Karl Swenson
Encyclopedia
Karl Swenson was an American
theatre
, radio
, film
, and television
actor
.
parentage, Swenson made several appearances with Pierre-Luc Michaud on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s, including the title role in Arthur Miller
's first production, The Man Who Had All the Luck
. He appeared extensively on the radio from the 1930s through the 1950s in such programs as Cavalcade of America
, The Chase, Columbia Presents Corwin, The Columbia Workshop, Inner Sanctum Mysteries
, Joe Palooka
, Lawyer Q, Lorenzo Jones
, The March of Time
, The Mercury Theatre on the Air
, Mrs. Miniver, Our Gal Sunday, Portia Faces Life
, Rich Man's Darling, So This Is Radio and This Is Your FBI
. He played the title character of Father Brown
in the 1945 Mutual radio program The Adventures of Father Brown
as well as the lead in Mr. Chameleon.
Swenson entered the film industry in 1943 with two wartime documentary shorts, December 7 and The Sikorsky Helicopter, followed by more than thirty-five roles in feature films and television movie
s. No Name on the Bullet
(1959) is only one of the many Westerns he did for both film and television. He guest starred in 1960 in the NBC
science fiction
series The Man and the Challenge
. He played two roles in the NBC Western Klondike
in the 1960–1961 season. In 1962, he made a one time appearance on The Andy Griffith Show
as Mr. McBeevee. He also guest starred in NBC's Laramie
western series andin the science fiction series Steve Canyon
, with Dean Fredericks
in the title role. In 1963, he appeared as Nelson in the episode "Beauty Playing a Mandolin
Underneath a Willow Tree" episode of the NBC medical drama
about psychiatry
, The Eleventh Hour
. Swenson is also remembered for his role as the doomsayer in the diner in Hitchcock's classic The Birds
and had a minor role in The Cincinnati Kid
.
Although Swenson had credits on dozens of TV series, including an appearance on the "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres
" episode of Maverick
, he was best known for his performance as Lars Hanson in forty episodes of Little House on the Prairie
. He is also notable for having voiced the character of Merlin
in Walt Disney
's 1963 animated classic, The Sword in the Stone
. In 1967, Swenson played the role of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
in the western film Brighty of the Grand Canyon
, with co-stars Pat Conway
and Joseph Cotten
.Swenson appeared in a 1967 episode of the immensely popular Hogan's Heroes
entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence Nazis", where he played a likable and friendly German scientist Dr. Karl Svenson who is persuaded by Hogan to join the Allied War Effort.
in Torrington
, Connecticut
on October 8, 1978 shortly after filming the episode in which the Little House on the Prairie character Lars Hanson died. He was interred at Center Cemetery in New Milford
, Connecticut.
, who was assistant stage manager for that production and one of the founding directors of the University Players
, a summer stock company in West Falmouth on Cape Cod. As a principal player with University Players during its summer seasons of 1931 and 1932, and during its 18-week winter season in Baltimore, Maryland, in between, Swenson, as Peter Wayne, acted alongside such other unknowns as Henry Fonda
, Margaret Sullavan
, Joshua Logan
, James Stewart
, Barbara O'Neil
, Mildred Natwick
, Kent Smith
, Myron McCormick
, and Charles Arnt
. In the summer of 1932, under its new name The Theatre Unit, Inc., University Players mounted an original production entitled Carry Nation. After its October preview in Baltimore, during which “Peter Wayne” was listed as playing the part of the Leader of the Vigilantes, Swenson reverted to his own name for Carry Nations 30-performance run on Broadway.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
, film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
Biography
Born in Brooklyn, New York of SwedishSweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
parentage, Swenson made several appearances with Pierre-Luc Michaud on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s, including the title role in Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
's first production, The Man Who Had All the Luck
The Man Who Had All the Luck
The Man Who Had All the Luck is a play by Arthur Miller.David Beeves is a young Midwestern automobile mechanic who discovers he is blessed with what appears to be almost supernatural good fortune that allows him to overcome every seemingly insurmountable obstacle that crosses his path while those...
. He appeared extensively on the radio from the 1930s through the 1950s in such programs as Cavalcade of America
Cavalcade of America
Cavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company, although it occasionally presented a musical, such as an adaptation of Show Boat, and condensed biographies of popular composers. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on...
, The Chase, Columbia Presents Corwin, The Columbia Workshop, Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Inner Sanctum Mysteries
Inner Sanctum Mysteries, a popular old-time radio program that aired from January 7, 1941 to October 5, 1952, was created by producer Himan Brown. A total of 526 episodes were broadcast.-Horror hosts:...
, Joe Palooka
Joe Palooka
Joe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher in 1921. The strip debuted in 1930 and was carried at its peak by 900 newspapers....
, Lawyer Q, Lorenzo Jones
Lorenzo Jones
Lorenzo Jones was a daytime radio series which aired on NBC in different timeslots over an 18-year span.Produced by Frank and Anne Hummert, the series could be classified with its own unique category of "comedy soap opera," highlighted by organist Rosa Rio's rollicking rendition of the opening...
, The March of Time
The March of Time
The March of Time is a radio series, and companion newsreel series, that was broadcast on CBS from 1931 to 1945 and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was created by Time, Inc. executive Roy Edward Larsen, and was produced and written by Louis de Rochemont and his brother Richard de...
, The Mercury Theatre on the Air
Mercury Theatre
The Mercury Theatre was a theatre company founded in New York City in 1937 by Orson Welles and John Houseman. After a string of live theatrical productions, in 1938 the Mercury Theatre progressed into their best-known period as The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a radio series that included one of the...
, Mrs. Miniver, Our Gal Sunday, Portia Faces Life
Portia Faces Life
Portia Faces Life is a soap opera which began in syndication on April 1, 1940. It was broadcast on some stations that carried NBC programs, although it does not seem to have been an official part of that network's programming...
, Rich Man's Darling, So This Is Radio and This Is Your FBI
This is Your FBI
This Is Your FBI was a radio crime drama which aired in the United States on ABC from April 6, 1945 to January 30, 1953 for a total of 409 shows. FBI chief J...
. He played the title character of Father Brown
Father Brown
Father Brown is a fictional character created by English novelist G. K. Chesterton, who stars in 52 short stories, later compiled in five books. Chesterton based the character on Father John O'Connor , a parish priest in Bradford who was involved in Chesterton's conversion to Catholicism in 1922...
in the 1945 Mutual radio program The Adventures of Father Brown
The Adventures of Father Brown
The Adventures of Father Brown was a 1945 radio crime drama that aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System, adapted from G. K. Chesterton's stories of Father Brown....
as well as the lead in Mr. Chameleon.
Swenson entered the film industry in 1943 with two wartime documentary shorts, December 7 and The Sikorsky Helicopter, followed by more than thirty-five roles in feature films and television movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
s. No Name on the Bullet
No Name on the Bullet
No Name on the Bullet is a 1959 western film. It is one of a handful of pictures in that genre directed by Jack Arnold, better known for his science-fiction movies of the era...
(1959) is only one of the many Westerns he did for both film and television. He guest starred in 1960 in the NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
series The Man and the Challenge
The Man and the Challenge
The Man and the Challenge is a 36-segment half-hour television adventure/science fiction series which ran new episodes on NBC from September 12, 1959, to June 11, 1960. It starred George Nader as Dr. Glenn Barton, a research scientist for the Institute of Human Factors, an agency that conducted...
. He played two roles in the NBC Western Klondike
Klondike (TV series)
Klondike is a 17-episode half-hour Western television series that aired on NBC. The series premiered on October 10, 1960 and ran until February 13, 1961. It faced stiff competition from The Danny Thomas Show on CBS and the second half of the first-season detective series Surfside 6 starring Troy...
in the 1960–1961 season. In 1962, he made a one time appearance on The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show
The Andy Griffith Show is an American sitcom first televised by CBS between October 3, 1960, and April 1, 1968. Andy Griffith portrays a widowed sheriff in the fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
as Mr. McBeevee. He also guest starred in NBC's Laramie
Laramie (TV series)
Laramie is an American Western television series that aired on NBC from 1959 to 1963. Laramie was a Revue Studios production which originally starred John Smith as Slim Sherman, Robert Fuller as Jess Harper, Hoagy Carmichael as Jonesy and Robert Crawford, Jr...
western series andin the science fiction series Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
, with Dean Fredericks
Dean Fredericks
Dean Fredericks was an American actor best known for his portrayal of the comic strip character Steve Canyon in a 34-episode television series of the same name which aired from 1958-1959 on NBC. He was born Frederick Joseph Foote in Los Angeles, California...
in the title role. In 1963, he appeared as Nelson in the episode "Beauty Playing a Mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
Underneath a Willow Tree" episode of the NBC 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...
about psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, The Eleventh Hour
The Eleventh Hour (1962 TV series)
The Eleventh Hour is an American medical drama about psychiatry starring Wendell Corey, Jack Ging, and Ralph Bellamy, which aired sixty-two new episodes plus selected rebroadcasts on NBC from October 3, 1962, to September 9, 1964.-Series premise:...
. Swenson is also remembered for his role as the doomsayer in the diner in Hitchcock's classic The Birds
The Birds (film)
The Birds is a 1963 horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on the 1952 short story "The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier. It depicts Bodega Bay, California which is, suddenly and for unexplained reasons, the subject of a series of widespread and violent bird attacks over the course of a few...
and had a minor role in The Cincinnati Kid
The Cincinnati Kid
The Cincinnati Kid is a 1965 American drama film. It tells the story of Eric "The Kid" Stoner, a young Depression-era poker player, as he seeks to establish his reputation as the best...
.
Although Swenson had credits on dozens of TV series, including an appearance on the "Shady Deal at Sunny Acres
Shady Deal at Sunny Acres
Shady Deal at Sunny Acres, starring James Garner and Jack Kelly, remains the most famous and widely discussed episode of the Western comedy television series Maverick. Written by series creator Roy Huggins and Douglas Heyes and directed by Leslie H...
" episode of Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
, he was best known for his performance as Lars Hanson in forty episodes of Little House on the Prairie
Little House on the Prairie (TV series)
Little House on the Prairie is an American Western drama television series, starring Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert, about a family living on a farm in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was an adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder's best-selling series of Little House books...
. He is also notable for having voiced the character of Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
in Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's 1963 animated classic, The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone (film)
The Sword in the Stone is a 1963 American animated fantasy comedy film produced by Walt Disney and originally released to theaters on December 25, 1963...
. In 1967, Swenson played the role of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
in the western film Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Brighty of the Grand Canyon
Brighty of the Grand Canyon is a 1967 film based on a 1953 children's novel of the same name by Marguerite Henry, a fictionalized account of a real-life burro named "Brighty", who lived in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River from about 1892-1922....
, with co-stars Pat Conway
Pat Conway
Patrick Douglas Conway, known as Pat Conway , was an American actor best known for his role as young but tough Sheriff Clay Hollister on the ABC and then syndicated western television series Tombstone Territory . He was a maternal grandson of silent film star Francis X...
and Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cotten
Joseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. Cotten achieved prominence on Broadway, starring in the original productions of The Philadelphia Story and Sabrina Fair...
.Swenson appeared in a 1967 episode of the immensely popular 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...
entitled "How to Win Friends and Influence Nazis", where he played a likable and friendly German scientist Dr. Karl Svenson who is persuaded by Hogan to join the Allied War Effort.
Death
Swenson died of a heart attackMyocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in Torrington
Torrington, Connecticut
Torrington is the largest city in Litchfield County, Connecticut and the northwestern Connecticut region. It is also the core city of the largest micropolitan area in the United States. The city population was 36,383 according to the 2010 census....
, Connecticut
Connecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
on October 8, 1978 shortly after filming the episode in which the Little House on the Prairie character Lars Hanson died. He was interred at Center Cemetery in New Milford
New Milford, Connecticut
New Milford is a town in southern Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States north of Danbury, on the Housatonic River. It is the largest town in the state in terms of land area at nearly . The population was 28,671 according to the Census Bureau's 2006 estimates...
, Connecticut.
Stage Name "Peter Wayne"
For nearly two years Karl Swenson adopted the name “Peter Wayne” for use as a professional actor. Though he had used his own name when playing the part of Thompson in the Laboratory Theatre’s 1930 production of A Glass of Water, he had thereafter assumed the stage name “Peter Wayne” by the time he played Andre Verron in the Theatre Guild’s production of The Miracle at Verdun, which opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in March 1931. It was during Verdun that Swenson became acquainted with Bretaigne WindustBretaigne Windust
Bretaigne Windust was a French-born theatre, film, and television director.-Early life:He was born Ernest Bretaigne Windust in Paris, France, the son of English violin virtuoso Ernest Joseph Windust and singer Elizabeth Amory Day from New York City...
, who was assistant stage manager for that production and one of the founding directors of the University Players
University Players
The University Players was primarily a summer stock theater company located in West Falmouth, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, from 1928 to 1932. It was formed in 1928 by eighteen college undergraduates...
, a summer stock company in West Falmouth on Cape Cod. As a principal player with University Players during its summer seasons of 1931 and 1932, and during its 18-week winter season in Baltimore, Maryland, in between, Swenson, as Peter Wayne, acted alongside such other unknowns as Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda
Henry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
, Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Brooke Sullavan was an American stage and film actress. Sullavan started her career on the stage in 1929. In 1933 she caught the attention of movie director John M. Stahl and had her debut on the screen that same year in Only Yesterday...
, Joshua Logan
Joshua Logan
Joshua Lockwood Logan III was an American stage and film director and writer.-Early years:Logan was born in Texarkana, Texas, the son of Susan and Joshua Lockwood Logan. When he was three years old his father committed suicide...
, James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
, Barbara O'Neil
Barbara O'Neil
-Early life and career:Barbara O'Neil was born in St. Louis, Missouri. She began her acting career in summer stock. In July 1931 Bretaigne Windust, Charles Leatherbee , and Joshua Logan, the three directors of the University Players, a three-year old summer stock company at West Falmouth on Cape...
, Mildred Natwick
Mildred Natwick
Mildred Natwick was an American stage and film actress.- Early life :A native of Baltimore, Maryland, she was born to Joseph and Mildred Marion Dawes Natwick. She graduated from the Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore...
, Kent Smith
Kent Smith
Kent Smith was an American actor who had a lengthy career in film, theater, and television.Born Frank Kent Smith in New York, New York, Smith made his acting debut on Broadway in 1932 in and, after spending a few years there, moved to Hollywood, California, where he made his film debut in The...
, Myron McCormick
Myron McCormick
Myron McCormick was an American actor of stage, radio and film.McCormick was born as Walter Myron McCormick in Albany, Indiana....
, and Charles Arnt
Charles Arnt
Charles Arnt was an American film actor. He appeared in 120 films between 1933 and 1962.He was born in Michigan City, Indiana, and died in Orcas Island, Washington from pancreatic and liver cancer.-Selected filmography:...
. In the summer of 1932, under its new name The Theatre Unit, Inc., University Players mounted an original production entitled Carry Nation. After its October preview in Baltimore, during which “Peter Wayne” was listed as playing the part of the Leader of the Vigilantes, Swenson reverted to his own name for Carry Nations 30-performance run on Broadway.