Jack Orrison (October 12, 1909 – June 3, 1986) was an American actor and script writer who worked in radio, television and films. He is best known for his acting roles in The PlainclothesmanTim Brooks and Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946 – Present (Seventh Edition), Ballantine Books, 1999, pages 809 and 810 and I Married a Monster from Outer Space. Orrison was born in Victor, Colorado, but moved to other cities to work in the field of entertainment. He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II.Military Records
Early life Jack Huffaker Orrison was born October 12, 1909, in Victor, Colorado, the son of Peter Kemp Orrison and Lena Mable Smiley Orrison.1910 U.S. Census, Colorado, Teller County, Victor Ward 3, Sheet A113 He attended the University of DenverRadio Team Plans to Wed Saturday, Pittsburgh Press, November 17, 1937, page 1 for three years.
Orrison moved to Denver, Colorado to work at radio station KOA. In 1937 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to work at radio station KDKA, where he was both a writer and actor in the comedy radio series Adam and Eve. His costar was Margaret K. Smith,Pittsburgh Sun-Telegram, June 12, 1938 whom he met at the University of Denver. Orrison and Smith were married on November 20, 1937, at the home of KDKA manager A. E. Nelson. The marriage license lists the occupation of both spouses as "Radio Script writer".Westmoreland Co., PA Marriage License Docket No. 56, page 125
Besides being heard on Adam and Eve Orrison acted in the KDKA radio series Under Western Skies, starting on November 10, 1937. From January 26, 1938, to May 10, 1938, the western series was heard on the NBC Blue Network before reverting to a local series, until leaving the air in 1939.Jack French and David S. Siegel, Radio Rides the Range: A Reference Guide to Western Drama on the Air, 1929-1967, page 195, McFarland, 2013
On February 15, 1939, Orrison resigned from KDKA radio to move to New York City.KDKA Pittsburgh, NBC Transmitter, March, 1939, page 16 A 1942 Billboard article stated that he was one of the American Federation of Radio Artists members who’d entered military service.Radio Actors; Amateurs Flock to Nets for Jobs; See No Shortage, Billboard, April 4, 1942 New York
Post-World War II acting career Orrison's post-war acting work included being added to the cast of the CBS radio serial Strange Romance of Evelyn Winters.From the Production Centers in New York City, Variety, March 12, 1947, page 42 He was also in an episode of the 1948 radio series Call the Police.Billboard, June 12, 1948, page 12
From 1949 to 1954 Orrison played Sergeant Brady in The Plainclothesman on the DuMont Television Network. This was a police procedural drama, seen through the eyes of an unnamed lieutenant. With exception to one flashback segment, the lieutenant was never seen, leaving Orrison's Sergeant Brady as the only character viewers saw each week.David Weinsten, The Forgotten Network DuMont and the Birth of American Television, Temple University Press, 2004, pages138 to 146.
From 1949 to 1951 he appeared on six episodes of DuMont's Captain Video and His Video Rangers as Commissioner of Public Safety Bell.Who’s Who in Show Business, page 80, Who’s Who in Show Business, Inc., 1951
Orrison continued to work in radio, and from 1955 to 1957 he was heard on six episodes of X Minus One.Martin Grams, Radio Drama: A Comprehensive Chronicle of American Network Programs, 1932 - 1962, page 526, McFarland, 2000 He was on episodes of John Steele, Adventurer (1949) and Gang Busters (1955).
Film roles include Detective in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Haskins in Wolf Larsen (1958),Thomas S. Hischak, American Literature on Stage and Screen, page 209, McFarland, 2014 Officer Schultz in I Married a Monster From Outer Space (1958),R. G. Young, The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film: Ali Baba to Zombies, page 301, Applause, 2000 Osborne in Never Steal Anything Small (1959), Police Clerk in Al Capone (1959),Alan Gevinson, Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911 - 1960, page 57, University of California Press, 1997 Editor in The Second Time Around (1961), Dr. Creston in Wild in the Country (1961),James L. Neibaur The Elvis Movies, page 71, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2014 and Bartender in Move Over, Darling (1963).John Howard Reid, Cinemascope 3: Hollywood Takes the Plunge, page 170, Lulu, 2006
Orrison played William Vedder in the 1959 Hawaiian Eye episode Cloud Over Koala;Gianakos, Larry, Television Drama Series Programming: A Comprehensive Chronicle, 1959-1975, Volume 2, page 255, Scarecrow Press, 1978 Shopkeeper in the 1961 Gunsmoke episode The Squaw;Lentz, Harris M., Television Westerns Episode Guide: All United States Series, 1949 - 1996, page 174, McFarland & Company, 1997 Warren Bullard in the unsold TV pilot Down Home, shown in 1965 on the CBS summer series Vacation Playhouse;Vincent Terrace, Encyclopedia of Television Pilots: 2,470 Films Broadcast 1937-2019, page 665, McFarland, 2019 and Mr. Butcher in the 1967 The Wild Wild West episode The Night of the Bogus Bandits.
Death Orrison died on June 3, 1986, in Los Angeles, California. He was 76 years old.Funeral Announcements, The Los Angeles Times, June 5, 1986, page 10J
References
External links
The Plainclothesman episode starring Jack Orrison