Karl Swenson (July 23 1908 – October 8 1978) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatreTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
,
radioRadio is the transmission of signals 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...
,
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
, and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
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...
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Swenson made several appearances on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s, including the title role in
Arthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include awards-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible.Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and...
's first production,
The Man Who Had All the LuckThe 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 AmericaCavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on television from 1952 to 1957...
,
The Chase,
Columbia Presents Corwin,
The Columbia Workshop,
Inner Sanctum MysteriesInner 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 PalookaJoe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. With various assistants and successors, the strip lasted for over half a century with spin-offs to radio, movies, television and merchandising....
,
Lawyer Q,
Lorenzo Jones,
The March of TimeThe March of Time is a newsreel series that was 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 Rochemont for most of its 16-year run.-History:The March of Time was...
,
The Mercury Theatre on the AirThe 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.
Karl Swenson (July 23 1908 – October 8 1978) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
theatreTheatre is a branch of the performing arts. While any performance may be considered theatre, as a performing art, it focuses almost exclusively on live performers creating a self contained drama. A performance qualifies as dramatic by creating a representational illusion...
,
radioRadio is the transmission of signals 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...
,
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
, and
televisionTelevision is a widely used telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images, either monochromatic or color, usually accompanied by sound. "Television" may also refer specifically to a television set, television programming or television transmission...
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...
.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Swenson made several appearances on Broadway in the 1930s and 40s, including the title role in
Arthur MillerArthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include awards-winning plays such as All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and The Crucible.Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and...
's first production,
The Man Who Had All the LuckThe 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 AmericaCavalcade of America is an anthology drama series that was sponsored by the DuPont Company. It was initially broadcast on radio from 1935 to 1953, and later on television from 1952 to 1957...
,
The Chase,
Columbia Presents Corwin,
The Columbia Workshop,
Inner Sanctum MysteriesInner 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 PalookaJoe Palooka was an American comic strip about a heavyweight boxing champion, created by cartoonist Ham Fisher. With various assistants and successors, the strip lasted for over half a century with spin-offs to radio, movies, television and merchandising....
,
Lawyer Q,
Lorenzo Jones,
The March of TimeThe March of Time is a newsreel series that was 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 Rochemont for most of its 16-year run.-History:The March of Time was...
,
The Mercury Theatre on the AirThe 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 LifePortia Faces Life was a soap opera which began on CBS October 7, 1940. Sponsored by General Foods , it followed the hardships of attorney Portia Blake as she fought corruption in the small town of Parkersburg....
,
Rich Man's Darling,
So This Is Radio and
This Is Your FBIThis 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 BrownFather 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 BrownThe 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 movieA television movie is a feature film that is produced for and originally distributed by a...
s.
No Name on the BulletNo 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
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices in Burbank,California...
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
series
The Man and the ChallengeThe 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
KlondikeKlondike 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 ShowThe 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 a fictional small community of Mayberry, North Carolina...
as Mr. McBeevee. He also guest starred in NBC's
LaramieLaramie 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., as Andy Sherman.-Synopsis:The story...
western series. In 1963, he appeared as Nelson in the episode "Beauty Playing a
MandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It is descended from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family...
Underneath a Willow Tree" episode of the NBC
medical dramaA medical drama is a television drama in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. While not as popular as legal/crime drama, it is still easily identifiable occupational based drama....
about
psychiatryPsychiatry is a medical specialty officially devoted to the treatment and study of mental disorders. The term was first coined by the German physician Johann Christian Reil in 1808....
,
The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 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....
.
Although Swenson had credits on dozens of TV series, including an appearance on the "
Shady Deal at Sunny AcresShady 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
MaverickMaverick is a comedy-western television series created by Roy Huggins that ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and featured James Garner, Jack Kelly, Roger Moore, and Robert Colbert as the poker-playing traveling Mavericks...
, he was best known for his performance as Lars Hanson in forty episodes of
Little House on the PrairieLittle House on the Prairie is an American one-hour dramatic television program, starring Michael Landon, about a family living on a farm in Minnesota in the 1870s and 1880s. The show was a loose adaptation of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s best-selling series of Little House on the Prairie books. It aired...
. He is also notable for having voiced the character of
MerlinMerlin 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 DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon and philanthropist. Disney is famous for his influence in the field of entertainment during the twentieth century. As the co-founder Walter Elias...
's 1963 animated classic,
The Sword in the StoneThe Sword in the Stone is a 1963 fantasy animated comedy film, produced by Walt Disney originally released to theaters on December 25, 1963...
. In 1967, Swenson played the role of U.S. President
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
in the western film
Brighty of the Grand CanyonBrighty of the Grand Canyon is an award winning children's novel by Marguerite Henry about a donkey in the Grand Canyon....
, with co-stars
Pat ConwayPatrick 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 CottenJoseph Cheshire Cotten was an American actor of stage and film. He is best remembered for his association with Orson Welles, which led to appearances in Journey into Fear, which Cotten wrote, Citizen Kane, The Third Man, and The Magnificent Ambersons.Cotten first achieved prominence on Broadway,...
. In the 1965 Movie Classic "The Cincinnati Kid" He played a minor role as the father of actress Tuesday Weld.
Along side with the late actor Steve McQueen.
Swenson died of a
heart attackMyocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to part of the heart, causing some heart cells to die...
in
TorringtonTorrington 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 population was 36,248 at the 2000 census....
,
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
, ironically shortly after filming the episode in which the
Little House character Hanson died. He was interred at Center Cemetery in
New MilfordNew Milford is a town in 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.
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