Bill Zuckert

Bill Zuckert (December 18, 1915 – January 23, 1997) was an American actor born and raised in the Bronx, New York. Before pursuing a career in performance, he spent six years employed by the Office of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. During that period he became involved with community theater groups in Washington and the surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia, and began volunteering on radio broadcasts for organizations including the March of Dimes, the Red Cross, and the U.S. Navy.

Zuckert launched his professional career in radio in 1941, contributing his voice to hundreds of dramatic productions over the following two decades. Among his radio roles was Lieutenant Louis Parker in the NBC crime drama Crime and Peter Chambers. His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in New Guinea as part of the Seabees, the naval construction force of the U.S. Navy.

His Broadway appearances spanned 1956 to 1959. He appeared in the comedy Sixth Finger in a Five Finger Glove in 1956 and in the drama The Gang's All Here in 1959. Alongside his stage work, Zuckert built an extensive television career, taking on guest and character roles across half a century of programming. He appeared multiple times on Gunsmoke, playing Mr. Asper in the 1962 episode "Quint Asper Comes Home," Enoch in the 1963 episode "I Call Him Wonder," and Mr. Jacobson in the 1965 episode "Deputy Festus." In 1968 he guest-starred on Star Trek as Sheriff Johnny Behan in the third-season episode "Spectre of the Gun." He also served on the boards of directors of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

In his personal life, Zuckert was married to actress Gladys Holland for thirty years. He had two children from a previous marriage and a daughter with Holland. Zuckert died on January 23, 1997, at the age of 81, from pneumonia as a complication of cancer, at the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.