Ted Bessell

Ted Bessell, born Howard Weston Bessell Jr. on March 20, 1935, in Flushing, New York, was an American actor and director whose career spanned television, film, and Broadway. He died on October 6, 1996, from a ruptured aortic aneurysm at the age of 61, and is interred at Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.

Bessell grew up in Manhasset, New York, where he attended Manhasset Secondary School and played lacrosse alongside future football star and actor Jim Brown. As a child, he demonstrated exceptional musical ability, performing a piano recital at Carnegie Hall at the age of twelve. After studies at Georgetown University and the University of Colorado, he redirected his ambitions toward acting, training with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse and studying dance and dramatic movement with Martha Graham and Louis Horst. He also participated in a professional acting group led by Wynn Handman. To support himself during this period, he worked as a page at ABC New York in the late 1950s.

His early professional work included television appearances on Who Do You Trust? with Johnny Carson and The Dick Clark Show, as well as directing and performing in stock theatre productions ranging from Shakespeare to works by Jule Styne. Off-Broadway, he was cast in The Power of Darkness and subsequently worked with the Blackfriars Guild. He also co-produced, with his brother Frank Bessell, Joe Orton's Crimes of Passion, directed by Michael Kahn. A West Coast production of Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel brought him to Los Angeles, where he earned strong critical notices and went on to small roles in The Outsider and Lover Come Back, both in 1961.

Television remained the primary arena of Bessell's career. In 1962, he played college student Tom-Tom DeWitt on the short-lived series It's a Man's World, and from 1965 to 1966 he appeared regularly on Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. as Private Francis "Frankie" Lombardi. His most prominent television role came with That Girl, the ABC series that ran for five seasons from 1966 to 1971, in which he played Donald Hollinger, the boyfriend and eventual fiancé of Marlo Thomas's character. Following That Girl, he starred in Me and the Chimp, a Garry Marshall-created sitcom in which he played dentist Mike Reynolds; the series ran for nineteen episodes in 1972. In 1975, he appeared in two episodes of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as Joe Warner, Mary Richards's boyfriend. Later television work included the sitcoms Good Time Harry in 1980 and Hail to the Chief in 1985, in which he played the husband of Patty Duke's character, a fictional first female President of the United States.

Bessell's film credits include McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force in 1965 and Don't Drink the Water in 1969. Among his television films, Your Money or Your Wife, which aired in 1972, received the Peabody Award for Best Mystery of the Year. He also appeared in Scream, Pretty Peggy in 1973 and carried the lead role in Bobby Parker and Company in 1974.

In 1975, Bessell made his Broadway debut in Same Time, Next Year, adding a stage credit to his extensive screen work. As his performing career continued, he also moved into directing, helming episodes of The Tracey Ullman Show and Sibs. In 1989, he shared an Emmy Award as a producer on Fox Broadcasting's The Tracey Ullman Show, which was recognized as the best variety or comedy program.

Bessell was married to Linnell Nobori and had two daughters, Sarah and Mary.