A Tribute to the Busiest Actor in the 1960s

For our Underrated Actor of the Week honors, Paul2 selected Whit Bissell, who was the busiest actor in Hollywood for over a quarter of a century. Starting with his 1940 debut as a palace guard in Errol Flynn’s The Sea Hawk, Bissell appeared in almost 300 roles in film and television until he retired from the screen in 1984. His acting prime spanned from 1955 to 1980, during which he appeared just in about every TV series that aired. He guest starred on Wagon Train five times, Perry Mason and The Rifleman four times, and was in three episodes each of The Virginian, Have Gun—Will Travel, and Hawaiian Eye. And, amazingly, he played a different character in each episode of those series.

It wasn’t that Whit Bissell was a great actor—his gift was being able to play any role convincingly. He could portray the kindly white-haired physician, the authoritative Army general, the menacing alien, the comforting father, the politician, or the undertaker (as he did in the opening scene in The Magnificent Seven).

He didn’t get many leading roles, though he played Professor Frankenstein in I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957). It was a juicy role that provided his most famous line of dialogue, directed toward his teenaged monstrous creation: “Speak. I know you have a civil tongue in your head, because I sewed it back myself!”

In the 1950s, he endeared himself to science fiction and horror fans with supporting performances in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, Monster on the Campus, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. He received belated recognition when he received a life career award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in 1994.

His only regular gig was on the 1967-68 ABC sci fi series Time Tunnel, in which he played General Haywood Kirk. It was a thankless role (time travelers James Darren and Robert Colbert had all the fun), but Whit played it with his usual professionalism.

Off camera, Whit Bissell was actively involved in both the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He died in 1996 at the age of 86.