- Ted Bessell
Ted Bessell (
March 20 ,1935 –October 6 ,1996 ) was an Americantelevision actor .Born in Flushing, New York, on March 20, 1935, Bessell was originally gearing up for a career as a classical musician. As a 12-year-old child prodigy, he performed a piano recital at
Carnegie Hall .However, after graduating from college in 1958, Bessell focused on acting. He studied with
Sandford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse, studied dance and dramatic movement withMartha Graham andLouis Horst , was a member of a professional acting class under Meisner, and worked withWynn Handman in another professional acting group.He acted and directed in stock where he appeared in a wide spectrum of theatre works ranging from
Shakespeare toJule Styne . He then was cast in the off-Broadway production of "The Power of Darkness ," which led to further off-Broadway work with the Blackfriars Guild. He also co-produced with his brother, writer-director Frank Bessell,Joe Orton 's "Crimes of Passion," directed by Michael Kahn.Bessell first went to Los Angeles in the West Coast production of
Thomas Wolfe 's "Look Homeward, Angel ," for which he received great critical notices. Following that he appeared in the film "The Outsider " withTony Curtis and "Lover, Come Back" withRock Hudson andDoris Day .In 1962, he played college student Tom-Tom DeWitt on the short-lived series "It's a Man's World", and in 1966, he was regularly featured on "
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. "as Private Francis Lombardi, one of Gomer's fellow Marines. Bessell also appeared in feature films like "McHale's Navy Joins The Air Force" and "Don't Drink the Water" withJackie Gleason andEstelle Parsons . He also appeared in the TV film, "Your Money Or Your Wife," which won thePeabody Award for Best Mystery of the Year.Bessell's best-known TV role was as Donald Hollinger,
Marlo Thomas ' boyfriend on the hit series "That Girl ," which ran for five seasons from 1966 to 1971. When that series ended its run, Bessell tried his hand at yet another sitcom, "Me and the Chimp ," created by Garry K. Marshall, which had a short, infamously unsuccessful run in 1972. In it, Bessell played opposite a primate.It was not until 1977 that he would appear in another sitcom, which was the character of Joe Warner, the boyfriend Mary Richards was most likely to marry on "
The Mary Tyler Moore Show ."In the 1980s, Bessell appeared in several TV movies, including "Breaking Up Is Hard to Do" and "The Acorn People." He also played regular roles on a pair of unusual sitcoms, "
Good Time Harry " and, in his last major role, "Hail to the Chief ," as the husband of Patty Duke's character, the first femalePresident of the United States . But both of these series failed to catch on.Bessell moved into directing, helming episodes of "
The Tracey Ullman Show " and "Sibs". In 1989, he shared an Emmy as a producer on Fox Broadcasting's Tracey Ullman, which was honored as best variety or comedy program.Bessell died on October 6, 1996 due to an
aortic aneurysm . He was 61. He was preparing to direct the large-screen version of the TV series "Bewitched ."He is interred in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.
External links
*imdb name|id=0078783|name=Ted Bessell
*amg name|2:5939
*findagrave|5785
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.