George Neise

George N. Neise (February 16, 1917 – April 14, 1996) was an American character actor born in Chicago, Illinois, to Edwin Neise and Bertha Hagen. He attended the University of Wisconsin, where he studied finance before pursuing a career in performance.

Neise began his professional work in radio in Chicago in 1937, taking on a variety of roles across multiple programs. He also performed in stock theater with the Peninsula Players during the summers of 1938 and 1939. His stage career brought him to Broadway in 1948, when he appeared in Grandma's Diary. During World War II, Neise served four and a half years as a pilot in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Following his military service, he established himself as a character actor in film and television, accumulating more than 120 screen appearances between 1942 and 1978. His early film work included roles as soldiers in war-themed productions.

Among his most recognized film roles were the dual parts of pharmacist Ralph Dimsal and the Ancient Greek king Odius in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, as well as the characters Martian Ogg and an unnamed airline pilot in the subsequent Three Stooges feature, The Three Stooges in Orbit. On television, Neise appeared regularly in Western series, including The Lone Ranger, Death Valley Days, Cheyenne, Zorro, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Rifleman, and Maverick. He also played Nat Wyndham in the television Western Wichita Town from 1959 to 1960. His appearance in an episode of Trackdown, starring Robert Culp, served as the pilot episode for the series Wanted: Dead or Alive.

Neise made five appearances on Perry Mason, serving as the murder victim in four of them: Albert Tydings in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Baited Hook," Wilfred Borden in the 1959 episode "The Case of the Calendar Girl," Morley Theilman in the 1962 episode "The Case of the Shapely Shadow," and Stacey Garnett in the 1965 episode "The Case of the Golden Girls." In 1957 he appeared as a safecracker in the Official Detective episode The Blind Man. He also had a role in The Honeymooners, portraying Mr. Faversham, a play director who persuades Ralph Kramden to take the lead in a Raccoon Lodge production. His sitcom appearances included The Dick Van Dyke Show, Green Acres, The Andy Griffith Show, Mister Ed, The Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, Hogan's Heroes, Adam-12, and Get Smart.

Neise died of cancer at his home in Hollywood on April 14, 1996, at the age of 79.