John Dehner | |
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![]() Dehner as Colonel Harvey in 1963 episode of The Andy Griffith Show | |
Born | John Dehner Forkum November 23, 1915[1] Staten Island, New York, U.S. |
Died | February 4, 1992 | (aged 76)
Resting place | Carpinteria Cemetery, Carpinteria, California, U.S. |
Occupation(s) | Stage, radio, film, and television actor |
Years active | 1938–1988 |
Spouse(s) | Roma Leonore Meyers (m. 1941; div. 1970) Evelyn Severance Elliott (m. 1973) |
Children | 2 |
John Dehner (DAY-ner; born John Dehner Forkum; November 23, 1915 – February 4, 1992), also credited Dehner Forkum, was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performance credits, often in roles as sophisticated con men, shady authority figures, and other smooth-talking villains. His credits just in feature films, televised series, and in made-for-TV movies number almost 300 productions. Dehner worked extensively as a radio actor during the latter half of that medium's "golden age,” accumulating hundreds of additional credits on nationally broadcast series. His most notable starring role was as Paladin on the radio version of the television Western Have Gun – Will Travel, which aired for 106 episodes on CBS from 1958 to 1960. He continued to work as a voice actor in film, such as narrating the film The Hallelujah Trail. Earlier in his career, Dehner also worked briefly for Walt Disney Studios, serving as an assistant animator from 1940 to March 1941 at the company's facilities in Burbank, California. He appeared in Columbo episodes "Swan Song" (1974) with Johnny Cash, and as Commodore Otis Swanson in "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976). He appeared in a two part episode of Mission: Impossible.