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William Conrad (September 27, 1920 –
February 11, 1994) was an American film and television director and an
actor and narrator in radio, film, and television known for his baritone
voice.
Conrad was born William Cann in
Louisville, Kentucky. Starting work in radio in the late 1930s in
California, Conrad went on to serve as a fighter pilot in
World War II.
He returned to the airwaves after the war, going on to accumulate over
7,000 roles in radio by his own estimate.
Conrad's deep, resonant voice led to a number of
noteworthy roles in radio drama, most prominently his originating the role
of Marshal Matt Dillon on the
Western
program
Gunsmoke from 1952–61. He was considered for the role when the series
was brought to television in 1955, but his increasing obesity led to the
casting of James Arness instead. Other series to which Conrad contributed
his talents included Escape, Suspense and The Damon Runyon Theater. One
particularly memorable radio piece was the 1957 CBS Radio Workshop
broadcast "Epitaphs," an adaptation of the Edgar Lee Masters poetry volume
Spoon River Anthology; Conrad both directed and narrated the production.
Among Conrad's various film roles, where he was usually cast as
threatening figures, perhaps his most notable role was his first credited
one, as one of the gunmen sent to eliminate Burt Lancaster in the 1946
film The Killers. He also appeared in Body and Soul (1947), Sorry, Wrong
Number, Joan of Arc (both 1948), and The Naked Jungle (1954).
Conrad moved to television in the 1960s. He guest starred in NBC's science
fiction series The Man and the Challenge. In 1962, Conrad guest starred
and directed episodes of ABC's crime drama Target: The Corruptors!. He and
Sam Peckinpah directed episodes of NBC's Klondike in the 1960–1961 season.
He returned to voice work (most notably as narrator of The Fugitive from
1963–67) and the direction of Brainstorm in 1965. He narrated the animated
Rocky and Bullwinkle series from 1959–64 (as "Bill Conrad"), and later
performed the role of Denethor in the 1980 animated TV version of J. R. R.
Tolkien's The Return of the King. But the 1970s saw him starring onscreen
in the first of three detective series which would bring him an added
measure of renown, Cannon, which ran on CBS from 1971–1976. He later
narrated The Making of Star Wars (1977) and
Buck Rogers
in the 25th Century (1979). He starred in both Nero Wolfe (1981) and
Jake and the Fatman (1987–1992), with Joe Penny. He was also the on-camera
spokesman for First Alert fire prevention products for many years, as well
as Hai Karate men's cologne.
Conrad's credits as a director include episodes of
The Rifleman,
Bat Masterson,
Route
66, Have Gun –
Will Travel, and 77 Sunset Strip, among others, and feature films such
as Two on a Guillotine. |
