Harry Fleer

Harry Fleer (March 26, 1916 – October 14, 1994) was an American actor whose career spanned Broadway, film, and television. Born in Quincy, Illinois, he enrolled at Northwestern University in 1934 without intending to pursue professional entertainment. He later described music as a serious avocation rather than a career path, and credited the economic circumstances of the Depression with drawing him into the business. His trajectory shifted after he performed at a Chicago nightclub during a College Night event, where a radio producer in attendance arranged an audition that led to Fleer hosting his own three-day-a-week radio program.

Fleer subsequently entered the Gateway to Hollywood radio competition, winning twice — once in music and once in drama — though he did not claim the overall prize. Five film companies extended offers, and by his own account he accepted the wrong one. He went on to study at the Max Reinhardt school and performed in summer stock across the eastern United States before making his Broadway debut. His first Broadway credit came in 1941, when he sang as a member of the chorus in The Trojan Women.

Following his summer stock work, Fleer entered the Army. He initially served in an acting capacity before attending officer candidate school and infantry school, ultimately receiving a commission in anti-aircraft artillery. After V-J Day he served three months in Japan. Returning to Broadway, he portrayed Lionel in Toplitzky of Notre Dame in 1947. His Broadway career continued through 1956 and included a role in Plain and Fancy.

On television, Fleer appeared six times between 1957 and 1960 on the syndicated anthology series Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the 1957 episode "The Camel Train," he played Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, whose character commissions an experiment using camels in the southwestern desert, led by Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale, portrayed by Stanley Lachman. The following year he played Wyatt Earp in "Birth of a Boom." Across his screen career, Fleer accumulated more than sixty film and television appearances between 1955 and 1994.