Edward Binns

Edward Binns (September 12, 1916 – December 4, 1990) was an American actor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Esther (née Bracken) and Edward Thomas Binns. His family were Quakers. He earned a degree from Pennsylvania State University in 1937 and went on to build a career spanning Broadway, film, and television that lasted more than four decades.

Following his graduation, Binns joined a repertory theatre in Cleveland before spending a year as both actor and director at the Pan-American Theatre in Mexico City. He subsequently took a position at the University of Pennsylvania as an instructor, where he directed stock theater companies. His path to Broadway was interrupted by military service beginning in 1942, when he served in the Army Air Forces. After completing Officer Candidate School, he was stationed as an armament officer in the China-Burma-India Theater.

Binns returned to the stage after the war and became one of the founding members of the Actors Studio, where he began studying under Elia Kazan in late 1947. His Broadway career ran from 1947 to 1982 and included productions such as Command Decision (1947), Detective Story, Sundown Beach, Peer Gynt, Caligula (1959), and Ghosts (1982), in which he starred.

His film work began in the early 1950s and grew to include several prominent productions. In Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men (1957), he played Juror No. 6. Alfred Hitchcock cast him as a police detective in North by Northwest (1959). He appeared in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), The Americanization of Emily (1964), and took on the role of bomber pilot Colonel Grady in Fail-Safe (1964). In Patton (1970), the Academy Award-winning film starring George C. Scott, Binns portrayed Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith. Additional film credits include The Plainsman (1966), Night Moves (1975), and The Verdict (1982).

On television, Binns starred as Lieutenant Roy Brenner in the CBS crime drama Brenner, which ran from 1959 to 1962. He was a cast member of CBS's The Nurses from 1962 through 1964. Among his many other television appearances, he played Colonel Donlin in the Twilight Zone episode "I Shot an Arrow into the Air" (1960) and General Walters in the later episode "The Long Morrow" (1964). He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason in 1961, portraying Lloyd Castle in "The Case of the Angry Dead Man" and Charles Griffin in "The Case of the Malicious Mariner." He appeared in three episodes of ABC's The Fugitive and in the season five finale of Hawaii Five-O in 1973. His television work also included Gunsmoke, 12 O'Clock High, The Rockford Files, M*A*S*H, It Takes a Thief, and The Untouchables, among many others. In 1986, he guest starred on The Equalizer as Father Martin O'Donohugh in the episode "Shades of Darkness," one of his final screen appearances.

Binns married journalist Marcia Legere in December 1956. They had one daughter and divorced in 1984. At the time of his death, he was married to actress Elizabeth Franz. Binns died of a heart attack at age 74 while traveling from New York City to his home in Connecticut. His ashes were scattered at his residence.