
James Westerfield
Born March 22, 1913 · Nashville, Tennessee, USA
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James A. Westerfield (22 March 1913 – 20 September 1971) was an American actor of stage, film, and television. Born in Nashville, Tennessee, to candy-maker Brasher Omier Westerfield and his wife Dora Elizabeth Bailey, he was raised in Detroit, Michigan. (A news story in the June 12, 1949, issue of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle calls the information in the preceding sentence into question. It describes Westerfield as "the son of a famous producer-director" and says that he was "a youngster in Denver, Col.") He became interested in theatre as a young man and in the 1930s joined Gilmor Brown's famed Pasadena Community Playhouse, appearing in dozens of plays. He played in numerous films following his debut in 1940, then went to New York City and appeared on Broadway, winning two New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for his supporting roles in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Detective Story. He then returned to Hollywood and made more than 40 more films. Westerfield maintained an interest in the theatre. He directed more than 50 musicals in a summer-musical tent he owned in Danbury, Connecticut, and was the original stage director and producer for the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles. He directed three seasons of "Theatre Under the Stars" in Vancouver, British Columbia, and appeared in musical roles with the Detroit Civic Light Opera, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, and the San Francisco Civic Light Opera. On film, Westerfield had roles in The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), On The Waterfront (1954), Lucy Gallant (1955), the 1957 Budd Boetticher-directed Western Decision at Sundown starring Randolph Scott, Cowboy (1958), a repeating role in The Absent-Minded Professor (1961) and its sequel Son of Flubber (1963), Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), Man's Favorite Sport (1964), The Sons of Katie Elder (1965), Hang 'Em High (1968) and True Grit (1969). Westerfield had many roles on television, including seven episodes as John Murrel from 1963 to 1964 on ABC's The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, starring child actor Kurt Russell in the title role. He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason, including the role of Sheriff Bert Elmore in the 1957 episode, "The Case of the Angry Mourner." He also appeared in an episode of The Lone Ranger in 1954 entitled "Texas Draw." Westerfield's other appearances were on such series as The Rifleman, The Californians, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, The Alaskans, The Rebel, Straightaway, Going My Way, The Asphalt Jungle, Hazel, The Andy Griffith Show, Daniel Boone, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Gunsmoke. He played the circus leader, Dr. Marvello, in an episode of Lost in Space "Space Circus" (1966). Westerfield as a young man was a roommate of fellow Pasadena Playhouse actor George Reeves. The two remained close friends until Reeves's death in 1959. Westerfield was married to Alice G. Fay (an actress under the name Fay Tracey), who, along with his mother, survived him. Westerfield died from a heart attack in Woodlands Hills, California, at the age of fifty-eight.
Notable Appearances
Movies

Hang 'em High

True Grit

On the Waterfront

Birdman of Alcatraz

The Sons of Katie Elder

The Absent-Minded Professor

Man's Favorite Sport?

The Magnificent Ambersons

Wild River

Man with the Gun

Chief Crazy Horse

Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round

The Pride of the Yankees

Undercurrent

The Proud Rebel

Decision at Sundown

The Gunfight at Dodge City

Son of Flubber

Smith!

Homicidal

Away All Boats

Three Hours to Kill

The Violent Men

The Love God?

The Shaggy Dog

The Cobweb

The Scarlet Coat

Cowboy

Bikini Beach

The Howards of Virginia

That Funny Feeling

Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town

The Further Adventures of Gallegher

Now You See It, Now You Don't

The Hangman

The Whistle at Eaton Falls

About Face

The Boy Who Stole the Elephant

The Chase

A Man Called Gannon

Blue

Side Street

The Helen Morgan Story

Set This Town on Fire

The Human Jungle

Three Brave Men

Highway West
TV Shows

Maverick

The Twilight Zone

The Rifleman

Lassie

Bewitched

Studio One

My Three Sons

Daniel Boone

Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

The Philco Television Playhouse

The Wild Wild West

The Big Valley

The Lucy Show

Wanted: Dead or Alive

The Beverly Hillbillies

Rawhide

Gunsmoke

Bat Masterson

Lost in Space

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Thriller

Green Acres

The 20th Century Fox Hour

Judd, for the Defense

The Texan

Trackdown

The Rebel

Richard Diamond, Private Detective

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse

The Time Tunnel

The Adventures of Jim Bowie

Mayberry R.F.D.

The Tall Man

Law of the Plainsman

The Great Adventure

Johnny Ringo

The Alaskans

Tightrope

The Dakotas

Inner Sanctum

Going My Way

The Outcasts

The Walter Winchell File

The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters

Straightaway

The Asphalt Jungle












