Orson Bean is an American film, television, and stage actor. He appeared
frequently on televised game shows in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, and was a
long-time panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth.
Early life Bean was born Dallas Frederick Burrows
in Burlington, Vermont, the son of Marian Ainsworth and George Frederick
Burrows. His father was a founding member of the American Civil Liberties
Union, a fund-raiser for the Scottsboro Boys' defense, and a 20-year member of
the campus police of Harvard College. Orson graduated from the Cambridge
Rindge and Latin School. He is a first cousin twice removed of Calvin Coolidge,
who was President of the United States at the time of Bean's birth. Orson Bean
is a founding member of The Sons of the Desert, the international Laurel and
Hardy Society. Bean served for two years in the United States Army stationed in
Japan. Acting career
In 1952, Bean made a guest appearance on NBC Radio's weekly hot-jazz series The
Chamber Music Society of Lower Basin Street. His vocal mannerisms were ideal
for the mock-serious tone of the show, and he became the show's master of
ceremonies for its final season. Bean was a frequent guest on The Tonight
Show, and appeared on game shows originating from New York. He was a
regular panelist on To Tell the Truth in versions from the late 1950s through
1991. During this time, his father appeared as a subject of the panel and
he had to disqualify himself from participating. Apparently no one knew
his real name was Burrows. He appeared on Super Password and Match Game, among
other game shows. He hosted a pilot for a revamped version of Concentration in
1985 which was picked up later on in 1987 as Classic Concentration with Alex
Trebek. He played the title character in the
1960 Twilight Zone episode "Mr. Bevis". In 1961, for the CBS anthology series
The DuPont Show with June Allyson, he starred as John Monroe in "The Secret
Life of James Thurber", based on the works of the American humorist James
Thurber. On Broadway, he was the star of the
original cast of Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, and was featured in Subways Are
For Sleeping, for which he received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured
Actor in a Musical, as well as Never Too Late. He also starred in Illya Darling,
the 1967 musical adaptation of the film Never on Sunday. In 1964 he produced the
Obie Award winning Home Movies and appeared on Broadway in I Was Dancing.
He was a regular on both Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman and its spin-off, Fernwood
2Nite, and also played the shrewd businessman and storekeeper Loren Bray
on the television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman throughout its six-year
run on CBS in the 1990s. He played John Goodman's homophobic father on the
sitcom Normal, Ohio. He played the main characters Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in
the 1977 and 1980 Rankin/Bass animated adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The
Hobbit, and The Return of the King. He also played Dr. Lester in Spike Jonze's
1999 film, Being John Malkovich. Bean appeared in the last two episodes of
Season 7 of 2003 in 7th Heaven as a patient. In 2005, Bean appeared in the
sitcom Two and a Half Men, in an episode entitled "Does This Smell Funny to
You?", playing a former playboy whose conquests included actresses Tuesday
Weld and Anne Francis. He appeared in the 2007 How I Met Your Mother episode
"Slapsgiving" as Robin Scherbatsky's 41-year-old boyfriend, Bob. In 2009, he
was cast in the recurring role of Roy Bender, a steak salesman, who is Karen
McCluskey's love interest on the ABC series Desperate Housewives.
Personal life Bean wrote an autobiographical account
about his life-changing experience with the orgone therapy developed by Austrian
born Wilhelm Reich: Me and the Orgone – The True Story of One Man's Sexual
Awakening. He has been married three times.
His first wife was actress Jacqueline de Sibour, whom he married in 1956 and
divorced in 1962. She was the daughter of Vicomte Jacques J. de Sibour, a
French nobleman and pilot, and his wife, Violette B. Selfridge, daughter of
British department-store magnate Harry Gordon Selfridge. Jacqueline and Bean
had one child, Michele. His second wife was fashion designer
Carolyn Maxwell. They married in 1965 and divorced in 1981. They had three
children: Max, Susannah, and Ezekiel. Susannah was married to conservative
commentator Andrew Breitbart until his death; they had four children.
His third wife is actress Alley Mills, 23 years his junior; they married in
1993 and live in Los Angeles. Bean left the United States and lived in
Australia in the 1960s. Bean was a frequent guest on The Tonight
Show Starring Johnny Carson in the 1970s. Since 2008, Bean has been a
regular guest on the Dennis Miller radio show, stating that he is a Christian of
orthodox beliefs and very thankful for the career success that he has had.
Filmography Books
Me and the Orgone ISBN 0-9679670-1-5 Too Much Is Not Enough ISBN
0-8184-0465-5 25 Ways to Cook a Mouse for the Gourmet
Cat ISBN 1-55972-199-5 M@il for Mikey
Recordings At the Hungry i, comedy
I Ate the Baloney, comedy References
External links Orson Bean at the Internet Movie
Database Orson Bean at the Internet Broadway
Database Orson Bean at the Internet Off-Broadway
Database Orson Bean at AllMovie
RootsWeb: Dowling Family Genealogy: Orson BEAN
Geni: Dallas Frederick Burrows