Paul Fix

Paul Fix (born March 13 1901, Dobbs Ferry, New York – died October 14 1983, Los Angeles) was an American film and television character actor, best known for his work in westerns. Fix appeared in over a hundred movies and dozens of television shows over a 56-year career spanning from 1925 to 1981.

A veteran of the Navy during World War I, Fix became an incredibly busy character actor who got his start in local productions around his New York home. By the 1920s he had moved to Hollywood and performed in the first of almost 350 movie and television appearances. In the 1930s, he became friends with John Wayne, coaching him acting, and eventually appearing as a featured player in about 27 of his films. Many of his early characters were scoundrels of one sort or the other; as he matured, he took on more benevolent, avuncular roles.

Fix worked in early films such as "Lucky Star" (1929),and became a regular performer for the film's director, Frank Borzage, on a further eight occasions. But he is remembered today mainly for his role as Marshal Micah Torrance on the TV Series "The Rifleman", and as Dr. Mark Piper in the second pilot episode of "", "Where No Man Has Gone Before". When NBC picked up Star Trek as a series, Fix was replaced as the Enterprise medical officer by DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. Fix also appeared as the presiding judge in "To Kill a Mockingbird" in 1962. In 1967 he appeared in the film El Dorado playing a doctor. In 1979, he appeared with Peter Fonda and Brooke Shields in "Wanda Nevada".

Leonard Maltin and Fix both maintained that Wayne copied his famous manner of walking from Fix. Fix also co-wrote the screenplay for Wayne's film "Tall in the Saddle".

Other television credits included "The Adventures of Superman" (1953-1954, with Anthony Caruso, Joseph Mell, and Elisha Cook, Jr.), recurring appearances as District Attorney Hale on "Perry Mason" (1957-1963), "The Twilight Zone" (1964), "The F.B.I." (1965-1973, with Marj Dusay, Clint Howard, Steve Ihnat, Paul Carr and series-regular Stephen Brooks), "The Time Tunnel" (1966, with James Darren, Whit Bissell, Lee Meriwether and Paul Carr), "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1966), "The Wild Wild West" (1966-1967, with Sarah Marshall, Michael Dunn and Anthony Caruso), "Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law" (1971, with DeForest Kelley), "Mannix" (1972, with Rex Holman and Byron Morrow), and as Joe Tooley in the Rockford Files episode "The House On Willis Avenue." He appeared in the "Battlestar Galactica" episode "Take the Celestra" as Commander Kronus (1979).He again appeared with DeForest Kelley in the movie Night of the Lepus (1972).

Fix died in Los Angeles, California, as a result of kidney failure.

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* at , an encyclopedia of the "Battlestar Galactica" sagas