Harold J. Stone
Encyclopedia
Harold J. Stone was an American film and television character actor
.
Born Harold Hochstein to a Jewish acting family, he began his career on Broadway
in 1939 and appeared in five plays in the next six years, including One Touch of Venus
and Stalag 17
, following which he made his motion picture debut in the Alan Ladd
film noir
classic The Blue Dahlia
(1946). He went on to work in small but memorable roles in such films as The Harder They Fall
with Humphrey Bogart
(1956), Alfred Hitchcock
's The Wrong Man
(1956), Somebody Up There Likes Me
(1956), Spartacus
(1960) and Girl Happy
(1965). Although he would go on to perform secondary roles in a number of films, he became a recognizable face to television viewers for his more than 150 guest appearances on numerous shows dating from the 1950s
to the early 1980s
including but not limited to The Restless Gun
, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
, I Spy, The Virginian
, Griff
, The Untouchables
, The Twilight Zone
, Have Gun Will Travel,Hogan's Heroes
and Get Smart
. In the 1961-1962 season, he appeared three times in Stephen McNally
's ABC
crime drama Target: The Corruptors!
. In 1963, he appeared with Marsha Hunt
in the ABC medical drama
Breaking Point in an episode which was nominated for an Emmy Award
for writing. In Sept. 1964, he appeared in the Western series, Bonanza
(in an episode entitled -'The Hostage'). Also in 1964, Stone appeared on Daniel Boone
starring Fess Parker
(in the episode entitled 'The Fluellen Family' as "Greenbriar"). Stone himself was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his role in The Nurses
.
In the 1960s and 1970s, while continuing to work in television, most notably as a regular on 1973's short-lived Bridget Loves Bernie
, Stone returned to the stage, directing several off-Broadway
and Broadway productions, including Ernest in Love
and Charley's Aunt
.
His interment was in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
.
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
.
Born Harold Hochstein to a Jewish acting family, he began his career on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in 1939 and appeared in five plays in the next six years, including One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus
One Touch of Venus is a musical with music written by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Ogden Nash, and book by S. J. Perelman and Nash, based on the novella The Tinted Venus by Thomas Anstey Guthrie, and very loosely spoofing the Pygmalion myth. The show satirizes contemporary American suburban values,...
and Stalag 17
Stalag 17
Stalag 17 is a 1953 war film which tells the story of a group of American airmen held in a German World War II prisoner of war camp, who come to suspect that one of their number is a traitor...
, following which he made his motion picture debut in the Alan Ladd
Alan Ladd
-Early life:Ladd was born in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He was the only child of Ina Raleigh Ladd and Alan Ladd, Sr. He was of English ancestry. His father died when he was four, and his mother relocated to Oklahoma City where she married Jim Beavers, a housepainter...
film noir
Film noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
classic The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia
The Blue Dahlia is a 1946 film noir, directed by George Marshall and written by Raymond Chandler. The film marks the third pairing of stars Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake.-Plot:...
(1946). He went on to work in small but memorable roles in such films as The Harder They Fall
The Harder They Fall
The Harder They Fall is a film noir directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film before his death in 1957. The film was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg....
with Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
(1956), Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's The Wrong Man
The Wrong Man
The Wrong Man is a 1956 film by Alfred Hitchcock which stars Henry Fonda and Vera Miles. The film is based on a true story of an innocent man charged for a crime he did not commit...
(1956), Somebody Up There Likes Me
Somebody Up There Likes Me
Somebody Up There Likes Me may refer to:*Somebody Up There Likes Me , 1956 film starring Paul Newman and Pier Angeli*"Somebody Up There Likes Me" , a song by David Bowie, released in 1975 on the album Young Americans...
(1956), Spartacus
Spartacus (film)
Spartacus is a 1960 American epic historical drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast...
(1960) and Girl Happy
Girl Happy
Girl Happy is a 1965 American musical romantic comedy in the beach party film and spring break style, starring Elvis Presley.This was the last mega-successful Elvis Presley film at the box office, finishing at #25 on the Variety year-end top-grossing films of 1965 chart and making $3 million,...
(1965). Although he would go on to perform secondary roles in a number of films, he became a recognizable face to television viewers for his more than 150 guest appearances on numerous shows dating from the 1950s
1950s
The 1950s or The Fifties was the decade that began on January 1, 1950 and ended on December 31, 1959. The decade was the sixth decade of the 20th century...
to the early 1980s
1980s
File:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
including but not limited to The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun
The Restless Gun is a western television series that appeared on NBC between 1957 and 1959, with John Payne in the role of Vint Bonner, a wandering cowboy in the era after the American Civil War. A skilled gunfighter, Bonner is an idealistic person who prefers peaceful resolutions of conflict...
, The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show
The Barbara Stanwyck Show is an American anthology drama television series which ran on NBC from September 1960 to September 1961. Barbara Stanwyck served as hostess, and starred in all but four of the half-hour productions. The four she did not star in were actually pilot episodes of potential...
, I Spy, The Virginian
The Virginian (TV series)
The Virginian is an American Western television series starring James Drury and Doug McClure, which aired on NBC from 1962 to 1971 for a total of 249 episodes. Filmed in color, The Virginian became television's first 90-minute western series...
, Griff
Griff (TV series)
Griff is a 13-episode ABC crime drama starring Lorne Greene and Ben Murphy, which aired from September 29, 1973, to January 4, 1974. Nine months after the expiration of his nearly 14-year role as Ponderosa Ranch patriarch Ben Cartwright on NBC's Bonanza western series, the Canadian native Greene...
, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
, Have Gun Will Travel,Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to March 28, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. Bob Crane had the starring role as Colonel Robert E...
and Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
. In the 1961-1962 season, he appeared three times in Stephen McNally
Stephen McNally
Stephen McNally was an American actor remembered mostly for his appearances in many westerns and action films. He was an attorney in the late 1930s before pursuing a career in acting.-Career:...
's ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
crime drama Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors!
Target: The Corruptors! is a 35-episode crime drama starring Stephen McNally as newspaper reporter Paul Marino, which aired on ABC from September 29, 1961 to June 8, 1962. The character Jack Flood, Marino's undercover agent, was portrayed by Robert Harland...
. In 1963, he appeared with Marsha Hunt
Marsha Hunt (actress)
Marsha Hunt is an American film, theater, and television actress who was blacklisted by Hollywood movie studio executives in the 1950s.-Career:...
in the ABC medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
Breaking Point in an episode which was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for writing. In Sept. 1964, he appeared in the Western series, Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
(in an episode entitled -'The Hostage'). Also in 1964, Stone appeared on Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone (TV series)
Daniel Boone is an American action/adventure television series starring Fess Parker as Daniel Boone that aired from September 24, 1964 to September 10, 1970 on NBC for 165 episodes, and was made by 20th Century Fox Television. Ed Ames co-starred as Mingo, Boone's Native American friend, for the...
starring Fess Parker
Fess Parker
Fess Elisha Parker, Jr. was an American film and television actor best known for his portrayals of Davy Crockett in the Walt Disney 1955-56 TV mini-series and as TV's Daniel Boone from 1964-70...
(in the episode entitled 'The Fluellen Family' as "Greenbriar"). Stone himself was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his role in The Nurses
The Nurses
The Nurses is a soap opera that aired on ABC from September 27, 1965 to March 31, 1967. The show was a continuation of a serialized primetime drama which aired on CBS originally called The Nurses when it premiered in 1962, later called The Doctors and the Nurses.The setting was Alden General...
.
In the 1960s and 1970s, while continuing to work in television, most notably as a regular on 1973's short-lived Bridget Loves Bernie
Bridget Loves Bernie
Bridget Loves Bernie is an American television comedy program created by Bernard Slade, the creator of the 1970–74 ABC sitcom, The Partridge Family, based loosely on the premise of the 1920s’ Broadway play and 1940s’ radio show Abie's Irish Rose...
, Stone returned to the stage, directing several off-Broadway
Off-Broadway
Off-Broadway theater is a term for a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, and for a specific production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue, and which adheres to related trade union and other contracts...
and Broadway productions, including Ernest in Love
Ernest in Love
Ernest in Love is a musical with a book and lyrics by Anne Croswell and music by Lee Pockriss. It is based on The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners.-Background:...
and Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt
Charley's Aunt is a farce in three acts written by Brandon Thomas. It broke all historic records for plays of any kind, with an original London run of 1,466 performances....
.
His interment was in Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
Mount Sinai Memorial Parks and Mortuaries refers to two Jewish cemeteries in the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area. The original cemetery is located at 5950 Forest Lawn Drive in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles. The cemetery was originally established in 1953 by the neighboring Forest...
.