Frank Ferguson

Frank S. Ferguson (December 25, 1899 – September 12, 1978) was an American character actor and stage director whose career encompassed Broadway, film, and television. Born in Ferndale, California, the younger of two children of W. Thomas Ferguson, a Scottish-born merchant, and his American wife Annie Boynton, Ferguson graduated from Ferndale Union High School in 1917. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in speech and drama from the University of California and a master's degree from Cornell University, where he also taught. He additionally held teaching positions at UCLA and the Pasadena Community Playhouse.

Ferguson's early professional life was shaped by his association with Gilmor Brown, the founder and director of the Pasadena Community Playhouse, where Ferguson served among its first directors. He both directed and performed in productions there. His stage work extended to Broadway, where he appeared in 1937 in The Trial of Dr. Beck. His film debut came in 1939 with Gambling on the High Seas, released in 1940, after which he accumulated credits in nearly 200 feature films and hundreds of television episodes.

Among his notable film appearances, Ferguson played McDougal, the easily agitated proprietor of McDougal's House of Horrors, in the 1948 Universal comedy horror film Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein. In 1952, he took an uncredited role as a jailer in Ma and Pa Kettle at the Fair and portrayed a music professor at Pomona College in a short film starring violinist Jascha Heifetz and his accompanist Emanuel Bay, produced by Rudolph Polk and Bernard Luber. In 1954, he appeared in an uncredited but significant role in Black Tuesday as Police Inspector Hailey, a figure who refuses to negotiate with criminals barricaded in a warehouse.

Television became a central part of Ferguson's career from the mid-1950s onward. Beginning in 1956, he played Gus Broeberg, a Swedish ranch handyman, on the CBS series My Friend Flicka, alongside Gene Evans, Johnny Washbrook, and Anita Louise. Concurrently, he portrayed the Calverton veterinarian during the first several seasons of CBS's Lassie. From 1964 to 1965, he appeared as Pa Stockdale on the ABC comedy No Time for Sergeants. He played Eli Carson in the primetime ABC serial Peyton Place and later reprised the role in the daytime continuation Return to Peyton Place.

Ferguson demonstrated considerable range as a character player by portraying multiple distinct roles within individual series. He appeared as three different characters on both The Andy Griffith Show and Laramie, two different characters on Petticoat Junction, and four different characters each on Bonanza, Perry Mason, and the ABC western Maverick, including three Perry Mason appearances as a sheriff. He also guest starred on episodes of Gunsmoke, Cheyenne, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, The Real McCoys, The Restless Gun, National Velvet, Mr. Novak, General Electric Theater, The Texan, The Lone Ranger, and Leave It to Beaver, among others. In 1956, he appeared twice on Sheriff of Cochise as Henry Murdock. He guest starred in all three of Rod Cameron's crime series: City Detective in 1955, State Trooper in 1957, and Coronado 9 in 1960. His television work continued into 1969 with an appearance on Green Acres.

Ferguson died in Los Angeles of cancer on September 12, 1978.