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Carl Sagan
William Schallert
Roy Scheider
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Peter Sellers
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SCHALLERT, WILLIAM
(1922– ). American actor.

SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND HORROR FILM CREDITS
Acted in films: Mighty Joe Young (Ernest B. SCHOEDSACK 1949); The Man from Planet X (Edgar G. ULMER 1951); Invasion U.S.A. (uncredited) (Alfred E. Green 1952); Port Sinister (Harold Daniels 1953); Tobor the Great (Lee Sholem 1954); Them! (uncredited) (Gordon Douglas 1954); Gog (Herbert L. Strock 1954); The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack ARNOLD 1957); The Story of Mankind (Irwin ALLEN 1957); The Monolith Monsters (uncredited) (John Sherwood 1957); The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (Robert Butler 1969); Colossus: The Forbin Project (Joseph SARGENT 1969); The Strongest Man in the World (Vincent McEvetty 1975); Hangar 18 (James L. Conway 1980); The Twilight Zone—The Movie (Joe DANTE, John LANDIS, George MILLER, and Steven SPIELBERG 1983); Gremlins (uncredited) (Dante 1984); Innerspace (Dante 1987); Matinee (Dante 1993).

Acted in television: Commando Cody, Sky Marshal of the Universe (tv series) (1953); "A Visit from Dr. Pliny" (1955), episode of Science Fiction Theater; "Epilogue" (1959), "Tidal Wave" (1960), episodes of One Step Beyond; "A Handful of Hours" (1960), episode of Men into Space; "Mr. Bevis" (1960), episode of The Twilight Zone; "Dialogues with Death" (1961), episode of Thriller; "Bad Actor" (1962), episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents; "The Train" (1967), episode of Mission Impossible; "The Trouble with Tribbles" (1967), episode of Star Trek; "The Night of the Bubbling Death" (1967), "The Night of the Gruesome Games" (1968), "The Night of the Winged Terror" (two-part episode) (1969), episodes of The Wild, Wild West; "A Man Called Smart" (three-part episode) (1967), "Return of the Ancient Mariner," "With Love and Twitches" (1968), "Witness for the Execution" (1970), episodes of Get Smart; "Samantha's Curious Cravings" (1969), episode of Bewitched; "The Clones" (1969), episode of Land of the Giants; "The Praying Mantis Kills" (1973), episode of Kung Fu; "Eyewitness to Murder" (1974), episode of The Six Million Dollar Man; "Claws" (1976), episode of The Bionic Woman; The Nancy Drew Mysteries (tv series) (1977–1978); The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (tv series) (1978); The Legends of the Super-Heroes (tv series) (1979); The Smurfs (animated tv series; voice) (1981–1990); "Call Me Responsible" (1984), episode of The Duck Factory; Amazons (tv movie) (Paul Michael Glaser 1984); "Shadow Play" (1986), episode of Twilight Zone; "Man's Best Friend" (two-part episode) (1987), episode of Highway to Heaven; "So Help Me God" (1989), episode of Quantum Leap; "Power Erupts" (voice) (1991), episode of Dinosaurs; "Sanctuary" (1993), "Trials and Tribble-ations" (1996), episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Harvey (tv movie) (George Schaefer 1996); The Second Civil War (tv movie) (Dante 1997); "The River Rising" (animated; voice) (2002), episode of The Zeta Project.

Although I had always been aware of William Schallert—how could anyone who watches television be unaware of the omnipresent William Schallert?—I originally made no effort to compile his numerous credits and had no plans to enshrine him in this volume. Surely there could be nothing interesting to say about this relentlessly bland, paternal presence, forever providing a suitably monochromatic background in forgettable pablum like The Patty Duke Show and Walt DISNEY comedies. The turning point came when I finally had the opportunity to watch the elusive The Man from Planet X and was stunned by his performance as a sleazy, sinister scientist determined to exploit the alien visitor for his own ends. For once, Schallert seemed like an actor who deserved to be in the spotlight.

But Schallert knew, even at the start of his career, that his frail, faintly professorial appearance ensured that he would be cast as Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, never Hamlet. With powerful connections to exploit—his father was a major drama critic for The Los Angeles Times—Schallert could get his foot in the door, but he would be given small parts that demanded virtually no talent, providing him with only the mild challenge of going through the motions in a manner slightly better than the hundreds of other actors who could have handled the part. If you actually gave him something to do, however, he might seize the opportunity with surprising ferocity. Thus, if The Man from Planet X would serve as the strong opening of your William Schallert film festival, its smashing conclusion would be Matinee, where director Joe DANTE's film-within-a-film Mant (and a film vastly more entertaining that the one that surrounds it) allowed Schallert to go deliciously over the top as a crazed doctor slowly turning into an ant.

What other Schallert films might merit a revival? According to his credits, he appeared in several major science fiction films of the 1950s, but about the only one where he is onscreen long enough to make an impression would be The Incredible Shrinking Man, where he is characteristically ineffectual as the physician trying to minister to an inexorably diminishing patient. In the 1960s, he garnered his greatest fame as the hapless father on The Patty Duke Show while fidgeting his way through guest appearances on westerns and other television shows, including a semi-regular role on Get Smart and another archetypal Schallert performance as a myopic, meddlesome bureaucrat on the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." Later, having proven with Patty Duke how well he could play a father easily manipulated by his daughter, he was a natural choice to play Carson Drew in the 1970s Nancy Drew series. Now established as a television icon, Schallert would only occasionally return to films, including two turns as the befuddled Professor Quigley dealing with boy genius Kurt RUSSELL in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Strongest Man in the World and a portrayal of the CIA Director who cannot cope with Colossus: The Forbin Project. Oddly, even as his fellow actors continued to walk all over him on the set, they also, in 1979, elected him as the head of the Screen Actors Guild, indicating that his solid professionalism and strong work ethic had earned him some respect from his peers, if not from casting directors and the general public.

The year 1979 also brough another career highlight, the two-part series The Legends of the Super-Heroes, where Schallert upstaged better-known colleagues as the over-the-hill hero Retired Man. Yet the role also served as a reminder that Schallert himself was nearing retirement age, and he has correspondingly slowed down his pace of work in his last two decades. Always ready for an occasional film or television role, especially in the films of Joe Dante—who evidently admires him greatly—Schallert has also found work as a voice for animated films and sometimes returns to the stage. If you haven't noticed his recent performances, Schallert would no doubt take that in stride; most of the time, throughout his career, it has been Schallert's job to avoid being noticed. But when he is allowed to do so, William Schallert can also make himself memorably conspicuous.

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