Malcolm Atterbury

Malcolm MacLeod Atterbury (February 20, 1907 – August 16, 1992) was an American actor and vaudevillian who worked across stage, film, and television. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Malcolm MacLeod Sr. and Arminia Clara (Rosengarten) MacLeod. He had an older sister, Elizabeth, a twin brother, Norman, and two younger brothers: George Rosengarten MacLeod and, through his mother's remarriage to General William Wallace Atterbury — president of Pennsylvania Railroad — a half-brother, William Wallace Atterbury Jr. Atterbury received his formal education at The Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

His path to a professional career in drama began in the mid-1930s, when he enrolled at Hilda Spong's Dramatic School under an assumed name. After disclosing his true identity, he financed a summer theater for the Hilda Spong Players at Cape May, New Jersey, and subsequently served as the company's managing director. His commitment to theater extended to ownership and operation of two venues in the Adirondack Mountains of New York: the Tamarack Playhouse in Lake Pleasant and the Albany Playhouse Co. in Albany.

Before his theatrical career took shape, Atterbury had already established himself in radio. In 1928, he sang bass in a quartet that performed on WLIT in Philadelphia, and by 1930 he had become program director of a Philadelphia radio station. He later served as business manager of WHAT.

Atterbury's Broadway credit came in 1963, when he appeared in the original cast of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, playing the role of Scanlon. His screen work during the same period brought him considerable recognition, particularly through two collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. In 1959, he delivered an uncredited performance in North by Northwest as the rural man who observes that a crop-dusting plane is working fields with no crops. He returned to work with Hitchcock in The Birds (1963), this time in the role of the deputy. Additional film appearances included I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957), Crime of Passion (1957), Blue Denim (1959), Wild River (1960), Advise and Consent (1962), Hawaii (1966), and Emperor of the North (1973), which was his final film role.

Television occupied a significant portion of Atterbury's career. He appeared in five episodes of the CBS series Perry Mason during the late 1950s and early 1960s, portraying the murderer in three of those installments. One such role was Sam Burris in the 1957 episode "The Case of the Angry Mourner." He held a regular role as Grandfather Aldon in the CBS family drama Apple's Way during its 1974–75 run. His guest appearances spanned a wide range of series, including Gunsmoke, The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Have Gun – Will Travel, Wagon Train, Bonanza, The Fugitive, The Andy Griffith Show, The Odd Couple, The Rookies, and The Bob Newhart Show, among others.

On February 6, 1937, Atterbury married Ellen Ayres Hardies (1915–1994) of Amsterdam, New York, daughter of judge Charles E. Hardies Sr. and sister of Charles Hardies Jr., who later became Montgomery County district attorney.