Don Keefer

Donald Hood Keefer was born on August 18, 1916, in Highspire, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three sons of Edna (née Hood) and John E. Keefer, a butcher. He died on September 7, 2014, at the age of 98. Over the course of an acting career spanning more than fifty years, Keefer accumulated hundreds of credits across stage, film, and television, working in both comedic and dramatic roles.

After relocating to New York City in his early twenties, Keefer enrolled at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1939. That same year he performed in stage excerpts of Shakespeare's works at the New York World's Fair. He went on to become a founding member of The Actors Studio, where he studied method acting in Manhattan.

Keefer's Broadway career ran from 1941 to 1952 and included appearances in Junior Miss, Harriet, Othello, Flight Into Egypt, and Death of a Salesman. His role in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, the original Broadway production directed by Elia Kazan, proved particularly significant. Keefer played Bernard in that production and reprised the role in the 1951 film adaptation, which marked his feature film debut. During the 1940s he also gained early television experience, appearing in a 1947 televised production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and in two episodes of the anthology series Kraft Television Theatre, including a 1948 episode titled "The Silver Cord."

Following his Broadway and early film work, Keefer appeared in a succession of feature films throughout the 1950s, including The Girl in White (1952), The Caine Mutiny (1954), Six Bridges to Cross (1955), Away All Boats (1956), and Hellcats of the Navy (1957). As the decade progressed, he shifted his focus increasingly toward television, taking on roles across a wide range of series. He appeared in ten episodes each of Gunsmoke, which aired from 1957 to 1973, and Angel, in which he portrayed the neighbor George. Among his notable dramatic television credits, he played Dan Hollis in The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life" (1961), Spiereto in "Passage on the Lady Anne" (1963), and Fred Danziger in "From Agnes - With Love" (1964). He also appeared in the 1958 Rod Serling teleplay "Time Element" and played Cromwell in the 1968 Star Trek episode "Assignment: Earth." In film, he had a role in Woody Allen's Sleeper (1973) and played Irving Christiansen in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming (1966). His final screen credit was a small role in the 1997 film Liar Liar.

On May 7, 1950, Keefer married actress Catherine McLeod. The couple remained married for forty-seven years until McLeod's death on May 11, 1997. They had three sons: Donald McLeod, John H., and Thomas James. At the time of McLeod's death, the family was living in Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles County, California.