William Demarest

Known for ActingBorn 1892-02-27Died 1983-12-28Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Carl William Demarest (February 27, 1892 – December 27, 1983) was an American character actor, known for playing Uncle Charley in My Three Sons. A veteran of World War I, Demarest became a prolific film and television actor, appearing in over 140 films, beginning in 1926 and ending in the 1970s. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles. Demarest started in show business working in vaudeville, appearing with his wife Estelle Collette (real name Esther Zychlin) as "Demarest and Colette", then moved on to Broadway. Demarest worked regularly with director Preston Sturges, becoming part of a "stock" troupe of actors that Sturges repeatedly cast in his films. He appeared in ten films written by Sturges, eight of which were under his direction, including The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. Demarest was such a familiar figure at the Paramount studio that just his name was used in the movie Sunset Boulevard as a potential star for William Holden's unsold baseball screenplay. Demarest appeared with veteran western film star Roscoe Ates in the 1958 episode "And the Desert Shall Blossom" of CBS's Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In the story line, Ates and Demarest appear as old timers living in the Nevada desert. The local sheriff, played by Ben Johnson, appears with an eviction notice, but he agrees to let the pair stay on their property if they can make a dead rosebush bloom within the next month. In 1959 Demarest was named the lead actor of the 18-week sitcom Love and Marriage on NBC in the 1959–1960 season. Demarest played William Harris, the owner of a failing music company who refuses to handle popular rock and roll music, which presumably might save the firm from bankruptcy. Joining Demarest on the series were Jeanne Bal, Murray Hamilton and Stubby Kaye. Demarest appeared as Police Chief Aloysius of the Santa Rosita Police Department in the film It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), as well as on a memorable episode ("What's in the Box") of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone as a hen-pecked husband driven to the murder of his wife. His most famous television role was in the ABC and then CBS sitcom My Three Sons from 1965 to 1972, playing Uncle Charley O'Casey. He replaced William Frawley, whose failing health had made procuring insurance impossible. Demarest had worked with Fred MacMurray previously in the films Hands Across the Table (1935), Pardon My Past (1945), On Our Merry Way (1948), and The Far Horizons (1955) and was a personal friend of MacMurray. Also, he worked with Irene Dunne in Never a Dull Moment (1950).Read more

Movies & web series

Rookies on Parade

Mind Your Own Business

Five and Ten Cent Annie

The Bush Leaguer

Love and Marriage

Comin' Round the Mountain

Seeing Things

The Butter and Egg Man

Don't Tell the Wife

The Black Diamond Express

A Reno Divorce

Simple Sis

Matinee Ladies

The Twilight Zone

The Millionaire

Barbara Stanwyck: Straight Down the Line

The Jerry Lewis Show

Studio 57

The Lady Wants Mink

True to Life

The Wonderful World of Disney

True to the Army

Country Fair

Fugitive Lady

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Excuse My Dust

The Crash

Pay as You Enter

What Happened To Father

A Sailor's Sweetheart

The Gay Old Bird

Ellery Queen

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

One Wild Night

The Greatest Show on Earth

Bonanza

The Devil and Miss Jones

The Red Skelton Show

Big City

The First Legion

Wolf of New York

The Great Gambini

White Lies

Sullivan's Travels

The Sainted Sisters

Tales of Wells Fargo

McMillan & Wife