- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHerman Walston
- Height5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Ray Walston started his acting career as
a spear carrier with a local stock company. When the family moved to
Houston, Texas, Walston's father wanted to teach him the oil business,
but Walston instead joined a traveling repertory company (selling
tickets as well as acting). He went on to associate with
Margo Jones at the Houston Civic
Theater for six years, then spent three seasons with the Cleveland
Playhouse before arriving in New York in 1945. He has won a Tony Award
for his performance as the Devil in Broadway's "Damn Yankees", two Emmy
Awards for
Picket Fences (1992), and
become a household name playing the extraterrestrial "Uncle Martin" on
My Favorite Martian (1963).
Ray Walston died at age 86 of lupus on New Year's Day 2001 in Beverly
Hills, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tom Weaver <TomWeavr@aol.com> - Ray Walston was born on December 2, 1914 in Laurel, Mississippi USA
and began his acting career in 1939, receiving his first big break when
cast as the reporter in the
Ben Hecht-Charles MacArthur
classic "The Front Page". Later, he came to the New York critics'
attention with the play "The Alchemist". Prominent in Walston's career
was an association with director
George Abbott which included
appearing in five productions over a span of 20 years. They began
working together in 1949, around the time Walston was cast in "South
Pacific". Then, in 1955, Walston won a Tony Award as best male musical
comedy star in the Abbott production of "Damn Yankees". Walston came to
Hollywood in 1957 for
Kiss Them for Me (1957). Since
then, his other films have included
The Apartment (1960),
Portrait in Black (1960),
Paint Your Wagon (1969),
The Sting (1973),
Popeye (1980),
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
and O'Hara's Wife (1982). In 1963,
he began the television series
My Favorite Martian (1963),
which ran for three years. Ray Walston died at age 86 of lupus on New
Year's Day 2001 in Beverly Hills, California.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous
- SpouseRuth Calvert(November 3, 1943 - January 1, 2001) (his death, 1 child)
- ChildrenKatherine Ann Walston
- Held a top secret security clearance for a while as he was narrating Operation Hardtack reports for the United States military for the development of nuclear weapons.
- Replaced Peter Sellers in Kiss Me, Stupid (1964) after Sellers had suffered a heart attack mere weeks into the production.
- Won Broadway's 1956 Tony Award as Best Actor (Musical) for "Damn
Yankees!", a role he recreated in the film version of the same name,
Damn Yankees (1958). - He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre at 7070 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 8, 1995.
- Had appeared in two Best Picture Academy Award winners: The Apartment (1960) and The Sting (1973).
- I never should have done My Favorite Martian (1963). I didn't work in television or film for three years after. Everyone thought of me as a Martian. Do you know what it's like to go to Madrid, Spain, on vacation and have a guy yell out, "Hey, Martin!" and put antennas behind his head? When that happens, you know your career is dead.
- (on his thoughts after four episodes of My Favorite Martian (1963)) I thought, "What am I doing here? I'm running around with two pieces
of wire coming out of my head. I must be crazy.". - (his 1995 Emmy Award acceptance speech) I have 30 seconds to tell you I have been waiting 60 years to get on this stage.
- (on being labeled a character actor) I'm an actor and that's it -- period. Producers and studios have thrown many things at me over the years: comedy, tragedy, drama, drawing-room comedy. I've managed to keep my head above water in most of these genres, but I don't put myself in any one category like "comic actor" or "musical-comedy" actor.
- My Favorite Martian (1963) ended after three years, because the people at the top killed the goose that laid the golden egg. They didn't know how to keep the goose alive.
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