William Henry Rorke (October 23, 1910 – August 19, 1987) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for playing the psychiatrist Col. Dr. Alfred E. Bellows on the hit 60's sitcom
I Dream of JeannieI Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2000-year-old female genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
.
Born William Henry Rorke in Brooklyn, New York in 1910, he was the son of screen and stage actress, Margaret Hayden Rorke, and took his stage name from his mother’s maiden name. He attended Brooklyn Prep School where he was president of the Dramatics Society and the Student Government and a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity.
William Henry Rorke (October 23, 1910 – August 19, 1987) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
best known for playing the psychiatrist Col. Dr. Alfred E. Bellows on the hit 60's sitcom
I Dream of JeannieI Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2000-year-old female genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
.
Biography
Born William Henry Rorke in Brooklyn, New York in 1910, he was the son of screen and stage actress, Margaret Hayden Rorke, and took his stage name from his mother’s maiden name. He attended Brooklyn Prep School where he was president of the Dramatics Society and the Student Government and a member of the Omega Gamma Delta Fraternity. He continued his education at the American Academy of the Dramatic Arts and began his stage career in the 1930s with the Hampden Theatrical Company. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he enlisted into the
ArmyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
, where he made his film debut in the musical
This is the ArmyThis Is the Army is a 1943 American motion picture produced by Hal B. Wallis and Jack L. Warner, and directed by Michael Curtiz, and a wartime musical designed to boost morale in the U.S. during World War II, directed by Sgt. Ezra Stone. The screenplay by Casey Robinson and Claude Binyon was based...
(1943) starring Ronald W. Reagan, where he was uncredited as the stage manager and as a
soldierA soldier is a member of the land component of national armed forces; whereas a soldier hired for service in a foreign army would be termed a mercenary...
in the background.
Following the war, he left the Army and worked in small parts on
BroadwayBroadway Theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, is the theatre associated with the 40 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City...
, finally returning to Hollywood for the 1949 film,
Lust for GoldLust for Gold is a 1949 western film about the legendary Lost Dutchman gold mine, starring Glenn Ford as the "Dutchman" and Ida Lupino as the woman he loves. It was based on the book Thunder God's Gold by Barry Storm...
, again uncredited. However, it was an opening, and in later films, beginning with
Rope of SandRope of Sand was a 1948 adventure film directed by William Dieterle, produced by Hal B. Wallis, starringBurt Lancaster, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Corinne Calvet, Sam Jaffe, and John Bromfield....
(1949), he is listed in the credits, although he again shows up uncredited in the 1950 films
KimKim is a 1950 adventure film made by MGM. It was directed by Victor Saville and produced by Leon Gordon from a screenplay by Helen Deutsch, Leon Gordon and Richard Schayer, based on the classic novel of the same name by Rudyard Kipling....
and
The Magnificent Yankee, as well as a couple of later films such as the Academy Award-winning
An American in ParisAn American in Paris is a symphonic composition by American composer George Gershwin, composed in 1928. Inspired by time Gershwin had spent in Paris, it is in the form of an extended tone poem evoking the sights and energy of the French capital in the 1920s. It is one of Gershwin's best-known...
(in those days, small bit parts were often uncredited). He continued to make movies, taking on supporting roles, in such films as
Father’s Little Dividend (1951),
Francis Goes to the RacesFrancis Goes to the Races is a 1951 comedy film about a talking mule and his human sidekick at the racetrack. It is a sequel of Francis and stars Donald O'Connor, Piper Laurie, and Cecil Kellaway.-Cast:*Donald O'Connor as Peter Stirling...
(1951),
When Worlds CollideWhen Worlds Collide is a 1933 science fiction novel co-written by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer; they both also co-authored the sequel After Worlds Collide...
(1951),
Wild Stallion (1952),
Project Moon Base (1953), and
Pillow Talk (1959).
In 1957-1958, Rorke played Steve, the film agent, in the CBS television series
Mr. Adams and EveMr. Adams and Eve is a CBS sitcom starring Howard Duff and his then wife, Ida Lupino, as a fictitious acting couple, Howard and Eve Adams, residing in Beverly Hills, California. In the television series, Lupino is known professionally as Eve Drake. The program aired sixty-six episodes from January...
, starring
Howard DuffHoward Green Duff was an American actor of film, television, stage, and radio.Duff was born in Charleston, Washington, now a part of Bremerton. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in Seattle in 1932 where he began acting in school plays only after he was cut from the basketball team. His...
and
Ida LupinoIda Lupino was an English-American film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her forty-eight year career, she appeared in fifty-nine films, and directed nine others. She also appeared in episodic television fifty-eight times and directed fifty other episodes...
, then married in real life, as a fictitious acting couple residing in
Beverly HillsBeverly Hills is a city in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together entirely surrounded by the city of Los Angeles. The area's "Platinum Triangle" of wealthy neighborhoods is formed by Beverly Hills and...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
.
He played several guest roles on television, winning the role of Colonel Farnsworth in the short-lived 1964
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American 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. It first broadcast on television in 1948...
sitcom
No Time for SergeantsNo Time for Sergeants was a 1954 best-selling novel by Mac Hyman, which was later adapted into a popular Broadway play and 1958 motion picture, as well as a 1964 television series. The book chronicles the misadventures of a country bumpkin named Will Stockdale who is drafted into the U.S. Army...
, based on the
Andy GriffithAndy Samuel Griffith is an American actor, director, producer, Grammy Award-winning Southern-gospel singer, and writer....
film of the same name but starring
Sammy JacksonSammy Jackson was an American actor known particularly for his roles reflecting rural life and a Country music disc jockey, although he also played pop-standards during 1983 on Los Angeles station KMPC.-Biography and persona:...
. He also guest-starred on CBS's
Perry MasonPerry Mason is an American TV series produced by Paisano Productions that ran from 1957 to 1966. Perry Mason was played by actor Raymond Burr. The title character is a fictional Los Angeles, California, defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
.
He is most remembered for his role as Dr. Alfred E. Bellows, the
NASAThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration is an agency of the United States government, responsible for the nation's public space program. NASA was established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29, 1958, replacing its predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for...
medical officer in the television sitcom,
I Dream of JeannieI Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2000-year-old female genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
. Dr. Bellows tries to learn why
astronautAn astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
Anthony Nelson (played by
Larry HagmanLarry Martin Hagman is an American film and television actor, producer and director best known for playing J. R. Ewing in the 1980s primetime television soap opera Dallas and Major Anthony Nelson in the 1960s sitcom, I Dream of Jeannie.-Early life:Hagman was born in Fort Worth, Texas...
) often behaves strangely, but never figures out that Nelson is the master of a
genieIn Islam, a Djinn is a supernatural creature which occupies a parallel world to that of mankind, and together with humans and angels makes up the three sentient creations of Allah...
(portrayed by
Barbara EdenBarbara Eden is an American film and television actress and singer who is best known for her starring role in the sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.-Early years:...
). His last film was reprising his role in the television reunion movie
I Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years LaterI Dream of Jeannie: 15 Years Later is a two-hour made-for-television reunion movie based on the 1965-70 series I Dream of Jeannie which aired on NBC on October 20, 1985 and produced by Sony Pictures Television....
(1985).
Hayden Rorke died at the age of seventy-six at Toluca Lake, California, of
multiple myelomaMultiple myeloma , also known as MM, myeloma, plasma cell myeloma, or as Kahler's disease is a cancer of the white blood cells known as plasma cells. A type of B cell, plasma cells are a crucial part of the immune system responsible for the production of antibodies in humans and other vertebrates...
(cancer of the bone marrow). He was buried at Culver City's
Holy Cross CemeteryHoly Cross Cemetery is a Catholic cemetery at 5835 West Slauson Avenue in Culver City, California, operated by the Los Angeles Archdiocese.Opened in 1939, Holy Cross is . It contains—among others—the graves and tombs of show business professionals...
.