Green Lama (CBS 1949), and Nightbeat (NBC 1950–52); Romance (1950); Hollywood Star Playhouse (1950–53); Errol Flynn's The Modern Adventures of Casanova (Mutual 1952); and Cathy and Elliott Lewis's On Stage (CBS 1953–54).

1946

As an actor in feature films, Conrad was often cast as a threatening figure. His most notable role may be the first for which he was credited, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in The Killers (1946). Conrad also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong Number (1948), Joan of Arc (1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954).

1950

Finding fewer onscreen roles in the 1950s, he changed from actor to producer-director with television work, narration, and a series of Warner Bros. films in the 1960s. Conrad found stardom as a detective in the TV series Cannon (1971–1976) and Nero Wolfe (1981), and as district attorney Jason Lochinvar "J.L." "Fatman" McCabe in the legal drama Jake and the Fatman (1987–1992).

1952

Conrad was the voice of Escape (1947–1954), a high-adventure radio series. He played Warchek, a menacing policeman, in Johnny Modero: Pier 23 (Mutual 1947), a detective series starring Jack Webb, and was in the cast of Webb's crime drama Pete Kelly's Blues (NBC 1951). He played newspaper Editor Walter Burns opposite Dick Powell's reporter Hildy Johnson in the ABC radio drama The Front Page (1948). He was Dave the Dude in the syndicated drama anthology series The Damon Runyon Theater (1948); Lt. Dundy in the NBC radio series The Adventures of Sam Spade (1949–50); boss to government special agent Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Silent Men (NBC 1951); and a New Orleans bartender in the NBC adventure drama Jason and the Golden Fleece (1952–53). Most prominently, Conrad's deep, resonant voice was heard in the role of Marshal Matt Dillon on CBS Radio's gritty Western series Gunsmoke (April 26, 1952 – June 18, 1961). The producers originally rejected him for the part because of his ubiquitous presence on so many radio dramas and the familiarity of his voice, but his impressive audition could not be dismissed, and he became the obvious choice for the role. Conrad voiced Dillon for the show's nine-year run, and he wrote the June 1953 episode "Sundown." When Gunsmoke was adapted for television in 1955, executives at CBS did not cast Conrad or his radio costars despite a campaign to get them to change their minds.

1956

In January 1956, Conrad was the announcer on the debut broadcast of The CBS Radio Workshop, a two-part adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World which Huxley himself narrated. "On the air, The CBS Radio Workshop was a lightning rod for ideas," wrote radio Historian John Dunning, who cites Conrad's "tour de force" performances in the subsequent broadcasts "The Legend of Jimmy Blue Eyes" (March 23, 1956) and "A Matter of Logic" (June 1, 1956). Conrad directed and narrated the 1957 episode "Epitaphs", an adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters's poetry volume Spoon River Anthology.

1957

In 1957, Conrad was married to former fashion model Susan Randall (1940–1979), and the couple had one son, Christopher. In 1980, Conrad married Tipton "Tippy" Stringer (1930–2010), a TV pioneer and the widow of NBC newscaster Chet Huntley. She helped manage his career during their 14-year marriage.

1959

As "Bill Conrad", he narrated the animated Rocky and Bullwinkle series from 1959 to 1964. He narrated This Man Dawson, a 33-episode syndicated crime drama starring Keith Andes in the 1959–1960 television season, and then became the familiar voice narrating The Fugitive, starring David Janssen, on ABC television from 1963 to 1967. He could also be heard introducing Count Basie's Orchestra and Frank Sinatra on Sinatra's 1966 Live at the Sands album.

1960

With Sam Peckinpah Conrad directed episodes of NBC's Klondike in the 1960–1961 season. Other credits as a Director include episodes of The Rifleman, Bat Masterson, Route 66, Have Gun – Will Travel, 77 Sunset Strip, and Ripcord, as well as ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors!.

1961

Conrad narrated the documentary Design For Disaster, produced by the Los Angeles City Fire Department, about the November 1961 Bel Air wildfire that gutted several neighborhoods, at the time the worst conflagration in Los Angeles history.

1962

Conrad guest-starred in NBC's science-fiction series The Man and the Challenge and in the syndicated skydiving adventure series Ripcord, with Larry Pennell and Ken Curtis. In 1962, he starred in an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and guest-starred in episodes of ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors!.

1963

In 1963, Conrad directed Jeffrey Hunter in what became a 26-week Warner Bros. Western television series, Temple Houston. On orders from then-studio boss Jack Webb, Temple Houston episodes were put together in two or three days each, something previously thought impossible in television production. Work began on August 7, 1963, with the initial airing set for September 19. Jimmy Lydon, a former child actor, adult actor, and a Producer with Warner Bros. at the time, recalled that Webb told the staff, "Fellas, I just sold Temple Houston. We gotta be on the air in four weeks, we can't use the pilot, we have no scripts, no nothing — do it!" Lydon recalled the team having worked around the clock to get Temple Houston on the air. Co-producer william Conrad directed six episodes, two scripts simultaneously on two different soundstages at Warner Bros. "We bicycled Jeff (Hunter) and (Jack) Elam between the two companies, and Bill shot 'em both in four-and-a-half days. Two complete one-hour shows!" said Lydon.

1970

Conrad intoned a rhyming narration heard over the credits of the 1970 John Wayne film Western Chisum. His voice is heard in the Clio Award-winning 1971 public-service announcement about pollution featuring Iron Eyes Cody, created for Earth Day by Keep America Beautiful and the Ad Council. From 1973 to 1978, Conrad narrated the TV nature program, The Wild, Wild World of Animals. Also during the 1970s, he appeared in and narrated a number of episodes for ABC's American Sportsman, and in the CBS documentary, The Lost Treasure of the Concepcion. He later narrated The Making of Star Wars (1977), the 1978 World Series U.S.-baseball highlight film, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), and The Rebels (1979). He performed the role of Denethor in the 1980 animated TV version of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Return of the King. His other voice work included narration for The Highwayman.

1971

From 1971 to 1976 he starred in television detective series Cannon, which was broadcast on CBS. While starring in the show, he weighed 230 pounds (104 kg), and ballooned to 260 pounds (118 kg) or more.

1973

"I heard that Weight Watchers had banned its members from watching the show, but it turned out to be a gag," Conrad said in 1973. "The publicist for Weight Watchers did call and suggest that I have lunch with their President. I said sure – if I could pick the restaurant."

1980

From the early 1980s to the early 1990s he starred in two other TV series, each with a crime detection/courtroom drama theme - Nero Wolfe (1981), and Jake and the Fatman (1987–92) with Joe Penny.

1991

Late in life, Conrad narrated the opening and closing scenes of the 1991 Bruce Willis feature film Hudson Hawk.

1994

William Conrad died in Los Angeles on February 11, 1994, from congestive heart failure. He was buried in the Lincoln Terrace section of Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery, California.

1997

Conrad was posthumously elected to the National Radio Hall of Fame in 1997.

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